Drake has filed a second legal action against record label Universal Music over Kendrick Lamar\u2019s hit Not Like Us, which was released at the height of the pair\u2019s feud earlier this year.<\/p>\n
The star has accused Universal of defamation, and his legal papers claim the company could have halted the release of a song \u201cfalsely accusing him of being a sex offender\u201d.<\/p>\n
Instead, his lawyers claim, Universal \u201cexecuted a plan\u201d to make the song \u201ca viral mega-hit\u201d, and used Lamar\u2019s incendiary lyrics \u201cto drive consumer hysteria and, of course, massive revenues\u201d.<\/p>\n
It comes a day after Drake filed papers in New York, accusing the company of illegally boosting the song\u2019s profile on Spotify. Universal has called the claims \u201coffensive and untrue\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe employ the highest ethical practices in our marketing and promotional campaigns,\u201d the company said.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo amount of contrived and absurd legal arguments\u2026 can mask the fact that fans choose the music they want to hear.\u201d<\/p>\n
Like the earlier filing, the latest court document is not a lawsuit.<\/p>\n
Instead, it is a \u201cpre-action petition\u201d, under which Drake\u2019s lawyers can ask the court to order Universal to preserve any relevant documents and information ahead of future legal action.<\/p>\n
It was filed in Texas and also involves the radio giant iHeartRadio, which operates more than 850 stations across the US.<\/p>\n
According to Drake\u2019s lawyers, Not Like Us was \u201cheard more than 25 million times\u201d by listeners to iHeart stations in the four months after its release.<\/p>\n
Citing a whistleblower, they claim Universal potentially made \u201ccovert payments\u201d to iHeart as part of a \u201cpay-to-play scheme\u201d to promote the song.<\/p>\n
Drake\u2019s lawyers admit that they have been \u201cunable to confirm\u201d whether the payments went to iHeart stations, but argue that \u201cas the number one audio company in the country\u201d, it was the most likely recipient.<\/p>\n
If approved, the court action would compel the companies to provide any evidence regarding the accusations.<\/p>\n
The BBC has contacted iHeartRadio for a response to the petition.<\/p>\n
As in his previous filing, Drake goes on to accuse Universal of using \u201cbots\u201d to falsely inflate Lamar\u2019s streaming numbers, and of paying influencers to promote Not Like Us online \u2013 all of which the company has denied.<\/p>\n
But the latest documents add detail about Drake\u2019s grievances toward Universal, the label where he has spent his entire career.<\/p>\n
The documents claim the company knew that Lamar\u2019s song \u201cfalsely\u201d accused him of being a \u201ccertified paedophile\u201d, a \u201cpredator\u201d and someone whose name should \u201cbe registered and placed on neighbourhood watch\u201d, but chose to release it anyway.<\/p>\n
The song was widely regarded as the decisive blow in a long-running feud between the two rappers, who had been trading barbs in their songs since the early 2010s.<\/p>\n
Debuting at number one on the US chart, it has also been nominated for four Grammy Awards, including song of the year.<\/p>\n
Drake responded with a track called The Heart Part 6, in which he denied accusations of sexual misconduct and claimed to have fed Lamar \u201cfalse\u201d information through a double agent. However, the musician later deleted the track from his Instagram feed.<\/p>\n
The Canadian star, who is one of the most-streamed musicians of all time, releases music through his own label, OVO Music, but licenses the songs to Universal\u2019s subsidiary label Republic for marketing and distribution.<\/p>\n
Lamar has a similar deal, licensing his records through Universal\u2019s Interscope imprint.<\/p>\n
The post Drake doubles down with second lawsuit<\/a> appeared first on KBC<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Drake has filed a second legal action against record label Universal Music over Kendrick Lamar\u2019s hit Not Like Us, which was released at the height of the pair\u2019s feud earlier this year. The star has accused Universal of defamation, and his legal papers claim the company could have halted the release of a song \u201cfalsely […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-103599","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103599","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103599"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103599\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}