Tag: kendrick lamar

Almost one year exactly, Future and Metro Boomin’s album We Don’t Trust You came out. Immediately, everyone gravitated towards the song “Like That,” which contained a surprise feature from Kendrick Lamar. Kendrick’s feature on “Like That” came after years of back-and-forth sneak-disses and not-so-veiled threats and insults between Kendrick and Drake. Before that song, it had mostly been a Cold War between Drake and Kendrick, but “Like That” went off like a bomb, destroying any semblance of peaceful coexistence. What followed was one of the greatest rap beefs of all time, with Kendrick coming out the clear and unquestionable victor: “Not Like Us” is one of the most successful diss records of all time (if not THE most successful); NLU won multiple Grammys, including Song of the Year and Record of the Year; Kendrick then performed NLU (and Euphoria!!) at the Super Bowl.

Making Kendrick’s victory even sweeter is the fact that Drake is a suckbaby loser who started suing everybody BUT Kendrick in the wake of his rap-beef loss. Earlier this month, Drake ended up “settling” with iHeartMedia after he sued them and accused them of participating in a payola system to promote NLU. Drake’s incel bro fans tried to say that iHeartMedia gave him a financial settlement – that is a lie. Drake dropped the lawsuit after iHeart provided their receipts to show that there was no payola needed for “Not Like Us,” that the song was a huge hit organically. Well, now UMG is trying to get Drake’s lawsuit thrown out. UMG distributed both sides of the rap beef – Kendrick’s music is distributed through pgLang then Interscope then UMG. Drake’s music goes through OVO Sound, then Santa Anna Label Group, then UMG. UMG didn’t play favorites as the beef was happening last year, which was the right thing to do – let it play out, let the fans decide who won and who lost. The fans decided, and Drake didn’t like the outcome, so he sued UMG. Now UMG is getting as petty as possible.

Universal Music Group has filed a scathing motion to dismiss Drake‘s New York lawsuit against them for promoting Kendrick Lamar‘s “Not Like Us,” stating that he’s only suing because he “lost a rap battle” and took legal action to “salve his wounds.”

The motion, filed earlier today and reviewed by Variety, took a cutting approach to making the case for dismissal, claiming that Drake “lost a rap battle that he provoked and in which he willingly participated. Instead of accepting the loss like the unbothered rap artist he often claims to be, he has sued his own record label in a misguided attempt to salve his wounds. Plaintiff’s Complaint is utterly without merit and should be dismissed with prejudice.”

The filing notes that Drake himself signed a public petition less than three years ago criticizing “the trend of prosecutors using artists’ creative expression against them” by interpreting rap lyrics as fact. “Drake was right then and is wrong now,” reads the motion. “Complaint’s unjustified claims against UMG are no more than Drake’s attempt to save face for his unsuccessful rap battle with Lamar.”

In its motion to dismiss, Universal is arguing that Drake fails to make a claim for defamation in his suit, stating that it’s a double standard to expect them to promote his diss tracks against Lamar and not vice versa. The motion adds that “Not Like Us” “conveys nonactionable opinion and rhetorical hyperbole, not fact,” meaning they can’t be accused of acting with malice, and further claims that there’s no basis for the suit since Drake failed to state a claim for “harassment in the second degree” and under New York General Business Law.

In a statement shared with Variety, Drake’s attorney Michael Gottlieb says, “UMG wants to pretend that this is about a rap battle in order to distract its shareholders, artists and the public from a simple truth: a greedy company is finally being held responsible for profiting from dangerous misinformation that has already resulted in multiple acts of violence. This motion is a desperate ploy by UMG to avoid accountability, but we have every confidence that this case will proceed and continue to uncover UMG’s long history of endangering, abusing and taking advantage of its artists.”

[From Variety]

“A greedy company is finally being held responsible for profiting from dangerous misinformation” – motherf–ker, you claimed that Kendrick beats his wife! You claimed that Kendrick’s wife/partner, Whitney Alford, had given birth to Dave Free’s child. You were also too stupid to understand Kendrick’s Mr. Morale album and you wrongly claimed that Kendrick was molested as a child. DANGEROUS MISINFORMATION??? Anyway, possibly the best part of UMG’s filing is when they list all of the reasons why Kendrick’s “certified loverboy/certified PDFile” bar didn’t come out of left field. UMG was like “Misinformation, you say? Here are all the receipts on Drake’s extremely questionable relations with minors.”

“When she was, you know, a minor”. ???????????? pic.twitter.com/1XQbdFbRQk

— LOVE (@LoveIsback24) March 17, 2025

UMG presents exhibits M through Q – A deep dive into Drake’s questionable history with minors ???? pic.twitter.com/GUemUue6zf

— Raven Birdie ???? (@birdie_raven7) March 17, 2025

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid, Drake’s IG.

As we discussed this week, Drake decided to withdraw his legal petitions against UMG (Universal Music Group) and Spotify. He sent the notices last fall, basically accusing UMG and Spotify of artificially inflating Kendrick Lamar’s numbers for Kendrick’s diss songs against Drake in the spring of 2024. Drake’s argument was convoluted – he basically argued that UMG and Spotify “helped” Kendrick game the system, and “Not Like Us” wouldn’t have been an organic song of the year on its own, it needed UMG and Spotify to push the song down people’s throats. Which wasn’t the way it actually went down, at all. In any case, Drake and Spotify walked away from that, but UMG was basically like… let’s see what this dumbass does next. They didn’t have to wait very long – Drake has now sued UMG for defamation for ALLOWING Kendrick to talk sh-t in “Not Like Us.”

Drake is not backing down in the war against his own label, in fact he’s now upped the ante by suing Universal Music Group for spreading the “false and malicious narrative” he’s a pedophile … TMZ Hip Hop has learned.

Drake filed the defamation case Wednesday morning in federal court in NYC … ripping UMG for releasing and promoting Kendrick Lamar’s vicious diss track, “Not Like Us.” In the docs, obtained by TMZ Hip Hop, Drake says UMG knew full well Kendrick’s lyrics, and images in the music video, referring to Drake as a pedophile were false and dangerous. In the suit he calls Kendrick’s hit — filled with “inflammatory and shocking allegations”– was a “gold mine” for UMG … and he says they had an ulterior financial motive in promoting it.

Drake claims his label was doing everything it could to pump up “Not Like Us” because it knew it would devalue his music and brand … and, therefore, give UMG leverage in future contract negotiations with Drake. