Kendrick Lamar has officially tied with Drake for having the rap song with the highest number of certifications awarded by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).
On Monday (November 25), Kendrick and Travis Scott‘s 2016 collab “Goosebumps” was certified 16x platinum – joining Drake’s 2018 single “God’s Plan” as the only other rap song in history to reach the feat, which means each track has sold over 16 million units.
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The news arrives just after Drake submitted two “pre-action” filings against Universal Music Group (UMG), seeking discovery and depositions for potential future lawsuits surrounding Kendrick’s diss song against him, “Not Like Us.” These aren’t lawsuits themselves, but petitions asking for more information before a lawsuit is filed. Even if he gains access to the information he desires, Drake is not legally bound to follow through with a lawsuit.
In the first filing, Drizzy claims that UMG — the parent company of both his label Republic and Kendrick’s longtime home of Interscope — used bots and payola to boost the popularity of “Not Like Us” on streaming services and radio, ensuring it would become a mega-hit.
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It seeks “pre-action discovery” from UMG and Spotify to allow Drake to “identify appropriate defendants” and pursue a lawsuit alleging violations of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, as well as New York’s Deceptive Business Act and False Advertising Act. Regarding a potential civil RICO, it points to “predicate acts of wire fraud, mail fraud, and/or bribery.”
The second, which also names iHeartMedia as a respondent, accuses UMG of defamation and claims the music giant could have halted the release of “Not Like Us” which “falsely accus[ed]” him of being a pedophile. It also to seeks to determine “whether, and how, UMG funneled payments to iHeartRadio and its radio stations” to promote “Not Like Us.”
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Since filing, Drake has become a trending topic for what many fans are calling a “Karen move.”
“Never in 50 Years of Hip-Hop has this happened,” one person commented on The Shade Room. “Drake needs to be Banned from the Hip-Hop Culture. Ain’t it ain’t a Black thing, even Em or Vanilla Ice wouldn’t do no Sucka ish like this.”
Another person wrote: “Drake Views, Actions, and opinions are not a result or reflection of us in the light skin nation. Drake on his own.”
While neither Kendrick nor Drake have publicly spoken on the filing as of this writing, UMG has issued a statement to Variety:
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“The suggestion that UMG would do anything to undermine any of its artists is offensive and untrue,” a rep for the company told the publication. “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.”
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