In a wildly surprising turn of events, Drake took legal action against Universal Music Group and Spotify over what his company says was a coordinated effort to artificially boost the success of Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us.” On Monday (Nov. 25), Billboard revealed a “pre-action petition” from the Canadian star’s Frozen Moments LLC against the two entities. UMG and Spotify have yet to respond to the case.

“UMG did not rely on chance or even ordinary business practices,” his attorneys wrote. “It instead launched a campaign to manipulate and saturate the streaming services and airwaves.” The filing further alleged violations of the federal RICO statute, which is commonly used against organized crime, along with claims of deception and false advertising under New York state law.

According to the filing, UMG gave Spotify drastically reduced licensing fees in exchange for promoting “Not Like Us” to users searching for unrelated artists. In addition, the record label allegedly paid influencers and deployed bots to falsely increase the track’s streaming numbers. “UMG conspired with and paid currently unknown parties... to artificially inflate [the single],” the filing read.

As far as the motive, Billboard explained how Drake’s legal team pointed to internal dynamics at UMG where executive bonuses are tied to the performance of specific divisions rather than the company as a whole. They argued that this incentivized executives at Interscope Records to prioritize Lamar’s success over other artists.

Drake’s relationship with UMG spanned from his early Young Money Entertainment days to his current signing with subsidiary Republic Records. Similarly, Lamar’s career has been tied to UMG through Top Dawg Entertainment and, more recently, pgLang under Interscope.

As stated by his lawyers, the OVO talent attempted to address the issue with UMG privately, but the label refused to take responsibility and even terminating staffers “perceived as having loyalty to Drake.” In response, UMG allegedly suggested that Drake sue Lamar instead. “Drake has repeatedly sought to engage UMG in discussions to resolve the ongoing harm he has suffered,” the petition read. “UMG refused to engage in negotiations and insisted that UMG is not responsible for its own actions.”