When Kendrick Lamar dropped an unexpected album last week, music industry insiders thought that they had seen the biggest surprise this year for the LA-born superstar.
Then came the shock on Monday when Drake, Lamar’s Canadian label mate at an offshoot of Universal Music Group, took a long-running feud between the pair to the courts with a move that aims to reveal how hits are made in the modern industry and that could reignite the decades-old “payola” scandal.
In two separate filings in New York and Texas, Drake’s lawyers alleged that their record company had used “bots”, influencers and pay-to-play agreements with national radio groups and streaming services to boost the popularity of Lamar’s hit “Not Like Us”.
The song debuted at number one in the US chart, has been streamed more than 900mn times on Spotify and has earned several Grammy award nominations. The track is also offensive against Drake, the latest salvo in a seething feud between rappers signed to UMG offshoots: Lamar with Interscope, and Drake with Republic.
So-called diss tracks are not unusual in hip hop, with rappers using their music to attack rival artists in creatively offensive ways since the birth of the genre in the 1980s. But the decision to take the “beef” to the courts by suing his own label has shocked the music industry.
“Rap battles and beef are as old as rap itself,” said Amanda Schupf, boss of Max Music Management and Consulting. “But I don’t understand what the motivation of this [court action] is. I do not see how it could end well for Drake.”
The move could have broad implications for the music industry, raising questions over the extent to which streaming services can decide who listens to what on their platforms, the role of paid social media in promoting tracks, and whether hits can in effect be “bought” with the right backing.
Drake’s case alleges that Universal could have stopped the release of a song “falsely accusing him of being a sex offender”, but instead chose “to drive consumer hysteria and, of course, massive revenues”.
The “pre-action petitions” are not formal lawsuits, but seek information and the preservation of relevant documents and information ahead of any future legal action.
In response to Drake’s move, Universal said “the suggestion that UMG would do anything to undermine any of its artists is offensive and untrue”, and that it employed “the highest ethical practices” in its marketing.
It added that “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”.
Industry executives argue that Drake’s case will do little more than highlight the work of Lamar, whose surprise sixth studio album is tipped to enter the top of the Billboard 200 this week despite having been released with little fanfare. Some say the main impact will be a boost to the album’s launch — as well as for streaming plays for “Not Like Us”.
The legal action caps off a momentous year for Lamar, cementing his place as one of the leading hip-hop artists this century, noted both for his eclectic musical talents as well as his ability to examine race, fame and society.
While his rival Drake represents the sheer commerciality of rap music over the past decade, Lamar has cut a more cerebral path, earning accolades for his lyricism on complex topics such as God, grief and racism in America.
Born in 1987 in Compton, the city in LA County, notorious for gang violence, drugs and deprivation that would become a hub for gangster rap, he has spoken of witnessing his first murder at the age of five.
Inspired by an English teacher to take up poetry, by the time he was in high school he was determined to make it as a rapper.
His big break came when pioneering rapper-producer Dr Dre discovered and signed him to Interscope, the renegade record label built in the 1990s off the back of Dre, Snoop Dogg and other California hip hop stars.
The platinum-selling superstar released his first mixtape aged 16 and his debut album Section. 80 in 2011, but it was the next year’s good kid, m.A.A.d city album about growing up in Compton that marked his breakthrough.
Lamar started the feud with Drake in 2013, releasing a track claiming that “I got love for you all, but I’m trying to murder you . . . Trying to make sure your core fans never heard of you”.
To Pimp A Butterfly, Lamar’s 2015 jazz-inspired album, was a major critical hit, and in 2018, he won a Pulitzer Prize for his album DAMN, a first for an artist outside of classical or jazz traditions.
Lamar has become a fashion and cultural icon in the US, telling Harper’s Bazaar in an interview carried out by superstar collaborator SZA: “Information. I want it all. I want the resources. I wanna meet people smarter than me. I wanna talk to them. I want them to show me things. I just wanna be fulfilled with whatever this world has to offer. That shit hypes me up.”
He is also moving in broader business circles now with PGLang, a creative communications company in LA founded in 2020 and owned by Lamar and American filmmaker Dave Free.
The 37-year-old released his surprise album GNX, named after the 1980s Buick car, last Friday. It quickly caught fire on streaming services, drawing almost 300,000 first-week album sales.
“I wanna evolve, place my skillset as a Black exec,” he raps on “heart pt. 6” on his new album. Drake released a Lamar diss track titled “The Heart Part 6” earlier this year.
Having riled his peers by complaining that fellow rapper “Nas [was] the only one congratulate me” on his new album, Lamar is due to headline the Super Bowl LIX halftime show, with many already speculating over what the latest twist in the feud will mean for the set.
One thing for certain is that Drake will not be there to watch. The Canadian star has already revealed plans that evening for his next show, which will be hundreds of miles and several time zones away in Australia.
