Drake doesn’t think the success of “Not Like Us” was completely organic. Months after Kendrick Lamar’s Mustard-produced diss track dominated the charts and completely derailed Drake’s 2024 plans—which he should have accomplished anyway—Drake has filed a complaint in Manhattan court, claiming that the streaming success of the song was the result of collusion. between Universal Music Group and Kendrick at his expense. The lawsuit alleges that UMG violated the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act and New York state laws against deceptive business practices and false advertising.

Frozen Moments LLC, Drake’s corporate entity, filed the suit today, alleging that UMG — which represents both rappers through licensing deals — used bots and payola schemes to inflate the numbers for “Not Like Us.” According to Frozen Moments’ lawyers, UMG “paid” Spotify — by charging “30 percent less than usual licensing fees” — to recommend “Not Like Us” to users who weren’t even looking for it (or even but similar songs), and did the same with Apple, so that listeners who asked for Drake songs via Siri heard “Not Like Us” instead. To conceal these practices, UMG is said to have fired employees considered loyal to Drake.

While it’s unclear why UMG would choose Kendrick Lamar over Drake, the roots of Drake’s dispute appear to stem from legitimate consumer complaints about DSPs pushing popular songs to listeners who don’t even want them, like Sabrina Carpenter’s “Espresso,” which received a lot of criticism. for appearing on automatically generated Spotify playlists, even after fans took steps to stop the app from doing so. However, opening that particular can of worms may not be to Drake’s advantage, even if he thinks it will earn him some vindication after waving the white flag in his war of words against the prophet from Compton.