Drake has filed a petition, accusing UMG of a scheme to promote Kendrick Lamar's infamous diss track, Not Like Us. The Certified Lover Boy rapper took to court on Monday to accuse his and Lamar's home label of conspiring to “manipulate and saturate the streaming services and airwaves.”
Just this August, Drake's 100 Gigs drew the ire of UMG when they hit him with a copyright strike. As a result, three of Drake's songs were taken down, and are no longer on the Toronto native's official website. Thus, fans have been taking to X to speculate on whether there is any connection here.
Some have begun theorizing that 100 Gigs was Drake's attempt at shading Universal Music Group. Here's what someone said, for example:
"I remember this theory! It’s to get out of that contract."
Others seemingly concurred:
"The 100 Gigs stuff he tried to pull is making a lot of sense now. He was doing all of that to spite UMG, and UMG weren’t happy about it. Is this Drake trying to get out of the deal at all costs?" someone probed.
"100%, wonder what’s gonna happen now," another tweeted.
"he’s easily winning this lawsuit btw and when he does 100x easier to be independent," yet another opined.
"He may not sign again with UMG once his deal expires," someone else theorized.
More and more chimed in:
"With the largest industry deal of all time, it’s gonna be virtually impossible for him to just get out of it that easily," one user posited.
"fascinating exit strategy. this would unironically even the playing field with both combatants being independent," another user claimed.
"No dead a**, I have maybe 30 Kendrick songs on my Spotify and during the beef all of a sudden that’s all I heard on shuffle and never would hear any Drake songs. Just in the past month or so it’s gonna back to normal. Just crazy how literally every other song would be Kendrick," a fourth person contended.
Scores online agreed, with many noting that this just may be Drake's final move at making the big escape from UMG.
Drake's lawyers hit UMG with a litany of accusations, including fraudulent behavior and bribery
Drake's attorneys contended, per Billboard:
"UMG did not rely on chance, or even ordinary business practices. It instead launched a campaign to manipulate and saturate the streaming services and airwaves.”
They also accused the label of infringing on the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, in addition to fraudulent business practices and advertising under the New York state law. However, the company has issued a statement to Billboard, refuting all such claims:
"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. 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.”
The rapper's lawyers also accused UMG of lowering licensing rates for Not Like Us when dealing with Spotify, bribing influencers to hype it up on social media, and employing bots to stream the song. He also claimed that UMG disbursed funds to Apple to have its voice assistant, Siri, “purposely misdirect users” to the track.
The petition outlines an instance where the God's Plan artist conferred with UMG over the same before heading to court, but claimed the company has “no interest in taking responsibility for its misconduct." Instead, they claim, UMG tried to cover up their fraudulent behavior, and in doing so, fired employees loyal to the Passionfruit rapper.
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In May 2024, UMG issued a statement asserting that they had no stake in the beef between K.Dot and Drizzy. They claimed that "Kendrick and Drake’s beef is between them," and that "UMG just doesn’t think it’s their place to step in either way."
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