Universal Music Group has maintained that streaming numbers for Not Like Us represented the numerous fans worldwide who chose to listen to the song over and over again.
Describing the allegations as “offensive and untrue,” the company’s remarks were in response to a case filed by Drake, accusing the music corporation of conspiring with Spotify to “artificially” boost the popularity of Kendrick Lamar’s diss track.
“The suggestion that UMG would do anything to undermine any of its artists is offensive and untrue…
“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,” the company said in a statement to Billboard.
Drake, in a suit filed on Monday, November 25, claimed that UMG took part in an illegal “scheme” to inflate the popularity of Lamar’s hit song, which emerged out of the beef between himself and Lamar.
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Sources say the filing, however, was not yet a lawsuit but “a pre-action petition,” which aims to secure information before filing a lawsuit.
Records indicate that Not Like Us debuted at number one on the Billboard Hot 100, opening with 70.9 million streams and 15,000 copies sold.
In addition to other accomplishments, it became Kendrick’s fourth number-one single to become the first rap song in history to top the Hot 100 with a shortened tracking week of five days.
Top performer Snoop Dogg recently said he did not take sides when Kendrick Lamar and Drake were bombarding each other with diss songs early this year.
However, he thinks the battle between the two musicians fostered some unity among other players in the music industry.
“So, it may have been disrespectful, but it’s hip hop, so it’s part of hip hop…“I chose no sides because I have no individual cause. That’s a grown man going against a grown man…
“But what it did do was unite the West and make everybody out here start looking at each other like how much love we got for each other,” he stated on the Drink Champs podcast.
In October this year, Kendrick Lamar spoke for the first time in an interview with SZA, explaining what ‘Not Like Us’ meant.
“Not like us is the energy of who I am, the type of man I represent…Now, if you identify with the man that I represent…This man has morals, he has values, he believes in something, he stands on something. He’s not pandering,” he stated.
