Spotify blasts Drake over “far-fetched” Kendrick Lamar legal claims
Drake took legal action against Universal Music Group and Spotify in November, accusing the two parties of illegally boosting streams for Kendrick Lamar’s ‘Not Like Us’, a song which accuses the Toronto rapper of paedophilia. The filing, issued by Drizzy’s Frozen Moments company, claimed that bots, undisclosed payments and biased recommendations were used in the alleged practice.
Now, Spotify has responded to Drake’s accusations, claiming it found zero evidence and called his claims “far-fetched” and “speculative.”
David Kaefer, who serves as vice president at Spotify, said in a statement, “Contrary to the allegations in the petition, UMG and Spotify have never had any arrangement in which UMG charged Spotify licensing rates 30 per cent lower than its usual licensing rates for ‘Not Like Us’ in exchange for Spotify affirmatively recommending [Not Like Us].”
According to Music Business Worldwide, he pointed out Drake’s petition claimed “that an unidentified individual reported on a podcast that he used bots to achieve 30,000,000 streams on Spotify in the first days of the release of ‘Not Like Us.'” However, he said Spotify “found no evidence to substantiate this claim.”
Kendrick’s ‘Not Like Us’ is one of the biggest songs of 2024, reaching number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and receiving nominations for ‘Song of the Year’, ‘Best Rap Song’, ‘Record of the Year’, ‘Best Rap Performance’ and ‘Best Music Video’ at the Grammys next year.
Lawyers claimed Drizzy’s petition “speculates that UMG artificially inflated the popularity of the track through a number of avenues, including by using ‘bots’ and ‘pay-to-play’ agreements, paying social media influencers to promote the song, and taking steps to conceal its scheme by allegedly terminating employees associated with Drake.”
The statement argues that “under cover of the far-fetched contention that this gives rise to a civil RICO claim, petitioner in this proceeding seeks to invoke the extraordinary remedy of pre-action discovery.”
A spokesperson for Universal Music Group previously said last month, “The suggestion that UMG would do anything to undermine any of its artists is offensive and untrue. We employ the highest ethical practices in our marketing and promotional campaigns.”
They added, “No amount of contrived and absurd legal arguments in this pre-action submission can mask the fact that fans choose the music they want to hear.”