Drake accused Universal Music Group of endangering his life and reputation by releasing and promoting the well-known diss track in a court complaint filed on Wednesday.
Rappers Drake and Kendrick Lamar accused one another of being fake, hypocritical, and abusive during a bitter back-and-forth flurry of diss recordings last year. While fans hailed Lamar’s number-one single ‘Not Like Us’ as the decisive blow in the fight, Drake viewed the song’s pedophilia-referencing punchlines as something much more sinister, with practical repercussions.
Rapper Aubrey Drake Graham filed a lawsuit in federal court on Wednesday, alleging defamation and harassment against Universal Music Group, the record label that released both of his songs, for releasing and promoting ‘Not Like Us’ in a way that prioritized corporate greed over the safety and well-being of its artists.
Universal is accused in the lawsuit, which was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, of having 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.
The complaint mentions a shooting at Drake’s Toronto home days after the song’s release that injured a security guard, referring to it as the 2024 equivalent of ‘Pizzagate’, and mentions two additional attempted trespassers. It also notes that the cover art for Not Like Us shows a picture of Drake’s house marked with markers that indicate the presence of registered sex offenders.
Michael J. Gottlieb, a partner at Willkie Farr & Gallagher, filed the lawsuit on Drake’s behalf. Gottlieb has previously defended the proprietor of the Washington pizzeria that was the target of the ‘Pizzagate’ conspiracy theorists and the election workers who Rudolph W. Giuliani falsely accused of supporting a scheme to rig the 2020 presidential election.
Universal Music Group referred to the allegations as ‘illogical’ and ‘untrue’ in a statement released on Wednesday, citing its established and prosperous business partnership with Drake.
In order to assist him reach historic commercial and personal financial success, the label stated, We have made massive investments in his music and our employees around the world have worked tirelessly for many years. Drake has purposefully and effectively used UMG to distribute his poetry and music throughout his career, participating in customarily ridiculous back-and-forth ‘rap battles’ to vent his frustrations with other musicians. He now aims to use the legal system as a weapon to stifle artistic expression and sue UMG for disseminating that artist’s work.
Universal further stated that it would defend ‘any artist who might directly or indirectly become a frivolous litigation target for having done nothing more than write a letter’ and fight the matter separately.
