The long-standing feud between rappers Drake and Kendrick Lamar is heating up.
Drake — via a business entity called Frozen Moments LLC — filed a petition yesterday in a New York Supreme Court accusing distributor Universal Music Group (UMG) of artificially inflating the popularity of “Not Like Us,” Lamar’s recently released “diss” track directed at Drake.
The petition alleges that 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.” The complaint also alleges that UMG charged Spotify rates 30% lower than usual in exchange for Spotify “affirmatively recommending” the song to users. UMG allegedly engaged in “payola” pay-to-play agreements with radio stations — a practice that is illegal in the U.S.
In a statement issued to Billboard, UMG called the allegations “offensive and untrue.”
In terms of immediate remedies, the petition requests an order granting “pre-action” disclosure of certain information, while demanding that “relevant evidence” be preserved, ahead of a potential lawsuit.