RAPPER Drake has filed a new lawsuit against his record label, accusing it of pushing an “inflammatory and dangerous narrative” by promoting rival Kendrick Lamar’s diss track.
The federal defamation suit, filed in New York on Wednesday, criticizes Universal Music Group for releasing and broadcasting Lamar’s Not Like Us song.
In the suit, Drake said Universal Music Group (UMG) “knew full well” the lyrics, images, and music video by the Compton rapper accused him of being a pedophile, according to TMZ.
Drake claimed Universal Music Group went to great lengths to turn Lamar’s diss track into a “chart-topping” anthem.
The Canadian rapper, born Aubrey Drake Graham, also said the record label played a role in ensuring Lamar headlined the upcoming Super Bowl halftime show, the lawsuit read.
Drake claimed the reason behind the big game slot is for Lamar to perform the diss track on the massive stage, which he calls “one of the most significant (and viewed) cultural events of the year.”
“This lawsuit is not about the artist who created ‘Not Like Us,'” the suit read.
“It is, instead, entirely about UMG, the music company that decided to publish, promote, exploit, and monetize” the song.
The lawsuit added that UMG’s campaign was “intended to convey the specific, unmistakable, and false factual allegation that Drake is a criminal pedophile, and to suggest that the public should resort to vigilante justice in response.”
The complaint noted that the cover art for Not Like Us features a photo of Drake’s home in Toronto dotted with markers meant to represent the presence of registered sex offenders.
Drake also raised concerns about how the song sparked violent people to flock to his mansion.
MANSION ‘BESIEGED’
Just hours after the song was released, a shooting unfolded at his home in May, where one of his security guards was nearly killed, according to court documents obtained by the Daily Mail.
The lawsuit disclosed new details about the incident when a car with an armed group inside stopped in front of the rapper’s mansion and someone yelled, “F**k Drake,” before shots rang out.
[bc_video account_id=”5067014667001″ application_id=”” aspect_ratio=”16:9″ autoplay=”” caption=”Shooting yards from Drake’s Toronto house leaves one man in hospital after cops rush to wealthy Bridle Path neighborhood” embed=”in-page” experience_id=”” height=”100%” language_detection=”” max_height=”360px” max_width=”640px” min_width=”0px” mute=”” padding_top=”56%” picture_in_picture=”” player_id=”pV1KxHf2t” playlist_id=”” playsinline=”” sizing=”responsive” video_id=”6352469312112″ video_ids=”” width=”640px”]“Drake and others in the house summoned help for the security guard and did everything possible to keep him alive,” the filing read, describing how a bullet struck one of Drake’s guards.
The suit also detailed how another bullet went through Drake’s security gate and hit the residence’s front door.
“During the nearly thirty minutes it took for the ambulance to arrive, Drake and others labored to keep the man alive by applying pressure to the gunshot wound with towels. Blood was everywhere.”
The guard spent several days in the hospital and survived, according to the filing, but the shooter was never caught.
The day after the shooting, an intruder “used his bare hands” to dig under the security fence surrounding Drake’s home, the docs said.
The intruder got inside the rapper’s mansion and reportedly yelled out racist sluts and threats against Drake before he was escorted out.
Drake also said another break-in attempt happened the next night – making it three nights in a row.
[boxout headline=”DRAKE & KENDRICK FEUD TIMELINE” intro=”On October 6, 2023, Drake and J. Cole released First Person Shooter, in which J. Cole claimed that himself, Drake, and Kendrick are the “big three” of hip-hop.”]On March 22, 2024, Kendrick responded to the claim of a “big three” in his verse on Metro Boomin and Future’s song Like That, where he instead stated, “It’s just big me,” and accused both rappers of sneak dissing.
On April 5, 2024, J. Cole dropped his Kendrick diss track, 7 Minute Drill, in which he fired “warning shots” at the rapper as he accused the good kid, m.A.A.d city artist of seeking “attention” and slammed his latest music releases as “tragic.”
But on April 7, 2024, two days after releasing the Kendrick diss, J. Cole retracted his statement and backed out of the feud, as he stated he felt pressured to respond because “the world wanna see blood.”
On April 13, 2024, Drake responded to Kendrick with Push Ups, which had lyrics ridiculing Kendrick’s height and his mainstream collaborations with Taylor Swift and Maroon 5.
