Drake has formalized his contentious battle in opposition to Kendrick Lamar‘s diss monitor “Not Like Us” by going after Common Music Group, submitting a defamation and harassment lawsuit in opposition to the most important music conglomerate on Wednesday.
The Canadian-born rapper, whose actual title is Aubrey Drake Graham, claims UMG “unleashed each weapon in its arsenal” within the firm’s marketing campaign to show the diss-track right into a “viral hit,” in accordance with the 81-page grievance obtained by Rolling Stone. Drake claims the tune itself was “supposed to convey the precise, unmistakable, and false factual allegation that Drake is a felony pedophile.”
Notably, Drake isn’t suing Lamar over the tune and its lyrics, clarifying that the lawsuit “is not in regards to the artist who created “Not Like Us.” As a substitute, he claims taking authorized motion is “fully about UMG, the music firm that determined to publish, promote, exploit, and monetize allegations that it understood weren’t solely false, however harmful.”
“As UMG is aware of and has identified in any respect related instances, the Recording, Picture, and Video’s allegations are unequivocally false,” the court docket papers proceed. “Drake isn’t a pedophile. Drake has by no means engaged in any acts that might require he be ‘positioned on neighborhood watch.’ Drake has by no means engaged in sexual relations with a minor. Drake has by no means been charged with, or convicted of, any felony acts in any way.”
Drake claims UMG defamed him by waging an “unrelenting marketing campaign” to spice up the tune and its false statements as a result of “it understood that the Recording’s inflammatory and stunning allegations have been a gold mine.” (Rolling Stone has contacted Drake’s attorneys for additional remark.)
Representatives for UMG didn’t instantly reply to Rolling Stone’s request for remark. In a earlier assertion, a spokesperson denied Drake’s allegations, “The suggestion that UMG would do something to undermine any of its artists is offensive and unfaithful. We make use of the best moral practices in our advertising and marketing 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.”
The 2 A-list rappers have been duking it out since spring 2024, taking sly swipes at each other in varied tracks. Nonetheless, issues erupted right into a full-blown lyrical conflict when Drake launched “Household Issues” in Might, insinuating that Lamar had cheated on his fiancée and was bodily violent along with her. Lamar instantly responded with the back-to-back drops of “Meet the Grahams” and “Not Like Us,” with the latter’s hook of “Licensed Lover Boy, licensed pedophile” turning into an immediate slam dunk of their feud.
Along with the tune’s lyrics, Drake took offense to the tune’s cowl artwork, which reveals a satellite tv for pc view of his Toronto mansion, crammed with crimson markers which are presumably meant to characterize registered intercourse offenders dwelling on the handle. Figuring out the place Drake lived and accusing him of being a pedophile was the “2024 equal of Pizzagate,” the lawsuit claims.
After the tune’s launch, Drake claims there have been three separate intruder incidents at his dwelling, together with a break-in try and somebody open firing on the property, injuring his safety guard. “These occasions weren’t coincidental,” the lawsuit claims. “UMG’s greed yielded actual world penalties.”
Drake is represented by legal professional Michael J. Gottlieb, who notably represented Washington D.C. pizza store proprietor James Alefantis, whose retailer was focused by a Pizzagate conspiracy theorist who opened fireplace within the store in December 2016.
The lawsuit comes a day after Drake’s firm Frozen Moments voluntarily withdrew his pre-action filings in opposition to UMG and Spotify from November in favor of the brand new federal submitting. Drake initially tried to rope in Spotify in his forthcoming authorized battle, accusing UMG of enacting a “scheme” to make use of bots and payola to spice up the tune on radio and streaming providers. Spotify, in the meantime, was “suggest[ing]” the tune to customers and/or permitting bots to “artificially inflate” the tune’s streams, Drake claimed in court docket filings.
