Drake has accused record label bosses of "conspiring" with Spotify to "artificially inflate" the streaming figures of his rival Kendrick Lamar's diss track Not Like Us.
The Hotline Bling hitmaker's feud with fellow rapper Kendrick reached new heights earlier this year when they released a series of diss tracks about each other.
Kendrick's Not Like Us, in which he accuses Drake of paedophilia and sexual misconduct, emerged as the most popular, becoming the most streamed diss track in Spotify history.
Now, Drake's company, Frozen Moments LLC, has begun legal action over the song. Lawyers for the company filed a petition against Kendrick's label Universal Music Group (UMG) and Spotify in Manhattan on Monday in which they accused UMG executives of launching a scheme "to manipulate and saturate the streaming services and airwaves" with Not Like Us by using "bots and pay-to-play agreements".
"UMG's schemes to artificially inflate the popularity of Not Like Us were motivated, at least in part, by the desire of executives at (UMG subsidiary) Interscope to maximize their own profits," the documents allege, claiming that the song's saturation of the market "comes at the expense of other artists".
According to the attorneys, the God's Plan rapper tried to speak with UMG executives "to resolve the ongoing harm he has suffered as a result of UMG's actions" but they allegedly "refused to engage in negotiations".
The petition is not a lawsuit but a request for "pre-action discovery" to help Drake's company "identify" who to name as defendants in an official complaint.
In response, a UMG representative told People and Variety 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."
