Drake has withdrawn the legal action against Spotify and Universal Music Group (UMG) that he filed last November, accusing the companies of artificially inflating streams of Kendrick Lamar's immensely popular diss track "Not Like Us."
As Variety reports, the rapper and his Frozen Moments company withdrew the order to show cause, seeking pre-action disclosure, as well as the preservation of select documents and communications from Spotify and UMG, in a filing in the state of New York yesterday (January 15).
The document goes on to explain that Drake met with representatives from the streaming service — which had filed an opposition to his claims in December — earlier that day and they "had no objection" to the rapper's withdrawal and discontinuance.
UMG, Drake's own label, having publicly denied his allegations but never filed an opposition, reserved its position. The company said after the initial filing of the petition that the rapper's accusations that bots had been used to boost streams of "Not Like Us" and that it had been licensed at a reduced rate were "offensive and untrue."
Drake's second legal action against UMG and iHeartRadio over similar allegations that the label "funnelled" payments to promote the song at radio as part of a "pay-to-play scheme" (and defamation, since Lamar's song "falsely accused" him of being a sex offender) was filed in Texas court, and remains ongoing.