SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. (AP) — Former NHL player and TNT hockey analyst Paul Bissonnette was assaulted by several men during an altercation at a Scottsdale steakhouse on Sunday night.
Bissonnette posted a video on X on Monday describing the incident, saying he tried to intervene when one member of the group got in the manager's face and started grabbing him after his friend was asked to leave.
“You could tell by his face he (the manager) was a little shocked and surprised and stunned,” Bissonnette said. “It's a family restaurant and there wasn't anyone there who could maybe go help him out, so I went over, grabbed the guy and said: ‘sir, if you’re going to assault and harass the staff, we're going to have problems.'”
Bissonnette said members of the group started throwing punches in a fight that started in the restaurant, spilled into the parking lot and to a nearby store. Bissonnette said he was kicked in the head three times and took several punches while landing several blows of his own against seven men.
Scottsdale police arrested six men who are accused of assault and disorderly conduct.
Bissonnette played in the NHL from 2008-14, spending his final six seasons with the Arizona Coyotes before moving on to a broadcasting career.
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FILE - Phoenix Coyotes' Paul Bissonnette passes the puck against the Colorado Avalanche during the second period of an NHL hockey game Thursday, Nov. 21, 2013, in Glendale, Ariz. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin, File)
FILE - Phoenix Coyotes left winger Paul Bissonnette, left, and Colorado Avalanche defenseman Erik Johnson, right, compete for the puck in the third period of an NHL hockey game, April 6, 2013, in Glendale, Ariz. (AP Photo/Paul Connors, File)
Drake alleged in a court filing Monday that Universal Music Group falsely pumped up the popularity on Spotify and other streaming services of Kendrick Lamar's “Not Like Us," a song that viciously attacked Drake amid a bitter feud between the two hip-hop superstars.
The petition in a New York court by the rapper's company Frozen Moments LLC demands the preservation and divulgence of information that might be evidence in a potential lawsuit against UMG, which is the distributor for the record labels of both Drake and Lamar.
In allegations that UMG calls “offensive and untrue,” the filing says the record company “launched a campaign to manipulate and saturate the streaming services and airwaves with a song, ‘Not Like Us,’ in order to make that song go viral, including by using ‘bots’ and pay-to-play agreements.” It said the company and Spotify “have a long-standing, symbiotic business relationship” and alleges that UMG offered special licensing rates to Spotify for the song.
The petition also says UMG has fired employees seen as loyal to Drake "in an apparent effort to conceal its schemes."
Universal Music Group said in a statement in response that the "suggestion that UMG would do anything to undermine any of its artists is offensive and untrue. We employ the highest ethical practices in our marketing and promotional campaigns. 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.”
“Not Like Us,” the wildly popular Lamar single released in May as part of a flurry of dueling tracks by the two artists, includes the lyrics, “Say, Drake, I hear you like ’em young, You better not ever go to cell block one.” It has gotten more than 900 million plays, according to figures listed on Spotify.
Spotify representatives declined immediate comment, but in a statement on a previous case, the company said it “invests heavily in automated and manual reviews to prevent, detect, and mitigate the impact of artificial streaming on our platform,” and in broader public statements has said it has gone to great lengths to mitigate the effects of bad actors on streaming numbers and royalties.
The feud between Drake, a 38-year-old Canadian rapper and singer and five-time Grammy winner, and Lamar, a 37-year-old Pulitzer Prize winner who is set to headline the next Super Bowl halftime, is among the biggest in hip-hop in recent years, with two of the genre's biggest stars at its center.
The two were occasional collaborators more than a decade ago, but Lamar began taking public jabs at Drake starting in 2013. The fight escalated steeply earlier this year. The move to court, while not yet a lawsuit, still represents a major escalation of the feud and involves some of the biggest business partners of both men.
FILE - Rapper Kendrick Lamar appears at the MTV Video Music Awards, on Aug. 27, 2017, in Inglewood, Calif., left, and Canadian rapper Drake appears at the premiere of the series "Euphoria," in Los Angeles on June 4, 2019. (AP Photo, File)
