The Radio personality has slapped Drake with “Donkey of the Day” for filling a defamation lawsuit against 'Universal Music Group,' & the radio station he works for iHeartRadio.
Charlamagne calls Drake a “Whole Hoe,” & says Drizzy’s is mad that Kendrick Lamar kicked his a** Lyrically, Spiritually, Mentally, and Emotionally.
C harlamagne Tha God took issue with the OVO founder after Drizzy accused several music giants of defamation and illegally boosting the diss track’s popularity.
The Breakfast Club dubbed Drake “Donkey of the Day” on Monday (Dec. 2.), Why? Because the Toronto rapper has filed court documents accusing music conglomerate Universal Music Group and streaming service Spotify of conspiring to artificially inflate Kendrick Lamar's “Not Like Us” numbers by means of bots and payola. Drake's company, Future Moments, LLC, filed a pre-action petition in New York Supreme.
However this is a pre-action petition, which is filed in order to gather information for a potential lawsuit. Drake's company has yet to officially sue the music companies.
Take a look at the breakdown of Drake’s potential lawsuit against UMG and Spotify and all the shocking allegations below.
The Allegations:
The pre-action petition claims Spotify "launched a campaign to manipulate and saturate the streaming services and airwaves" with "Not Like Us" in order to ensure the song went viral by means of bots, pay-to-play agreements and false advertising.
UMG charged Spotify a 30 percent lower licensing rate in exchange for Spotify recommending the song to users who are searching for unrelated content. Neither company disclosed this licensing agreement.
UMG, through Interscope, paid third parties to use software programs (bots) to inflate "Not Like Us" and trick consumers into believing the song was more popular than it actually was.
An unknown individual revealed on a DJ Akademiks livestream that Kendrick's "label" paid him $2,500 via a third party to help jumpstart the song's campaign with bots. This individual claims they were offered another $2,500 and a percentage of the song's sales.
UMG hired third parties to inflate the numbers of the "Not Like Us" music video with bots.
UMG paid Apple Inc. to have Siri purposely misdirect users to "Not Like Us" when they asked the digital assistant to pull up Drake's Certified Lover Boy album.
UMG engaged in payola with independent radio promotors who forwarded the funds to radio stations and radio employees to play "Not Like Us."
UMG paid the NFR Podcast, a popular X account and YouTube account, to promote the single without disclosing payment.
In an unprecedented move, UMG removed the "Not Like Us" copyright restrictions on YouTube and Twitch in order to incentivize influencers to spread the song.
UMG's scheme was allegedly motivated "by the desire of executives at Interscope to maximize their own profits." UMG executives reportedly have an annual incentive program pursuant to which they are rewarded for meeting and surpassing sales and profits projections, among other metrics. The incentives are largely based on the specific UMG division, rather than the performance of UMG more generally. The example cited is that the annual incentive or bonus of Interscope’s CEO, John Janick, is based 90 percent on the financial success of Interscope and only 10 percent on the financial success of UMG generally. Interscope is where Kendrick Lamar is signed.
UMG terminated employees who had an affiliation and loyalty to Drake.
UMG refused to engage in negotiations after Drake notified them of the economic harm the song was having on his image and instead suggested he take legal action against Kendrick Lamar. The company threatened to take legal action against Kendrick Lamar if Drake sued them.
Drake believes he has a cause for a civil RICO case because of alleged "predicate acts of wire fraud, mail fraud, and/or bribery for UMG’s payments to unknown third parties in the form of reduced licensing fees to Spotify."
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