Why is Drake threatening to sue UMG and Spotify? Petition over Kendrick Lamar's 'Not Like Us' streams explored

Drake filed a petition in the New York Supreme Court on Monday, November 25, 2024, accusing Universal Music Group and Spotify of conspiring and boosting Kendrick Lamar’s diss track, Not Like Us. According to The Guardian, the rapper claimed in his petition that the music company and streaming software also suppressed Drizzy's music, so that Kendrick’s songs could get more streams.

In the petition, Drake alleged that Universal Music Group used specific AI tools and Bots to garner more listeners on Spotify and various radio stations. The rapper stated that this technique reportedly made Kendrick’s song break records, and also become the Number 1 song in the Billboard Top 100 list.

Claiming how Universal Music Group and Spotify “launched a campaign to manipulate and saturate the streaming services and airwaves,” the petition read:

“UMG … conspired with and paid currently unknown parties to use ‘bots’ to artificially inflate the spread of Not Like Us and deceive consumers into believing the song was more popular than it was in reality.”

Furthermore, Drake and his attorneys alleged that Universal Music Group, the promoter of the song, paid influencers to promote Not Like Us on social media.

For the unversed, Kendrick Lamar dropped a diss track titled Not Like Us on May 4, 2024, seemingly targeting Drizzy. The song was one of the tracks the duo released back to back dissing each other. It was produced by Mustard and written by Kendrick Duckworth. As soon as the track was out, it started topping many charts globally and won many awards, such as the BET Hip Hop Awards.

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“We employ the highest ethical practices in our marketing and promotional campaigns”—Universal Music Group refuted the claims by Drake

As mentioned earlier, Drake filed a lawsuit against Universal Music Group and Spotify for allegedly inflating streaming numbers to promote Kendrick Lamar’s Not Like Us and make it popular amongst the masses. After this accusation, the spokesperson of Universal Music Group spoke to The Guardian and said:

“The suggestion that UMG would do anything to undermine any of its artists is offensive and untrue. 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."

Moreover, the petition claimed that UMG lowered its licensing fees for Spotify in return for the platform promoting Kendrick Lamar’s track to users. However, Spotify did not respond to the complaint filed at the time of publishing this article.

On the other hand, the rapper also accused UMG of paying Apple to make Siri redirect users asking for Drake’s songs to play Not Like Us instead. The lawyers of the rapper alleged that boosting the number of streams, indirectly benefited the Universal Music Group.

It is worth noting that the petition filed by Drake is not a full lawsuit, but reportedly a way for his lawyers to ask the court to make sure UMG and Spotify keep all related records and information safe for a possible legal case.