By Anne Steele
Rap's biggest beef is moving from the recording studio into the courtroom.
Superstar artist Drake has filed court documents alleging that Universal Music Group used deceptive business practices to turn rival Kendrick Lamar's "diss track" into a megahit. Both rappers are signed to the label.
Drake is claiming Universal employed tactics including bots and pay-for-play to artificially inflate streams of "Not Like Us," an eviscerating track in which Lamar calls Drake a pedophile.
The spat between Drake and Lamar, whose beginnings date back more than a decade, escalated earlier this year. The stars took turns releasing incendiary songs with increasingly dark lyrics in quick succession. "Not Like Us" was the most commercially successful song of the feud and, in music circles and among fans, cemented Lamar the "winner" of the beef.
Drake, whose legal name is Aubrey Drake Graham, denies the allegations in the song.
Rap beefs have long been part of hip-hop music. Big names go after each other in "diss tracks," sometimes with facts, sometimes with fabrications. But the feud between Lamar and Drake turned into an especially captivating spectacle, given the disturbing allegations each side hurled at each other in songs released at a dizzying pace.
Adding to the intrigue is that Universal, the world's largest music company, is the parent of both Lamar's label, Interscope Records, and Drake's label, Republic Records. The beef has been dubbed rap's "civil war."
Both rappers are considered among the top of their generation. Lamar is a Pulitzer Prize-winning rapper from Compton, Calif., known for complex songwriting with biting social commentary and sharp observation of street culture. Toronto-born Drake has had unparalleled commercial success in the streaming era with massive crossover appeal and influence in pop culture and music.
Universal didn't immediately respond to requests for comment.
In filings in New York state court, Drake's lawyers are seeking information to help them build claims of deceptive business practices, civil fraud and racketeering, or RICO, against Universal. Drake hasn't sued Universal, but such requests for information and depositions can lay the groundwork for an eventual suit.
Universal "did not rely on chance, or even ordinary business practices, to 'break through the noise' on Spotify, and likely other music platforms," Drake's lawyers wrote. "It instead launched a campaign to manipulate and saturate the streaming services and airwaves."
They alleged that Universal manipulated the streaming market on Spotify and possibly other music platforms. "Not Like Us," which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart, has more than 900 million streams on Spotify. It was nominated for five Grammy awards, including Record of the Year and Song of the Year.
Disputes between artists and their labels aren't unheard of, but generally relate to royalty payments and contract disagreements, not racketeering or defamation allegations.
The filings referenced an unnamed whistleblower who said publicly he was paid by Lamar's label to use bots -- software programs designed to mimic human behavior to appear to be real social-media accounts -- to help "Not Like Us" achieve 30 million streams on Spotify in the first days of its release.
Drake also alleged that Universal charged Spotify a 30% lower licensing rate for "Not Like Us" in exchange for recommending the song to its listeners, even when they were searching for other music and artists.
Additionally, the filings said, Universal paid social-media influencers to promote and endorse the song without disclosing those payments to consumers.
"Streaming and licensing is a zero-sum game," the petition said. "Every time a song 'breaks through,' it means another artist does not. UMG's choice to saturate the music market with 'Not Like Us' comes at the expense of its other artists, like Drake."
Write to Anne Steele at anne.steele@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
November 25, 2024 18:14 ET (23:14 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2024 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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