Drake Files Defamation Lawsuit Against Universal Music Group for Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us”

Drake Files Defamation Lawsuit Against Universal Music Group for Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us”

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

According to The New York Times, Drake filed a lawsuit in federal court on Wednesday and called the release of Lamar’s “Not Like Us,” which is aimed at the Canadian rapper, an example of valuing “corporate greed over the safety and well-being of its artists.”

Drake is signed to UMG subsidiary Republic Records, while Lamar is signed to UMG’s Interscope Records. The new lawsuit claims UMG “approved, 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 allegation that Drake is a criminal pedophile, and to suggest that the public should resort to vigilante justice in response.”

Drake’s latest suit comes two months after he claimed UMG and Spotify inflated the streams of “Not Like Us.” But it was reported late Tuesday that he dropped the legal action in that case.

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

Lamar’s “Not Like Us” was one of 2024’s biggest hits. It spent two weeks on top of the all-genre Billboard Hot 100 chart; it spent 20 weeks at No. 1 on the Hot rap songs chart. The song is nominated for five Grammy Awards, including song and record of the year, and it has become an international, cultural anthem and more than a dis track.

Lamar released the anthemic West Coast banger in May after the rappers’ feud resurfaced in March. After going back and forth with dis 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 spectators crowned Lamar the winner of the battle as a result. The beef originated in 2013 when Lamar — who formerly collaborated with Drake and opened for him on tour — sent jabs to 11 of his contemporaries through his guest verse on Big Sean’s “Control.”