Drake is taking the court in his rap feud with Kendrick Lamar, and hip-hop fans are not impressed

• Drake’s company Frozen Moments has filed a petition against Universal Music Group and Spotify.

• The petition was in reference to rapper Kendrick Lamar’s diss track about Drake, “Not Like Us.”

• The filing alleges that Spotify and Universal used bots and Payola to boost the song’s popularity.

Kendrick Lamar and Drake’s rap feud continues as Drake begins legal action against Lamar’s song ‘Not Like Us’.

Earlier this year, the two hip-hop giants’ years-long grudge culminated in one explosive diss track battle.

Lamar’s final diss track “Not Like Us” was the biggest hit of the battle, crowning Lamar the winner in the public sphere. “Not Like Us,” which contains lyrics calling Drake a pedophile, topped the Billboard 100 charts for two weeks and received five Grammy nominations.

Now Drake is disputing the song’s success.

On Monday morning, Drake’s company, Frozen Moments, presented filed a pre-action petition in a New York court against Spotify and Universal Music Group (UMG), the record company that owns Lamar’s label Interscope and Drake’s label Republic Records.

The petition states that UMG has used bots and payola to control the flows of “Not like us‘ and influence its perceived public success.

The petition states that UMG charged Spotify a 30% lower licensing fee for the song in exchange for the streaming platform recommending “Not Like Us” to users looking for unrelated songs and artists.

It also claims that UMG paid third-party companies to use bots to artificially inflate the streams of ‘Not Like Us’.

“In 2024, UMG did not rely on chance, or even common business practices, to ‘cut through the noise’ on Spotify,” the petition said.

The petition, which alleges racketeering, deceptive business practices and false advertising to promote “Not Like Us,” is not a full-fledged lawsuit. The filling is a request from Drake’s lawyers asking the court to order Spotify and Universal to preserve documents related to the claims ahead of legal action.

A representative for Universal Music Group denied Drake’s claims in a statement to Billboard on Monday.

“The suggestion that UMG would do anything to undermine its artists is insulting and untrue,” the rep said. “No amount of contrived and absurd legal arguments in this pre-action entry can mask the fact that fans choose the music they want to hear.”

The file claims that Drake suffered “economic damage” because UMG “saturated the market” with Lamar’s diss track, at the expense of “other artists, such as Drake.” The attorney also said that when Drake filed these claims with UMG, company representatives told Drake to sue Lamar instead of Universal, and threatened to sue Lamar if Drake sued them.

A representative for Lamar, Drake and UMG did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider. A Spotify representative declined to comment.

Hip-hop fans are mocking Drake and criticizing his move towards legal action

Disstrack battles are a common occurrence in the hip-hop world, but it’s rare for a rapper to take legal action over lyrical beef.

Hip-hop fans have criticized Drake’s move on social media. Pop culture writer Bolu Babalola called the petition a ‘spectacularly loserish move’ a message on X.

Fans who spoke out about

Other fans said the escalating rap beef in court felt like Drake didn’t understand black culture.

Fans also said they felt Drake could have recovered from losing the battle by keeping quiet and releasing good music. But suggested the fallout from the lawsuit could further damage Drake’s reputation.

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