When Keeping It Real Goes Wrong: Drake vs. Kendrick Lamar, Universal Music Group, and Spotify

Drake’s last name might as well be Tenenbaum, because he’s been having a very rough year.

It all started when Kendrick Lamar, in response to Drake taking aim at him with his tracks “Push Ups” and “Taylor Made Freestyle”, struck back with his own diss titled “euphoria,” in which he spent four minutes and twenty-six seconds letting the world know how much he despises Drake and thinks that he’s nothing but a great big phony. He then followed it with “6:16 in L.A.” and “Meet the Grahams,” where he described how none of the people in Drake’s camp actually like or respect him, how they’ve been leaking info about him to embarrass him, how he’s an embarrassment to his parents and his son, and how he’s hiding yet another child. Drake responded with two more diss tracks called “Family Matters” and “The Heart, Part 6,” where he implied that all of the secrets Kendrick thought he was spilling about him were fake because they were planted by him and his people, and that Kendrick was secretly being abusive to Whitney Alford, his fiancée, and the mother of their two children.

But then Kendrick released “Not Like Us,” and it was the coup de grace that made it clear to everyone that Kendrick Lamar was the winner of this beef. There was so much to like about it (how it was unbelievably catchy, the lyrics that were both brilliant and savage, the equally memorable music video that later dropped on the Fourth of July, “WOP-WOP-WOP-WOP-WOP/DOT, F-CK HIM UP”), but it was this lyric that everyone found both merciless and quotable: “Why you trollin’ like a bitch? Ain’t you tired?/Tryna strike a chord, and it’s probably A-minor.” There were videos on Twitter, YouTube, and TikTok of people dancing to it in their cars, their homes, in da clerb where we all fam, and at bar mitzvahs and bat mitzvahs. It became so popular that some people began questioning why it was so popular and being played so damn much for weeks on end, a complaint that was clearly made by people who weren’t alive yet during the time of Celine Dion’s “My Heart Will Go On,” Los Del Rio’s “Macarena” or Leann Rimes’ cover of “How Do I Live” being played nonstop on VH1 and on Top 40 radio.

Most people who even had minimal knowledge of the Kendrick Lamar/Drake beef had accepted that the beef had ended, Kendrick was the winner, and Drake would take the L, and just focus on his own career. But we were all fools for giving the artist formerly known as Jimmy Wheels the benefit of the doubt, because he decided to take their beef to court and get the lawyers involved. (Sadly, the lawyers involved in this case are not from Pearson Specter, otherwise Dustin would be doing cartwheels.)

From Billboard:

In a filing Monday (Nov. 25) in Manhattan court, Drake’s Frozen Moments LLC accuses UMG of launching an illegal “scheme” involving bots, payola and other methods to pump up Lamar’s song — a track that savagely attacked Drake amid an ongoing feud between the two stars.

“UMG did not rely on chance, or even ordinary business practices,” attorneys for Drake’s company write. “It instead launched a campaign to manipulate and saturate the streaming services and airwaves.”

Drake’s attorneys accuse UMG of violating the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, the federal “RICO” statute often used in criminal cases against organized crime. They also allege deceptive business practices and false advertising under New York state law.

The court filings are a remarkable twist in the high-profile beef between the two stars, which saw Drake and Lamar exchange stinging diss tracks over a period of months earlier this year. That such a dispute would spill into business litigation seemed almost unthinkable in the world of hip-hop. It also represents a stunning rift between Drake and UMG, where the star has spent his entire career — first through signing a deal with Lil Wayne’s Young Money imprint, which was distributed by Republic Records, then by signing directly to Republic.

Universal Music Group’s response?

“The suggestion that UMG would do anything to undermine any of its artists is offensive and untrue,” said the company in a statement sent 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.”

I really do have to question if Drake has any friends who genuinely care about him and his well-being to tap him on the shoulder, and let him know if and when he’s saying or doing the wrong thing. Because if he did, one of those friends would’ve immediately told him that Drake going after Kendrick and his record label like this was not going to make him look good, or in any way victorious against Kendrick. If anything, Drake’s decision to do this made him look like an even bigger loser than he did before, and there were lots of people on Twitter and Bluesky who didn’t hesitate in pointing this out while laughing at Drake, and creating memes at his expense.

They brought up how foolish and humiliating it is for Drake to take this beef to a courthouse, and not go after Kendrick for telling the world that he’s a “certified pedophile,” but because his song was so much more popular than anything he dropped. (UPDATE: Looks like I spoke too soon, because right before this article was published, it was announced that Drake is filing a second action against Universal Music Group for defamation, and for refusing to halt the release of a song that is “…falsely accusing him of being a sex offender.”) They raised questions as to just how Drake would be so familiar and knowledgeable about an artist like Kendrick Lamar being able to rely on payola, and putting thumbs on the scale, if he hasn’t done it for himself, or if his fellow artists on Young Money haven’t done the same. And they especially pointed out that all Drake had to do to restore his reputation and make people laugh a little less at the mention of his name would be for him to keep his head down, go to the studio, make an album worth listening to, preferably an album with songs like “Best I Ever Had” and “One Dance” that don’t remind everyone of his tendencies to act and sound like a misogynist f-ckboy (just ask Megan Thee Stallion and Halle Berry), and let the work speak for itself. But instead, he went after Kendrick yet again, he went after him just days after he surprise-dropped a new album that almost all of his fans are enjoying, and he made Kendrick fans go Peppermint Petty in response to this lawsuit by going on Spotify to play “Not Like Us” 525,600 more times.

Anyone who was paying very close attention to this beef and who sided with Kendrick over Drake knows good and damn well that they didn’t need to be influenced by Spotify to play “Not Like Us” nonstop. They didn’t need to be influenced by Spotify for them to tune in to Kendrick’s concert that aired on Amazon Prime on Juneteenth, and be highly entertained not just by the concert in its entirety, but by Kendrick being vengeful and petty enough to perform “Not Like Us” almost half-a-dozen times that same night.

It’s still too early to tell what will happen next regarding this lawsuit, but Drake’s attempt to adopt Kendrick’s philosophy of “Sometimes you gotta pop out and show niggas” already doesn’t seem to be working in his favor, and is only making fans wonder why he didn’t just focus on his next album, or on going back to Canada to take a starring role in Law & Order: Toronto Edition.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m gonna go listen to “Not Like Us” on repeat until it’s time for my lunch break.

UPDATE #2: This is not the first time that Drake has used his lawyers as a threat because he didn’t always get what he wanted.

This has been another episode of “When Keeping It Real Goes Wrong.”