Editor’s note: The following article is an op-ed, and the views expressed are the author’s own. Read more opinions on theGrio.
One of the biggest surprises in the whole Kendrick Lamar versus Drake beef was Drake filing petitions in both New York and Texas in reference to Lamar’s song “Not Like Us,” an earworm that was inescapable for nearly the entire back half of 2024. He filed both petitions mere days after Kendrick Lamar released his latest album, “GNX,” a move that might demonstrate business savvy, but in the world of hip-hop looked terrible.
His first petition, filed in New York through his company Frozen Moments LLC, accused his record label, Universal Music Group (UMG, which also distributes Lamar’s music), of conspiring with Spotify to inflate the streams of “Not Like Us,” a song that not only directs a lot of vitriol and allegations at Drake, but also has the audacity to bump in the ride and be super quotable. Drake’s petition claims that through the use of bots, payola and a discounted licensing rate, UMG created a wave, causing “Not Like Us” to basically pop up on every playlist and automatically play upon completion of whatever song you might have been listening to.
Not for nothing, that’s how I felt about Tommy Richman’s tune “Million Dollar Baby,” which I would argue in court literally played immediately after ANY song I listened to for what felt like months on end. I got so tired of the song that once I learned (from Drake) that I could perhaps initiate a lawsuit to complain about it, I seriously considered seeking legal counsel. (I didn’t.) “Not Like Us” took over for the summer and I didn’t mind listening to it a thousand times a day.
Anyway, just like Kendrick rapped, Spotify popped out at Drake in a recent statement to address the allegations. According to Music Business Worldwide, a spokesperson for Spotify said “Spotify had no incentive to stream “Not Like Us” over any of Drake’s records.” Spotify did apparently purchase a visual ad in France to promote “Not Like Us” through one of its tools, Marquee, for what amounts to about $520. I’m not an expert, but I doubt that resulted in tens of millions of streams.
At the risk of descending into legalese, Spotify has also filed an opposition brief to Drake’s non-lawsuit petition, asking (in a nutshell) for the motion to be denied based on a lack of evidence of any wrongdoing. Maybe there’s some smoke, maybe there isn’t.
Maybe it just is what it is. Maybe Kendrick Lamar’s song, which took aim at Drake’s cool and his alleged “outsiderness” to the culture, over an amazing beat was just that good. It’s been said before but bears repeating, in this particular rap beef, Kendrick out-Draked Drake. Kendrick made a bop of a record, put the West Coast on his back, created a sing-a-long hook with a bunch of vocal tricks and phrases that have become part of the culture.
Kendrick ignited an intense debate and discourse about Drake’s place in hip-hop and his adjacency to Black American culture, for better or worse. I don’t think Kendrick would ever argue Drake isn’t Black, but what he did do was question whether or not Drake used hip-hop culture to make his millions while not ever really understanding the culture. Whether I believe that or not is irrelevant, Kendrick put the question out there and people ran with it. And now, that same song (that also made some felonious accusations about Drake) is likely to play at the Super Bowl where Kendrick Lamar is the half-time performer in February 2025.
I don’t know if Spotify and UMG conspired to do anything, but I doubt it. I was here all 2024 and let me tell you, Drake, it kind of doesn’t feel like they needed to; Kendrick made the right song at the right time and it worked and it was impossible to get away from for months on end. “Not Like Us” is a certified bop. It’s a jam. It’s the defining record of 2024. Kendrick didn’t need to be prioritized over any Drake record, there was nothing Drake could do in 2024 to overtake the wave that was Kendrick Lamar. Whatever feelings anybody had about Drake, Kendrick put in a presentation dressed up as a song the people wanted. As we say in the community, the people were picking up what he was putting down. That has nothing to do with Spotify, that’s what the culture was feeling.
Spotify used corporate speak to tell Drake what the rest of us have been saying on social media and in thinkpieces for the past month — that he needs to go on ahead and accept the “L” he took in the beef because his petitions have him looking really funny in the light.
Panama Jackson is a columnist at theGrio and host of the award-winning podcast, “Dear Culture” on theGrio Black Podcast Network. He writes very Black things, drinks very brown liquors, and is pretty fly for a light guy. His biggest accomplishment to date coincides with his Blackest accomplishment to date in that he received a phone call from Oprah Winfrey after she read one of his pieces (biggest) but he didn’t answer the phone because the caller ID said “Unknown” (Blackest).
