Drake accuses record company of using bots to ‘artificially inflate’ Kendrick Lamar’s song ‘Not Like Us’ on Spotify

(CNN) — Musician Drake alleges that Universal Music Group “conspired” to artificially boost Kendrick Lamar’s searing diss track “Not Like Us” on Spotify, according to a pre-action petition submitted to a New York court on Monday.According to a copy of the petition, obtained by CNN, the rapper claims that UMG “launched a campaign to manipulate and saturate the streaming services and airwaves” with Lamar’s song “in order to make that song go viral, including by using ‘bots’ and pay-to-play agreements.”The song, part of what has become a very.public feud between Lamar and the “Hotline Bling” rapper, debuted at No. 1 on the Hot 100 when it was released in May, according to Billboard. It has also amassed almost 900 million streams on Spotify to date, according to the petition.Drake also alleges UMG used these “bots,” which are essentially fake social media accounts, “to artificially inflate the spread of ‘Not Like Us’ and deceive consumers into believing the Song was more popular than it was in reality.”The petition does not accuse Lamar of any wrongdoing.Drake is currently represented by Republic Records, a division of UMG and Lamar is currently represented by Interscope records, also a division of UMG.“The suggestion that UMG...