Drake files defamation suit against UMG over Kendrick Dis Track

On By Littum

Drake has filed a defamation lawsuit against Universal Music Group, the parent record label to which he and Kendrick Lamar are signed.

According to New York TimesDrake filed a lawsuit in federal court on Wednesday, calling the release of Lamar’s “Not Like Us,” which targets the Canadian rapper, an example of valuing “corporate greed over the safety and well-being of their artists.”

Drake is signed to UMG subsidiary Republic Records, while Lamar is signed to UMG’s Interscope Records. The new lawsuit alleges that UMG “authorized, published and launched a campaign to create a viral hit out of a rap track” that was “intended to convey the specific, unmistakable and false factual claim that Drake is a criminal pedophile , and to suggest that the public should resort to vigilante justice in response.”

Drake’s latest trope comes two months after he claimed that UMG and Spotify inflated the flow of “Not Like Us.” But it was announced late on Tuesday that he dropped the trial in that case.

“This lawsuit is not about the artist who created ‘Not Like Us,’” the new suit claims, according to the NYT. “Instead, it is all about UMG, the music company, that decided to publish, promote, exploit and monetize claims that it understood to be not only false, but dangerous.”

Lamar’s “Not Like Us” was one of 2024’s biggest hits. It spent two weeks atop the all-genre Billboard Hot 100 chart; it spent 20 weeks at No. 1 on the Hot Rap Songs chart. Nominated for five Grammy Awards, including Song and Record of the Year, the song has become an international, cultural anthem and more than a diss track.

Lamar released the anthemic West Coast banger in May after the rappers’ feud reignited in March. After going back and forth with his songs, Lamar dropped “Not Like Us,” calling Drake a pedophile and accusing him of appropriating black culture. The upbeat DJ Mustard-produced track set streaming records, and viewers crowned Lamar the winner of the match as a result. The beef arose in 2013 when Lamar — who previously collaborated with Drake and opened for him on tour — sent jabs at 11 of his contemporaries through his guest verse on Big Sean’s “Control.”