By Jociel Colon

Even if you haven’t been paying much attention to the rap scene this past year, there’s no way you could ignore the civil war that ensued this past spring with Drake and Kendrick Lamar leading the charge against each other. But how did this civil war end up in a civil lawsuit?

It’s easy to assume you’ve heard Kendrick Lamar’s Not Like Us record everywhere. It is not only one of the biggest and fastest-growing songs of all time, but also one of the numerous diss tracks throughout the beef between Lamar and Drake. As if this beef hasn’t been eventful enough, on November 25th, Drake took legal action against Universal Music Group for allegedly “excessively boosting the song’s numbers”, and in short favoring Lamar.

According to XXL Magazine and the court filing, it states that “UMG did not rely on chance, or even ordinary business practices… It instead launched a campaign to manipulate and saturate the streaming services and airwaves.” This violates the RICO Act, the NY Deceptive Business Practices Act, and the NY False Advertising Act.

Additionally, Drake filed a second claim against UMG for alleged defamation relating to Not Like Us, which lyrics contain serious claims against Drake’s character, which we’re sure everyone has heard.

Here’s where things get complicated with Drake and UMG: Drake signed a 400 million dollar deal with UMG back in 2021, which is nearing its end. It’s alleged that UMG has been botting streams for Kendrick Lamar and not pushing Drake’s music enough, in order to not pay him what he’s worth in a contract renewal. It’s important to note that UMG owns both Drake and Kendrick’s music, which makes this all the more complicated.

Drake has seemingly been put into a tough position with the lawsuit. As it’s generally frowned upon in hip-hop to take legal action against someone you have some bad blood with. Wiz Khalifa went onto the talk show Club Shay Shay and called it a “Drake move”, and while this was not a shot at Drake, he has been receiving backlash by influencers and people within the hip-hop community for his legal action.

It is important to note that Drake is not suing Kendrick, but UMG and Spotify for allegedly boosting streams and letting the record be released in the first place.

For the first court filing against UMG and Spotify, the date is set for January 25th, 2025 in the New York Supreme Court. For the second filing against UMG, the court date is set to take place on December 19th.

A win for Drake could be seen as a big thing for artists as record labels are well known for their shady deals and practices against artists. On the other hand, you could question if the art of rap beef is dying out because of this lawsuit. Whether it be settled in the studio or in the courtroom, it’s easy to infer that the beef between the two is far from over. As they say, more money, more problems.