Drake Withdraws Lawsuit Against Universal Music and Spotify Over Lamar's Diss Track

In a surprising turn of events, Drake has officially ended his legal battle against Universal Music and Spotify regarding Kendrick Lamar's track "Not Like Us," recognizing insufficient grounds for his accusations of artificially inflated streaming numbers.

Drake, one of the biggest names in the music industry, has voluntarily withdrawn a legal case he brought against Universal Music and Spotify, in which he alleged that the companies conspired to promote Kendrick Lamar's diss track, “Not Like Us,” at his expense. Last November, Drake accused the music giants of manipulating the song's streams through unconventional methods like bot usage and payola, asserting that the rapid rise of Lamar's track was deliberate and based on questionable practices.

Drake's initial court documents claimed that "Not Like Us" had been promoted inappropriately, which involved claims that it accused him of paedophilia. However, on Tuesday, his lawyers filed a notice to withdraw a pre-action petition, effectively ending this phase of the case. Reports indicate that a meeting took place on Tuesday between Drake and representatives from both Universal and Spotify to discuss the matter, after which the withdrawal was accepted without objection from Spotify, whereas Universal reserved its position.

The interaction comes in the backdrop of an ongoing related case pending against Universal and iHeartRadio in Texas, which has yet to conclude.

Not Like Us, which has been widely interpreted as a critical moment in the ongoing feud between two of rap's biggest stars, includes allegations against Drake regarding his relationships and usage of other artists to elevate his status. In response, Drake released a track titled “The Heart Part 6” within a day, where he denied Lamar’s assertions and claimed to have fed Lamar misleading information through a backchannel.

Despite Drake's quickfire rebuttal, “Not Like Us” gained immense traction, charting at number one on the U.S. Billboard and accumulating over a billion streams on Spotify. As his legal engagement with the music industry unfolded, Drake sought access to internal documents from both companies that may have supported his claims regarding false popularity.

In earlier statements, Universal vehemently denied any wrongdoing, insisting that their promotional practices upheld the highest standard of ethics, while Spotify stated that there was no financial motive for streaming Lamar's song over Drake's catalog. Industry experts had speculated that the lawsuit may have been a strategic maneuver to force Universal's hand in a contract negotiation rather than a genuine legal grievance.

Critics in the media have pointed out that pursuing this conflict might ultimately damage Drake’s reputation more than it helps, as it brought further attention to Lamar's lyrics, potentially increasing interest in the song that offended Drake.