Drake’s Legal Complaint Against UMG & Spotify Over Kendrick Lamar Diss Prompts Responses

Drake’s own record label has responded to his pre-action lawsuit within hours of the news regarding the legal complaint circulating on social media.

For those who may be behind on the matter, Drake’s company, Frozen Moments LLC, filed a legal complaint in a Manhattan court on Monday (November 25) against Universal Music Group (UMG) and Spotify, accusing the two entities of engaging in an illegal scheme to artificially boost the streaming numbers for Lamar’s diss track “Not Like Us.”

At the center of the lawsuit is the claim that UMG engaged in deceptive business practices and violations of the RICO Act, typically reserved for organized crime cases, by employing bots, payola and other manipulative tactics to inflate the track’s popularity.

A UMG rep provided a response to Variety mere hours after the news broke and quickly denied any validity to the claims made in the complaint filed by the company under Drake’s holdings.

“The suggestion that UMG would do anything to undermine any of its artists is offensive and untrue,” the rep told Variety. “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.”

UMG wasn’t the only entity to respond to the news of the legal complaint, either. Lamar’s former Top Dawg Entertainment label executive Punch appeared to swear off rap once-and-for-all upon word of the litigation reaching his desk.

“Naaaaaahhhh,” Punch wrote in the tweet. “The rap streets is done. SMH.” Lamar’s “Not Like Us” producer Mustard also appeared to respond to the news in disbelief in a tweet, as well.

“OMG lmfaooooooooo,” Mustard wrote in the since-deleted tweet.

While it’s worth noting that the recent filing has not yet ballooned into a full blown lawsuit, the pre-actio” petition serves as a procedural step under New York law as a means of securing information before filing a lawsuit.

Additionally, Drake’s attorneys claim that UMG violated the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, threatens to drag the possible case into serious territory — considering the act is typically used in criminal cases targeting organized crime.

In a sense, Drake’s legal team is attempting to go after UMG and Spotify using the same sort of charges Young Thug battled in his epic YSL RICO case — which Drake signaled he bankrolled the Atlanta rapper’s defense in the case in an Instagram Story post earlier this year.