The track also dissed rappers Future and Rick Ross and producer Metro Boomin.
On April 19, 2024, Drake dropped another diss track, Taylor Made Freestyle, that used AI-generated voices of Snoop Dogg and the late Tupac Shakur to pressure Kendrick to respond.
On April 30, 2024, Kendrick dropped Euphoria, a six-minute diss track, in which he criticized Drake’s biracial identity, questioned the rapper’s ability as a father, and claimed that Drake is a “scam artist.”
On May 1, 2024, Drake responded to Kendrick’s diss by posting a clip from the 1999 film 10 Things I Hate About You on his Instagram Story in which Julia Stiles’ character Kat lists the reasons she hates Heath Ledger’s character Patrick – mirroring a Euphoria bar where Lamar provides reasons he hates Drake.
On May 3, 2024, Kendrick dropped a second Drake diss track, 6:16 in LA in which Kendrick alleges Drake’s own team is working against him as he rapped, “Everyone inside your team is whispering that you deserve it,” and stated Drake “can’t Toosie Slide up out of this one.”
After Drake responded with his diss track Family Matters, where he called accused Kendrick of infidelity, the Humble hitmaker would release Meet the Grahams, his fourth diss track against the Canadian rapper.
In November, Drake, 38, began a petition against UMG in state court in New York and Texas, where he also accused Spotify and radio corporation iHeartRadio of participating in an “illegal scheme” to boost numbers for Lamar’s diss song.
The petition, which was never filed as a full lawsuit but rather a pre-action move, also accused UMG of “engaging in conduct designed to artificially inflate the popularity of ‘Not Like Us.'”
In the New York pre-action filing, Drake accused UMG, Spotify, and iHeartRadio of using a third party to use bots to increase the streams for Lamar’s track.
On Tuesday, Drake withdrew the pre-action filing in New York against UMG and Spotify and instead decided in favor of a federal lawsuit.
The federal suit against UMG mentions the record label’s alleged scheme to promote Not Like Us using bots and payola.
Drake accused UMG of “valuing corporate greed over the safety and well-being of its artists.”
Both Drake and Lamar are signed to Universal Music Group.
A hearing in Texas, which includes iHeartMusic, was delayed until late January.
Universal Music Group called Drake’s claims untrue and said the rapper has successfully used the record label to “distribute his music and poetry” to engage in “rap battles.”
“Not only are these claims untrue, but the notion that we would seek to harm the reputation of any artist—let alone Drake—is illogical,” UMG said in a statement to The U.S. Sun.
“We have invested massively in his music and our employees around the world have worked tirelessly for many years to help him achieve historic commercial and personal financial success.
“Throughout his career, Drake has intentionally and successfully used UMG to distribute his music and poetry to engage in conventionally outrageous back-and-forth ‘rap battles’ to express his feelings about other artists.
“He now seeks to weaponize the legal process to silence an artist’s creative expression and to seek damages from UMG for distributing that artist’s music.
“We have not and do not engage in defamation—against any individual.
“At the same time, we will vigorously defend this litigation to protect our people and our reputation, as well as any artist who might directly or indirectly become a frivolous litigation target for having done nothing more than write a song.”
RAP WAR
The two rappers have been involved in a vicious and bitter war since last March when Lamar unleashed daggers at both Drake and J. Cole during an appearance on Metro Boomin’s track Like That.
The boiling tension between the two erupted into a full-on rap beef when Drake responded to Lamar with a pair of diss songs, including Push Ups and Taylor Made Freestyle.
Lamar clapped back with the release of Euphoria and 6:16 in LA, where he attacked Drake’s parenting and claims that the Canadian rapper had plastic surgery.
Drake responded with a nearly eight-minute track, Family Matters, which suggested Lamar’s child was actually fathered by his manager, Dave Free.
However, Lamar wasted little time responding, releasing Meet the Grahrams and Not Like Us less than 24 hours after Drake premiered Family Matters.
In Not Like Us, Lamar accuses Drake of being a pedophile, “Certified Lover Boy, certified pedophiles / Say, Drake, I hear you like ’em young / You better not ever go to cell block one / Tryna strike a chord and it’s probably A-minor.”
Not Like Us shot to the top of the Billboard singles chart and has been streamed more than one billion times on Spotify alone.
The song has been nominated for five Grammy Awards at the upcoming award show, including Record and Song of the Year.
