Drake Files Defamation Suit Against UMG Over ‘Not Like Us’

Rapper Drake has altered his course of assault in opposition to Common Music Group, now going after the media conglomerate for defamation lower than 12 hours after pulling a previous petition.

The Canadian celebrity simply filed a brand new go well with in New York Metropolis, claiming that UMG’s promotion of Kendrick Lamar’s mega-hit “Not Like Us” helped to push a “false and malicious narrative” that labels the “Finest I Ever Had” performer as a pedophile.

Drake and Lamar are presently signed to the father or mother label by way of subsidiaries Republic Information (Drake) and Interscope Information (Lamar).

Within the go well with, filed Wednesday morning, Drake calls out UMG for being extra involved with “company greed over the protection and well-being of its artists” by permitting Lamar’s “Not Like Us” to be launched.

Through courtroom paperwork, the performer, born Aubrey Drake Graham, alleges UMG “authorized, revealed, and launched a marketing campaign to create a viral hit out of ‘Not Like Us’” that was “meant to convey the particular, unmistakable and false factual allegation that Drake is a legal pedophile, and to counsel that the general public ought to resort to vigilante justice in response.”

For the reason that tune’s launch, there was a bevy of shootings close to and round Drake’s Toronto dwelling, together with one which noticed a bodyguard of Drake’s turn into injured.

Lamar launched “Not Like Us” in Could 2024 because the final of 5 responses to Drake in a drawn-out feud that was reignited that March.

In his tune, the “Humble” rapper alludes to previous allegations in opposition to Drake concerning his shut friendships with a number of younger girls, together with “Stranger Issues” star Millie Bobbie Brown.

Lamar additionally questions the Canadian entertainer’s place in Black tradition, referring to Drake in “Not Like Us” as a “f-cking colonizer,” amongst different issues.

Inside days, the tune turned one of many largest hits of 2024. It hit No. 1 on the Billboard Scorching 100, the place it stayed for 2 weeks, and the highest spot on Billboard’s Scorching Rap Songs Chart, the place it remained for 20 weeks.

Per The Hollywood Reporter, Lamar will not be among the many claimants being sued by Drake, regardless of being the only real lyricist of “Not Like Us.”

“[This suit is] completely about UMG,” the courtroom docs proceed, “the music firm that determined to publish, promote, exploit, and monetize allegations that it understood weren’t solely false, however harmful.”

Drake’s new submitting comes lower than a day after he withdrew a earlier petition in opposition to UMG and streaming app Spotify for participating in unlawful ways to “enhance” numbers for “Not Like Us.”

First filed in November, the petition, thought-about a “pre-action” transfer and never a full go well with, purported that UMG and Spotify “engaged in conduct designed to artificially inflate the recognition of “Not Like Us.’”

This included, “licensing the tune at drastically lowered charges to Spotify, and utilizing ‘bots’ to generate the misunderstanding that the tune was extra widespread than it was in actuality.”

UMG fired again in an announcement to Variety, calling Drake’s accusations meritless.

“The suggestion that UMG would do something to undermine any of its artists is offensive and unfaithful,” it reads. “We make use of the very best moral practices in our advertising and promotional campaigns. No quantity of contrived and absurd authorized arguments on this pre-action submission can masks the truth that followers select the music they need to hear.”

Spotify would reply to Drake’s claims by way of a counterclaim in December, noting that they’d “no financial incentive” to drive customers to stream “Not Like Us” greater than they selected to, and “have by no means had any association through which UMG ‘charged Spotify licensing charges 30 p.c decrease than its standard licensing charges for ‘Not Like Us.’”

In response, Drake’s authorized staff accused Spotify of making an attempt to “distance themselves” from UMG.

“If Spotify and UMG don’t have anything to cover, then they need to be completely high-quality complying with this fundamental discovery request,” they’d add.

Drake and his firm, Frozen Moments, would voluntarily withdraw their petition late Tuesday “with out prices to any occasion.”

Although Drake and Lamar’s feud had been brewing for a while, it was Drake who precipitated the matter to accentuate.

On Could 3, 2024, he launched the controversial monitor, “Household Issues,” which featured accusations of Lamar bodily assaulting and dishonest on his spouse, and rumors of certainly one of Lamar’s kids being fathered by one other man.

It might be these darkish allegations that pushed Lamar to report three songs in retaliation – “6:16 In LA,” “Meet the Grahams,” and his last response, “Not Like Us.”