Kendrick Lamar‘s “Not Like Us” was undoubtedly one of many hottest songs of the summer time….or was it? Whereas the diss monitor in the direction of Drake topped charts around the globe, Drake believes that the track isn’t as huge of successful because the numbers make it out to be, accusing Common Music Group (UMG) and Spotify of conspiracy to artificially inflate the recognition of the track (and thus affect its place on the charts).
Drake’s Frozen Moments LLC filed a movement on Monday, November 25, in Manhattan court docket, accuding UMG of partaking in a collection of unlawful actions involving bots, payola and different strategies to spice up “Not Like Us.” The movement additionally accuses UMG of paying radio stations to play and promote the track.
The movement alleges misleading enterprise practices and false promoting underneath New York state legislation in addition to violations of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), the act concentrating on organized crime by prosecuting actions involving patterns of felony enterprise. The movement just isn’t but a lawsuit, however slightly a “pre-action” petition, which is the process by with data is gathered to find out if a lawsuit is warranted.
Drake’s movement additionally factors out that this may not be the primary time UMG has engaged in such practices. In 2006, UMG was compelled to pay over $12 million to settle a payola case stemming from bribes made to radio stations to play their artists’ songs greater than others.
Neither UMG nor Spotify have publicly commented as of Monday afternoon.