Drake is now taking his epic beef with fellow rapper Kendrick Lamar to the human resources department.
On Tuesday, Drake’s company, Frozen Moments LLC, filed a legal complaint against Universal Music Group ― Drake’s second of the week ― over Lamar’s hit track “Not Like Us.”
In court documents obtained by Billboard, Drake, whose full name is Aubrey Drake Graham, alleged that UMG could have stopped the release of the song, which his lawyers say falsely accused Drake of being a sex offender.
UMG “could have refused to release or distribute the song or required the offending material to be edited and/or removed,” Drake’s lawyers said in the filing. “But UMG chose to do the opposite. UMG designed, financed and then executed a plan to turn ‘Not Like Us’ into a viral mega-hit with the intent of using the spectacle of harm to Drake and his businesses to drive consumer hysteria and, of course, massive revenues. That plan succeeded, likely beyond UMG’s wildest expectations.”
As with the separate petition against UMG and Spotify that Drake filed on Monday, Tuesday’s pre-action filing is intended to serve as a step toward obtaining information for potential use in an official lawsuit, according to Billboard.
Following Drake’s claims on Monday that UMG and Spotify conspired to artificially inflate Lamar’s streaming and radio numbers, UMG called the allegations “contrived and absurd.”
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“The suggestion that UMG would do anything to undermine any of its artists is offensive and untrue,” the company said in a statement provided to Billboard. “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 feud between the two artists has been bubbling since March, escalating from volleys of standard-issue insults to explosive accusations of domestic abuse, pedophilia and sex trafficking.