Fans react to Drake threatening to sue over ‘Not Like Us’ diss track

Drake being connected to a petition against the record label Universal Music Group (UMG) and music streaming platform, Spotify, over fellow rapper Kendrick Lamar’s song “Not Like Us” has hip-hop fans either up in arms or perplexed.
In the petition filed on Monday in the New York Supreme Court, Frozen Moments, LLC, a company managed by Drake, accused UMG and Spotify of engaging in a “scheme to ensure” Lamar’s diss track, “Not Like Us,” “broke through” on multiple streaming platforms. According to the petition, the Canadian rapper, whose real name is Aubrey Graham, claimed the label used dishonest tactics to increase the number of listeners for Lamar’s song on Spotify and radio stations.
Lamar’s “Not Like Us” has been on the Billboard Top 100 for 29 weeks and landed at the No. 1 spot twice. As of Tuesday, the record is still on the charts at number 19.
In addition to the Billboard accomplishments, the record has, to date, garnered 914 million plays on Spotify. Lamar’s “Humble,” his most-streamed song, has about 2.4 billion streams on the platform.
“UMG’s schemes to artificially inflate the popularity of ‘Not Like Us’ were motivated, at least in part, by the desire of executives at Interscope (Records) to maximize their own profits,” the petition claims, with the filling adding how Drake suspects UMG engaged in racketeering through bribery as well as deceptive business practices and false advertising.
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On Tuesday, Drake and Frozen Moments, LLC filed another petition against UMG alleging defamation and claiming that the label could have stopped the release of “Not Like US”, which the rapper said in the document is a song “falsely accusing him of being a sex offender,” Billboard and Forbes reported.
In the second petition obtained by Billboard and Forbes, Drake accuses UMG of knowing that Kendrick’s song “falsely” accused him of being a “certified pedophile” and “predator” but chose to release it anyway. At points in “Not Like Us,” Lamar does say “certified pedophile” and “predator,” but he does not explicitly utter Drake’s name when using the phrases.
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UMG wasted no time to react, with the label releasing a statement to USA TODAY on Monday, hours after the petition was filed.
“The suggestion that UMG would do anything to undermine any of its artists is offensive and untrue,” the music corporation’s statement reads. “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.”
Drake is signed to UMG subsidiary Republic Records, while Lamar is signed to UMG’s Interscope Records, according to the label’s website. The label is also home to other popular musicians, including Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish, Bad Bunny and The Weeknd.
Fans of Lamar, Drake, and hip-hop have chimed in on the petition, with some siding with the “Not Like Us” rapper who released his sixth studio album, “GNX,” on Nov. 22. However, others defended Drake, arguing that the petition is bigger than the beef that took the music world by storm earlier this year.
This story has been updated to add new information.
Contributing: KiMi Robinson/ USA TODAY
Jonathan Limehouse covers breaking and trending news for USA TODAY. Reach him at [email protected].