Drake and Kendrick Lamar’s Spotify Wrapped results after lawsuit over ‘manipulating’ song to ‘go viral’
Despite beating him on Spotify Wrapped top artist, Drake insisted Kendrick Lamar’s streaming single numbers were artificially inflated.
The artist previously hit out in a 17-page lawsuit filed against Universal Music Group by Drake’s Frozen Moments LLC. The rapper’s team accused UMG of “launching a campaign to manipulate and saturate the streaming services and airwaves to make that song go viral, including by using ‘bots’ and pay-to-play agreements.”
They were particularly concerned with Kendrick’s song Not Like Us which was a part of a string of tunes in an epic feud between the two musicians. The court document read: “UMG’s schemes to artificially inflate the popularity of ‘Not Like Us’ were motivated, at least in part, by the desire of executives at Interscope to maximize their own profits.”
He claimed that Spotify altered their recommendation algorithm to push listeners to stream No Like Us after fans were looking for “unrelated” artists or songs. Plus, a “whistleblower” claimed they were paid to create robots that streamed the song on loop to pad out the streaming numbers.
Despite the accusations, Drake came out on top, anyway. Spotify dropped their annual Wrapped report which detailed which tracks and artists were listening tot he most over the past year. While Drake wasn’t able to secure the number one artist spot, he did snag number two right behind Taylor Swift. Kendrick, on the other hand, wasn’t able to crack top five.
However, Kendrick’s song, Not Like Us, did completely overtake Spotify Wrapped, too. It secured the No. 2 most streamed song spot, right behind Sabrina Carpenter’s Espresso. So, while Drake won the artist ranking, he didn’t win the song battle. In fact, none of Drake’s songs made top five.
Drake’s lawsuit claimed he suffered “economic harm” due to the alleged manipulation by the record label and streaming platform. The document explained: “Streaming and licensing is a zero-sum game. Every time a song ‘breaks through,’ it means another artist does not.”
A spokesperson for UMG sent a statement that read: “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.”
Not Like Us was released in response to Drake’s track which placed himself among the “big three” of rap, alongside J. Cole and Kendrick. However, Kendrick took issue with this, claiming there was no big three only “big me.” The musicians went back and forth with a few diss tracks before Kendrick seemed to come out victorious when Not Like Us became a commercial success.
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Lee Noble is a British automotive designer and engineer who cut his supercar teeth at Ascari, a low volume, big sticker-price manufacturer. He left Ascari with a plan to create a new supercar that would not only be super, but also more affordable.
The recipe was simple: create a lightweight, rear-mid-mounted engine supercar that would be equally at home running little Johnny to school during the week or hustling around a racetrack over the weekend. And do it as a price point that will ensure the car is accessible to a broader audience of enthusiasts, and not only the ones with a Musk wallet.
