Drake is drawing the court into his rap feud with Kendrick Lamar, and hip-hop fans are unimpressed

• Drake’s company Frozen Moments has filed a petition against Universal Music Group and Spotify.

• The petition was about rapper Kendrick Lamar’s diss track about Drake, “Not Like Us.”

• The filing claims that Spotify and Universal used bots and payola to boost the song’s popularity.

Kendrick Lamar and Drake’s rap feud continues as Drake launches legal action against Lamar’s “Not Like Us.”

Earlier this year, the long-standing animosity between the two hip-hop giants came to a head explosive diss track battle.

Lamar’s final song, “Not Like Us,” was the biggest hit of the battle, crowning Lamar the victor in the public sphere. “Not Like Us,” which included lyrics calling Drake a pedophile, topped the Billboard 100 charts for two weeks and received five Grammy nominations.

Now Drake is questioning the song’s success.

On Monday morning, Drake’s ‘Frozen Moments’ submitted a preliminary application in a New York court against Spotify and Universal Music Group (UMG), the record company that owns Lamar’s Interscope and Drake’s Republic Records.

The petition states that UMG used bots and payola to increase streams “Not like us” and influence his perceived public success.

The petition said UMG charged Spotify a 30% lower royalty fee per song in exchange for the streaming platform recommending “Not Like Us” to users looking for unrelated songs and artists.

He also claims that UMG paid third-party companies to use bots to artificially inflate “Not Like Us” streams.

“In 2024, UMG did not rely on chance or even normal business practices to ‘cut through the noise’ at Spotify,” the petition reads.

The petition, which alleges racketeering, deceptive business practices and false advertising promoting “Not Like Us,” is not a full-fledged lawsuit. The filing is a request from Drake’s lawyers asking the court to order Spotify and Universal to preserve documents related to the claims before taking legal action.

A representative for Universal Music Group denied Drake’s claims in the matter statement to Billboard on Monday.

“The suggestion that UMG would do anything to undermine any of its artists is offensive and untrue,” the representative stated. “No amount of contrived and absurd legal arguments contained in this pre-action filing can mask the fact that fans choose the music they want to hear.”

The filing says so Drake suffered “economic harm” because UMG “saturated the market” with the Lamar diss track “at the expense of other artists such as Drake.” The attorney also said that when Drake brought these claims to UMG, company officials told Drake to sue Lamar, not Universal, and threatened to sue Lamar if Drake sued them.

A representative for Lamar, Drake and UMG did not immediately respond to Business Insider’s request for comment. A Spotify representative declined to comment.

Hip-hop fans mock Drake and criticize his legal action

Battles on the Diss track are a common occurrence in the hip-hop world, but it’s rare for a rapper to go to court over a lyrical beef.

Hip-hop fans are criticizing Drake’s move on social media. Pop culture writer Bolu Babalola called the petition “a spectacularly unsuccessful move.” entry on X.

Fans speaking on X found it strange that Drake took legal action over the song’s success rather than the pedophilia accusations in the lyrics.

Other fans said the escalation of the rap dispute in court made it seem like Drake didn’t understand black culture.

Fans also said that they thought Drake could recover from losing a battle by lying quietly and releasing good music. However, he suggested that the fallout from the lawsuit could further damage Drake’s reputation.

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