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Drake sues Universal Music for defamation related to Kendrick Lamar diss track 'Not Like Us'

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Drake sues Universal Music for defamation related to Kendrick Lamar diss track 'Not Like Us'
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Drake sues Universal Music for defamation related to Kendrick Lamar diss track 'Not Like Us'

2025-01-16 05:22 Last Updated At:05:32

A hip-hop superstar beef was cranked up another notch Wednesday when Drake sued Universal Music Group for defamation over rival Kendrick Lamar's diss track “Not Like Us.”

The lawsuit, filed in federal court in New York City, alleges UMG — the parent record label for Drake and Lamar — published and promoted the track even though it included false pedophilia allegations against Drake and suggested listeners should resort to vigilante justice. Lamar is not named in the suit.

The result, the suit says, was intruders shooting a security guard and two attempted break-ins at Drake’s Toronto home, online hate and harassment, a hit to his reputation and a decrease in his brand's value before his contract renegotiation with UMG this year.

“The lawsuit is not about the artist who created ‘Not Like Us,’" the lawsuit says, referring to Lamar. “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.”

The suit later alleges, “UMG did so because it understood that the Recording's inflammatory and shocking allegations were a gold mine.”

And, the suit claims, the music company has made large investments and used its connections to arrange for “Not Like Us” to be performed at next month's Super Bowl, where Lamar will be the halftime entertainment.

The lawsuit, which is seeking a trial and an undisclosed amount of money for damages, also repeated allegations in other legal filings that UMG falsely pumped up the popularity of “Not Like Us” on streaming services.

The track is nominated for five Grammys, including record of the year and song of the year.

UMG disputed the lawsuit's allegations in a statement Wednesday afternoon.

“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," the company said. “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.”

The company added: “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. ”

Representatives for Lamar did not respond to emails seeking comment.

The feud between Drake, a 38-year-old Canadian rapper and singer and five-time Grammy winner whose full name is Aubrey Drake Graham, and Lamar, a 37-year-old Pulitzer Prize winner, is among the biggest in hip-hop in recent years, with two of the genre’s biggest stars at its center.

The two were occasional collaborators more than a decade ago, but Lamar began taking public jabs at Drake starting in 2013. The fight escalated steeply last year.

Drake's lawyers, from New York-based Willkie Farr & Gallagher, said the lawsuit seeks to hold UMG accountable for knowingly promoting false and defamatory allegations against him. They said the shooting and break-in attempts at Drake's home, and the online vitriol, prompted him to move his family out of the house, and that he fears for his and their safety.

“Beginning on May 4, 2024 and every day since, UMG has used its massive resources as the world’s most powerful music company to elevate a dangerous and inflammatory message that was designed to assassinate Drake’s character, and led to actual violence at Drake’s doorstep,” the law firm said in a statement.

“This lawsuit reveals the human and business consequences to UMG’s elevation of profits over the safety and well-being of its artists, and shines a light on the manipulation of artists and the public for corporate gain,” it said.

FILE - Rapper Kendrick Lamar appears at the MTV Video Music Awards, on Aug. 27, 2017, in Inglewood, Calif., left, and Canadian rapper Drake appears at the premiere of the series "Euphoria," in Los Angeles on June 4, 2019. (AP Photo, File)

FILE - Rapper Kendrick Lamar appears at the MTV Video Music Awards, on Aug. 27, 2017, in Inglewood, Calif., left, and Canadian rapper Drake appears at the premiere of the series "Euphoria," in Los Angeles on June 4, 2019. (AP Photo, File)

Next Article

Uganda president holds talks with South Sudanese leaders to try to avoid civil war

2025-04-04 21:26 Last Updated At:21:30

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni was expected to meet South Sudanese officials on the second day of his trip to the capital, Juba, as the U.N has expressed concern of a renewed civil war after the main opposition leader was put under house arrest.

Museveni, who is among the guarantors of a 2018 peace agreement that ended a five-year civil war, held closed-door discussions with President Salva Kiir on Thursday. South Sudan’s Foreign Minister Mohammed Abdallah Goc said that the country’s leadership had assured Museveni of its commitment to implement the peace agreement.

South Sudan’s political landscape remains fragile and recent violence between government troops and armed groups allied to the opposition have escalated tension.

Uganda last month deployed troops to South Sudan to support the government, but it was criticized by South Sudan’s main opposition party SPLM-IO, whose leader Riek Machar is under house arrest on charges of incitement.

In early March, the armed group loyal to Machar attacked a U.N helicopter that was on a mission to evacuate government troops from the restive northern Upper Nile State.

Western countries including Germany and Norway have temporarily closed their embassies in Juba while the U.S and the U.K. have reduced embassy staff.

In this image made from video, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, left, shakes hands with his South Sudan counterpart Salva Kiir in Juba, South Sudan, Friday, April 4, 2025. (AP Photo)

In this image made from video, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, left, shakes hands with his South Sudan counterpart Salva Kiir in Juba, South Sudan, Friday, April 4, 2025. (AP Photo)

South Sudan soldiers patrol the street in Juba, South Sudan on Thursday, Feb. 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Brian Inganga)

South Sudan soldiers patrol the street in Juba, South Sudan on Thursday, Feb. 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Brian Inganga)

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