Kendrick Lamar

Drake and Kendrick Lamar’s rap beef was a monumental moment in hip-hop. But the “Family Matters” rapper’s upcoming legal battle with UMG and Spotify is gearing up to be an industry shifter.

On December 20, Spotify slammed Drake’s accusations of “artificially inflating” the popularity of Kendrick Lamar’s diss track “Not Like Us” with the use of bots and colluding with UMG in a payola scheme. Now, Drake’s legal team is firing back.

In a statement shared with USA Today, a representative of Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP doubled down on the claims made in Drake’s legal filing.

“It is not surprising that Spotify is trying to distance themselves from UMG’s allegedly manipulative practices to artificially inflate streaming numbers on behalf of one of its other artists,” said the rep. “If Spotify and UMG have nothing to hide then they should be perfectly fine complying with this basic discovery request.”

Although Spotify has requested that the “false” and “speculative” inquiry be dismissed, it appears Drake’s legal team is ready to go the distance in an attempt to prove their allegations.

Just as Spotify denied Drake’s accusation, so has UMG. “The suggestion that UMG would do anything to undermine any of its artists is offensive and untrue,” said a representative for the label. “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 eyes are on this ongoing legal matter.

Drake’s legal filing against UMG and Spotify caused controversy among rap fans. However, the “No Face” rapper remains steadfast in his beliefs that his own record label and the streaming giant colluded to “artificially inflate” the popularity of Kendrick Lamar’s diss song “Not Like Us.”

Now, the music titans are fighting back. Today (December 20), Spotify reportedly responded to Drake’s pre-petition with a motion of its own in Manhattan court. According to Billboard, it claimed to have “found zero evidence to support the claims of a bot attack” to increase the streams of “Not Like Us.” The company also denied entering a backdoor deal with UMG to aid Kendrick in his war of words with Drake.

“The predicate of Petitioner’s entire request for discovery from Spotify is false,” read the motion. “Spotify and UMG have never had any such arrangement.”

Later in the document, Spotify slammed Drake for filing a pre-petition rather than a full-on case.

“What petitioner is seeking to do here is to bypass the normal pleading requirements,” the wrote. “And obtain by way of pre-action discovery that which it would only be entitled to seek were it to survive a motion to dismiss. This subversion of the normal judicial process should be rejected.”

It continued, “The petition asserts no specific facts of any kind in support of these alleged RICO and deceptive practices violations. Instead, it relies exclusively on speculation or the claims of anonymous individuals on the internet.”

The closed by rebutted the allegation of bot manipulation, writing, “When we identify attempted stream manipulation, we take action that may include removing streaming numbers, withholding royalties and charging penalty fees. Confirmed and suspected artificial streams are also removed from our chart calculations. This helps us to protect royalty payouts for honest, hardworking artists.”

UMG also addressed the matter in a statement of its own (viewable here).