If you are a music and hip-hop fan like myself, you know that rap beef is as natural to hip-hop as breathing to humans. However, rap superstar Drake, 38, thinks this beef with fellow rap star Kendrick Lamar, 37. The beef reportedly got heated when, in March, Lamar appeared on Future and Metro Boomin’s “Like That” single and disagreed that he, J. Cole, and Drake were the “big three” in Hip-Hop, stating that it’s just “big him,” as per USA Today.

Things escalated even more when Lamar’s popular May 2024 single, “Not Like Us,” was released. In this song, Kendrick takes some severe jabs at Drake, calling him a “pedo*****” with lyrics like: “Say, Drake, I hear you like ’em young, You better not ever go to cell block one, To any b**** that talk to him and they in love, Just make sure you hide your lil’ sister from him..” and “Certified Lover Boy? Certified pedo*****.” There were several other damning lyrics all throughout the song, one of them being: “F***** on Wayne girl while he was in jail, that’s conniving,” here Lamar is criticizing Drake for allegedly sleeping with Lil Wayne’s (the man who basically discovered him and helped jumpstart his career) girlfriend while he was in jail.

Drake seemingly and understandably took offense to this song as he is now taking legal action against one of the most prestigious record labels, Universal Music Group, and apparently streaming service giant Spotify, for popularizing this song. He accused UMG and Spotify of “scheming” to make “Not Like Us” popular. He filed a petition on Monday through the New York Supreme Court, and this petition states:

“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 (Records) to maximize their own profits,” as per USA Today.

Drake asked the court to order the record label to hand over evidence of such dealings so that he may file a legal complaint. Spotify hasn’t commented on the issue, but UMG has, they told USA Today in a statement:

“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, ” all as per USA Today.