News of Drake taking legal action over Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us” sent shockwaves through social media.
On Monday (November 25), the OVO founder accused Universal Music Group (UMG) and Spotify of covertly and illegally inflating streaming numbers for K. Dot’s “Not Like Us.”
He claimed the companies “Launched a campaign to manipulate and saturate the streaming services and airwaves” with the song and accused UMG of lowering their licensing rate by 30 percent for “Not Like Us.”
Music fans flooded social media with reactions to the complaint. Many questioned why he didn’t sue Kendrick Lamar over salacious allegations in the diss tracks instead of taking legal action against his label.
Drakes Lawsuit pic.twitter.com/Qscx9zHxRk
— Jasmine's Garden (@SacredWhoreee) November 26, 2024
Drake is suing, but not for the accusations? I…. pic.twitter.com/6vZ0bmHNQA
— Marianne Sunshine (@MissMaSunshine) November 25, 2024
Others argued Drake was just as guilty, claiming he also benefited from inflated numbers and using bots and claimed he ended his career.
“This is Drakes official exit from hip hop,” one user shared. “He can’t ever recover from this. It’s over.”
This is Drakes official exit from hip hop. He can’t ever recover from this. It’s over.
— 🏁 (@DubyaDid) November 25, 2024
Another added, “This whole thing hilarious when you remember Pusha T told yall UMG was inflating drakes numbers years ago lol.”
This whole thing hilarious when you remember Pusha T told yall UMG was inflating drakes numbers years ago lol.
— Earl pearl (@jme2303) November 26, 2024
However, amid the trolling, others honed in on the wider context of the lawsuit, claiming Drake exposing alleged common music industry practices is beneficial for all artists.
drake will lose the internet & the “rap fans” at the moment, but this lawsuit has potential to have ramifications that’ll benefit all artists
— Julian Nicholas (@JNicholasNYC) November 26, 2024
that being said, both kendrick & drake have been the beneficiary of labels/dsp’s pushing their music. the tactics done by labels aren’t…
Nothing to do with the battle, I’m here for the jokes too … just giving a different perspective, if UMG in fact charged 30% lower than its usual licensing fee (to a company they already have ownership in) then all artists should be upset pic.twitter.com/1D4Ivlyuwj
— Rory (@thisisrory) November 26, 2024
Meanwhile, a UMG rep swiftly responded to the complaint, branding the allegations “offensive and untrue.” The rep also called added, “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.”
Check out some other reactions to Drake’s latest move below.
This meme of Drake is too accurate pic.twitter.com/QAZ3XJQpmy
— Dr. Allison Wiltz (@queenie4rmnola) November 25, 2024
Drake put these 2 guys in a RICO bropic.twitter.com/8VIkfouury
— Dobson 🦋 (@ByDobson) November 25, 2024
Drake realizing that he could just sue his way out of his problems instead of facing them like a man:pic.twitter.com/iZSkAJmaRR
— Alien Ohakaeze (@bmorealien) November 25, 2024
this has truly been an incredible year to be a drake hater pic.twitter.com/zC1l4fPL1U
— americus (@adsb02) November 25, 2024
Cole retracted his dis track and Drake called the cops. I can't believe this 😭 pic.twitter.com/tccQ8KcZI5
— 10 Slack Commandments 🇯🇲 (@Slakonbothsides) November 25, 2024
My favorite bit of reporting on this came from The Independent, where the executive board from UMG basically told Drake, “you in here yelling at us when you NEED to be focusing your energy on your real problem” 😭😭😭😭 https://t.co/d7LqjZhDKC pic.twitter.com/sJ3gdhsks9
— Diante Lee (@DianteLeeFB) November 25, 2024
Me retweeting anti-Drake tweets: pic.twitter.com/bfkLPLNAkl
— Bella Goth ☀️ (@WickedNFine) November 25, 2024