Drake is suing the world’s biggest record company — a company to which he himself is signed.
In a federal lawsuit filed Wednesday, the superstar rapper accused Universal Music Group of defamation and harassment for releasing and promoting Kendrick Lamar’s song “Not Like Us,” in which Lamar describes Drake as a pedophile.
“Not Like Us” came out last year at the climax of a well-publicized feud between Drake and Lamar that involved the exchange of more than half a dozen increasingly spiteful diss tracks. Over a festive beat by the veteran Los Angeles producer Mustard, Compton-born Lamar tells Drake, “I hear you like ’em young,” and warns that he “better not ever go to cell block one”; later in the song, Lamar describes what he views as a history of cultural appropriation by Drake, who hails from Canada, before branding him a “f—ing colonizer.”
“Not Like Us” — which followed earlier songs in which the two MCs lobbed accusations of domestic violence and parental neglect — was widely viewed as the knockout blow in the beef. On Spotify, the track has been streamed more than 1 billion times, and it’s nominated for five prizes at next month’s Grammy Awards, including record and song of the year.
Now, Drake (whose real name is Aubrey Graham) says in his lawsuit that Universal Music Group put his life in danger by having “approved, published, and launched a campaign to create a viral hit out of a rap track that falsely accuses Drake of being a pedophile and calls for violent retribution against him.” The suit adds that UMG — which “enriched itself and its shareholders by exploiting Drake’s music for years” — “knew that the salacious allegations against Drake were false” yet “chose corporate greed over the safety and well-being of its artists.”
The complaint cites an incident at Drake’s home in Toronto — a mansion depicted in the cover art for “Not Like Us” as housing registered sex offenders — in which someone shot and injured a security guard days after the release of “Not Like Us.”
Representatives for UMG didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
The suit was brought in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York by a legal team led by Michael J. Gottlieb, who has made headlines in recent years by using defamation law in cases against Rudy Giuliani (after the ally of Donald Trump accused Georgia election workers of trying to steal the 2020 presidential election) and perpetrators of the so-called Pizzagate conspiracy theory in which a Washington, D.C., pizzeria was characterized as a hub for a child sex ring.
Drake’s complaint calls the shooting at the rapper’s home, which it says he brought to UMG’s attention, “the 2024 equivalent of ‘Pizzagate.’ ”
The filing notes that Drake’s lawsuit “is not about the artist who created ‘Not Like Us’ ” but is “entirely about UMG,” with which Drake has been in business as a recording artist since 2009. In the suit, the rapper frames UMG’s promotion of “Not Like Us” — which he’d earlier said involved bots on streaming services and payola-like practices at radio stations — as a means of “devaluing Drake’s music and brand” as he prepares to renegotiate a contract with the record label. By doing so, the suit alleges, “UMG would gain leverage to force Drake to sign a new deal on terms more favorable to UMG.”
