Drake has filed aagainst Universal Music Group (UMG) for defamation over Kendrick Lamar’s 2024 hit ‘Not Like Us’.
Both Drake (born Aubrey Graham) and Lamar have deals with UMG to publish their music.
The Canadian rapper is alleging that the song suggests he is a paedophile – which he denies – and UMG’s publicity of it is defamatory.
It comes after Drake filed, then withdrew, a legal claim that UMG used bots to inflate the streaming numbers of ‘Not Like Us’.
Background
Early last year, rappers Kendrick Lamar and Drake began exchanging insults through a series of ‘diss tracks’.
The feud soon escalated to personal attacks. For example, Drake released ‘Family Matters’ in May, where he alleged Lamar physically abused his partner.
Within minutes, Lamar released the song ‘meet the grahams’ where he accused Drake of employing sex offenders. The lyrics compared Drake to former film producer and convicted rapist Harvey Weinstein, and urged people to “keep [their] family away” from him.
Not Like Us
The day after releasing ‘meet the grahams’, Lamar dropped ‘Not Like Us’ — the subject of a defamation lawsuit filed by Drake this month.
‘Not Like Us’ topped the Billboard Hot 100 the first week it was eligible. At the time of reporting, it has over a billion streams on Spotify.
Now, Drake alleges Lamar’s song was “intended to convey the specific, unmistakable, and false actual allegation that [he] is a criminal paedophile, and to suggest that the public should resort to vigilante justice in response.“
The song’s lyrics include:
“Drake, I hear you like ‘em young”
“Make sure you hide your little sister from him”
“Trying to strike a chord and it’s probably A minor”
“Certified lover boy? Certified paedophile” — a reference to Drake’s 2021 album.
In the U.S, people convicted of sex crimes are legally required to register their addresses on a central database.
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The single artwork for Not Like Us is an image of Drake’s home in Toronto, Canada. Drake alleges it is edited in a way that suggests people convicted of sex crimes live there.
Lawsuit
While Lamar wrote and produced the song, Drake is suing UMG for defamation.
Lamar and Drake produce music with their own labels, but publish their songs through UMG. Deals of this nature allow artists to retain creative control while handing over administrative processes.
Under these deals,publishes and promotes their artists’ music in exchange for a percentage of streaming/sales revenue.
Drake alleges UMG publicised ‘Not Like Us’ as much as possible, for profit.
“This lawsuit is not about the artist who created ‘Not Like Us’. It is, instead, entirely about UMG [which] decided to publish, promote, exploit, and monetize allegations that it understood were not only false, but dangerous,” legal documents say.
Drake alleges UMG worked to make the song “ubiquitous,” so “it is not just fans of rap music who now believe that Drake is a ‘certified paedophile’.”
He also alleges UMG organised for Lamar to perform the song at next month’s Super Bowl halftime show.
Days after ‘Not Like Us’ was released, the Toronto home featured in the single artwork was attacked by a group of armed men. The lawsuit says one man “shot and wounded a security guard, who was also one of Drake’s friends.”
The shooting was covered by international media at the time, but few details were known. Now, Drake alleges it was directly related to ‘Not Like Us’. The rapper also said the shooting was followed by two attempted break-ins.
“Drake informed UMG of the tangible harm [Not Like Us] caused him… UMG still chose money over the safety and wellbeing of its artists”, the lawsuit says.
Response
UMG said it plans to fight the lawsuit.
In a statement to U.S. outlet Variety, UMG said: “Drake has intentionally and successfully used UMG to… engage in conventionally outrageous back-and-forth ‘rap battles’ to express his feelings about other artists.
“He now seeks to weaponise the legal process to silence an artist’s creative expression and to seek damages from UMG for distributing that artist’s music.”
Lamar has not responded.
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