Drake drops petition against Spotify and Universal
The Canadian rapper took action against Spotify and Universal over a song Kendrick Lamar released in 2024.
Drake has decided to withdraw legal action against Spotify and Universal Music Group (UMG).
The 38-year-old rapper filed a case against the two companies following the release of Kendrick Lamar's smash hit, 'Not Like Us', claiming they inflated the success of the song.
The song, which premiered in May 2024, was one of several diss tracks Kendrick released against Drake. The rappers embarked on an epic rap battle last year, taking swipes at each other with eyebrow-raising lyrics.
Kendrick insinuated in the Grammy-nominated 'Not Like Us' that Drake had a thing for young girls.
"Certified Lover Boy? Certified pedophiles/ Wop, wop, wop, wop, wop, Dot, f**k 'em up/ Wop, wop, wop, wop, wop, I'ma do my stuff/ Why you trollin' like a b***h? Ain't you tired?/ Tryna strike a chord and it's probably A minor," he rapped on the track.
The song became a major hit worldwide and has been streamed over a billion times on Spotify to date.
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Drake also fired shots at Kendrick in 'Family Matters', implying that he was cheating on his fiancée, Whitney Alford.
“You the Black messiah wifing up a mixed queen / And hit vanilla cream to help out with your self-esteem / On some Bobby s**t, I wanna know what Whitney need,” he rapped.
He added in another verse, “When you put your hands on your girl, is it self-defense ’cause she’s bigger than you?”
'Family Matters' was streamed over 130 million times on Spotify.
Drake and his company, Frozen Moments LLC, filed a legal petition against Spotify and Universal in November last year. They claimed that Spotify and UMG “engaged in conduct designed to artificially inflate the popularity of ‘Not Like Us’… including by licensing the song at drastically reduced rates to Spotify and using ‘bots’ to generate the false impression that the song was more popular than it was in reality.”
Music fans slammed Drake's legal filing, calling him a 'Karen'.
"Karen energy coming from Drake. The L has been certified with this lawsuit," an X user wrote.
Both UMG and Spotify denied Drake's claims.
According to Variety, the 'Certified Loverboy' rapper dropped the pre-action filing on Tuesday, January 14, putting an end to the case.
'Not Like Us' has been nominated for five awards at the 2025 Grammys including 'Song of the Year' and 'Best Rap Song'.
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#DrakeUMGLawsuit: @Drake’s Frozen Moments, LLC has filed a Withdrawl Order of petition against @UMG/@Spotify with the Supreme Court on Tuesday, January 14. The notice states that Drake’s company discontinued the proceedings with no cost to any parties.
— Bryson “Boom” Paul (@brysonboompaul) January 15, 2025
Spotify, which had filed… pic.twitter.com/RRn2R4qsZ5
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