‘Nothing fazes me’: No more diss tracks, Drake is dragging Kendrick Lamar, Spotify, and Universal Music Group to the court in revenge

The high-profile rap feud between Drake and Kendrick Lamar that began in the early 2010s has now culminated in a legal beef that might lead the two rappers toward the courtroom.

Drake has officially ditched the diss tracks and instead taken the legal route to put an end to his dispute with Kendrick Lamar. This twist in their fiery beef came on Monday, Nov. 25, after Drake filed a legal petition in Manhattan court. In the petition, Drake’s Frozen Moments LLC has accused the Universal Musical Group (UMG) of launching “a campaign to manipulate and saturate the streaming services and airwaves” to pump up Lamar’s song “Not Like Us” that viciously dissed Drake.

With this, the attorneys for Drake’s company have accused UMG of violating the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act and alleged deceptive business practices and false advertising under New York state law. The petition, obtained by Variety states that UMG “engaged in conduct designed to artificially inflate the popularity of “Not Like Us”… including by licensing the song at drastically reduced rates to Spotify and using “bots” to generate the false impression that the song was more popular than it was in reality.“

Though the petition does not name other music streaming services apart from Spotify, it expresses concern about similar tactics being applied to other apps. “UMG appears to have used similar tactics with other streaming services.” It also dragged Apple into its accusations, claiming that UMG paid Apple Inc. to have its voice-activated digital assistant ‘Siri’ purposely misdirect users to “Not Like Us.” However, Apple is not named as a respondent or accused of legal wrongdoing.

“Online sources reported that when users asked Siri to play the album Certified Lover Boy by [Drake], Siri instead played “Not Like Us,” which contains the lyric ‘certified pedophile,’ an allegation against Drake.”

In response to these serious allegations by Drake, UMG, which distributes both his and Lamar’s music, reached out to Billboard and labeled Drake’s accusations “offensive and untrue.” They reiterated that they employ “the highest ethical practices in our marketing and promotional campaigns.” UMG also clapped back at Drake saying “No amount of contrived and absurd legal arguments in this pre-action submission can mask the fact that fans choose the music they want to hear.” In simpler terms, they called him a sore loser.

Though the petition can lead both the popular rappers and UMG to court, Billboard noted that it does not translate to a full lawsuit yet. Instead, it simply counts as a “pre-action” petition, which is “a procedure under New York law that aims to secure information before filing a lawsuit.” Drake’s lawyers noted that the rapper first raised the issue with UMG going down the legal road, but the music giant showed “no interest in taking responsibility for its misconduct.” (via Billboard)

Drake’s lawyers also claimed that UMG went so far in concealing its vicious doings they fired staff “perceived as having loyalty to Drake” from the company. However, via Dexerto, Drake maintains that he is “Full intact, mind, body, and soul” despite all the feuds. “It takes only facts to fold me, fairytales don’t work,” he said during a Kick stream with xQc.