Drake has settled his payola dispute against iHeartMedia for promoting Kendrick Lamar‘s ‘Not Like Us’.
In November last year, Drake filed a legal dispute against Universal Music Group (UMG) and iHeartMedia over allegations that the latter had received “covert payments” from UMG to play Kendrick Lamar’s ‘Not Like Us’ in an effort to inflate its numbers.
Now, it has been reported that Drake has reached a private settlement with iHeartMedia for the legal dispute. According to a Texas court filing obtained by Rolling Stone, Drake and iHeartMedia have “reached an amicable resolution of the dispute to the satisfaction of both sides”.
Drake speaks onstage during Drake’s Till Death Do Us Part rap battle on October 30, 2021 in Long Beach, California. (Photo by Amy Sussman/Getty Images)
A rep for iHeartMedia said in a statement to Rolling Stone: “In exchange for documents that showed iHeart did nothing wrong, Drake agreed to drop his petition. No payments were made – by either one of us.” Meanwhile, Drake’s team said: “We are pleased that the parties were able to reach a settlement satisfactory to both sides and have no further comment on this matter.”
In the November filing, Drake alleged that UMG “funnelled payments to iHeartRadio and its radio stations as part of a pay-to-play scheme.” iHeartRadio is a subsidiary of iHeartMedia. Per the filing, Drake said that UMG and iHeartMedia had “violated payola laws”, and instead of seeking damages, was only seeking for “oral depositions” from iHeartMedia and UMG’s corporate representatives.
That same month, Drake also filed a legal action against UMG and Spotify for “artificially inflating” the streaming numbers for ‘Not Like Us’ – that lawsuit has since been dropped.
Drake. Credit: Prince Williams/Wireimage
Drake filed a separate lawsuit against UMG in January alleging “defamation”, claiming that UMG knowingly released Kendrick Lamar’s ‘Not Like Us’ and even approved of the song despite Lamar describing Drake and his peers as “certified paedophiles” who should “be registered and placed on neighbourhood watch”. Drake has reportedly since dropped “key allegations” in the case, and UMG has until March 17 to file for a dismissal of the case.
Meanwhile, Kendrick Lamar’s ‘Not Like Us’, smashed numerous streaming records and went on to win five Grammys for Record of the Year, Song of the Year, Best Rap Performance, Best Rap Song, and Best Music Video. He also performed the song at the Super Bowl last month, which directly lead to a 430 per cent boost in the song’s performance on Spotify.
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