The Canadian rapper Drake is not backing down in the war against his own label, in fact he’s now upped the ante by suing Universal Music Group for spreading the “false and malicious narrative” he’s a pedophile.
Drake filed the defamation case on Wednesday Jan 15, '25 in federal court in NYC, ripping UMG for releasing and promoting Kendrick Lamar’s vicious diss track, “Not Like Us.” In the docs, obtained, Drake says UMG knew full well Kendrick’s lyrics, and images in the music video, referring to Drake as a pedophile were false and dangerous.
In the suit he calls Kendrick’s hit — filled with “inflammatory and shocking allegations”— was a “gold mine” for UMG, and he says they had an ulterior financial motive in promoting it.
Drake claims his label was doing everything it could to pump up “Not Like Us” because it knew it would devalue Drake’s music and brand, and therefore give UMG leverage in future contract negotiations with Drake.
Drake says he’s got bot receipts to show just how far the label went to turn Kendrick’s song into an anthem. According to the suit, UMG paid a third party to use bots to increase the song’s streams by at least 30 million — and engaged in a “pay for play” scheme with at least one radio promoter.
He claims UMG attached the label “chart-topper” to “Not Like Us,” despite knowing that title was based on fraudulent data.
