Within the newest twist within the bruising beef between Drake and Kendrick Lamar, the Canadian rapper has initiated authorized motion towards Common Music Group and Spotify over allegations that the 2 firms conspired to artificially inflate the recognition of Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us.”

The motion is doubly shocking as a result of UMG distributes each artists’ recordings.

In a submitting Monday in Manhattan court docket first reported by Billboard, Drake’s Frozen Moments LLC accused UMG of launching an unlawful “scheme” involving bots, payola and different strategies to spice up the numbers for Lamar’s viciously private track, which accuses Drake of pedophilia and amplified the already fiery dispute between the 2 artists.

The petition, obtained by Selection, claims that UMG “engaged in conduct designed to artificially inflate the recognition of ‘Not Like Us’… together with by licensing the track at drastically lowered charges to Spotify and utilizing ‘bots’ to generate the misunderstanding that the track was extra standard than it was in actuality.”

Whereas different streaming companies aren’t named within the petition, it does declare that “UMG seems to have used comparable techniques with different streaming companies. On data and perception, UMG paid, or authorised funds to, Apple Inc. to have its voice-activated digital assistant ‘Siri’ purposely misdirect customers to ‘Not Like Us.’”

“UMG didn’t depend on probability, and even abnormal enterprise practices,” Drake’s firm’s legal professionals wrote. “It as a substitute launched a marketing campaign to govern and saturate the streaming companies and airwaves.”

Reps for Drake, Lamar, Spotify and UMG both declined or didn’t instantly reply to Selection’s requests for remark.

Drake’s attorneys declare that UMG violated the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, which is usually utilized in prison circumstances towards organized crime (and was deployed to convict R. Kelly of sexual misconduct and different crimes in 2021). In addition they allege misleading enterprise practices and false promoting below New York state legislation.

As Billboard notes, Monday’s submitting will not be but a full lawsuit, however a so-called “pre-action” petition — a process below New York legislation that goals to safe data earlier than submitting a lawsuit.

Nevertheless, the transfer is extraordinary in plenty of methods. Earlier this yr, Lamar piled on a collection of more and more private diss tracks towards Drake, not solely accusing him of getting relationships with underaged ladies — which Drake has denied — in addition to youngsters not revealed to the general public, and has gone as far as to handle Drake’s son Adonis, his mom and others in his songs.

Drake launched one track in response — which was faraway from streaming companies attributable to an uncleared pattern — after which went silent. The meat calmed down after photographs have been fired exterior of Drake’s Toronto residence in July, however fired up once more with the shock launch of Lamar’s new “GNX” album on Friday.

Nevertheless, he did seem to handle the state of affairs late Sunday in a Kick stream with host xQc through which he launched himself by saying, “I’m Drake, that is xQc, actual streaming legend. Me, I do music, in case you don’t know.

“I’m right here,” he continued. “Full intact, thoughts, physique, and soul, in case you have been questioning. You want info to take me out, fairytales received’t do it.”

He made an identical assertion later within the present, including, “Nothing makes me uncomfortable. I’ve labored too exhausting to be uncomfortable. Nothing fazes me, like I stated, it takes solely info to fold me, fairytales don’t work.”

Selection could have extra on the state of affairs because it develops.