Not so fast, Complain Papi! Universal Music Group has responded to Drake’s legal filing by assuring him all of the streaming numbers for “Not Like Us” are real fans who chose to listen to the song over and over again.
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In a legal filing on Monday, Nov. 25, Drake accused UMG of conspiring with Spotify to boost the popularity of Kendrick Lamar’s diss track artificially. In their response, the multinational music corporation insists there has been nothing of the kind, calling the rapper’s allegations “offensive and untrue.”
“The suggestion that UMG would do anything to undermine any of its artists is offensive and untrue,” the company said in a statement to Billboard. “We employ the highest ethical practices in our marketing and promotional campaigns. 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.”
Both Drake and Kendrick are signed to Universal Music Group under different divisions–Drake under Republic Records and Lamar under Interscope. In the filing, Drake’s Frozen Moments LLC accused UMG of taking part in an illegal “scheme” to inflate the popularity of Lamar’s hit song.
“Not Like Us” debuted at number one on the Billboard Hot 100, opening with 70.9 million streams and 15,000 copies sold. It registered the highest first-week streaming figure for a hip-hop song since Billboard removed YouTube song user-generated content from its chart metrics in 2020. Kendrick’s fourth number-one single also became the first rap song in history to top the Hot 100 with a shortened tracking week of five days.
In response to breaking so many records, the Canadian rapper’s attorneys accused UMG of charging Spotify reduced licensing rates in exchange for the streamer recommending “Not Like Us” to users of the service who had searched for “unrelated songs and artists”; paying influencers to boost the song on social media; and hiring bots to fraudulently boost the song’s numbers. He even alleges that UMG paid Apple to have its Siri voice assistant “purposely misdirect users” to the song.
As previously reported, Monday’s filing is not yet a lawsuit but rather a “pre-action” petition, which aims to secure information before filing a lawsuit. Parties named in those petitions will not necessarily be targeted in an eventual lawsuit, and from the looks of it, UMG won’t be backing down if Drake does proceed with legal action.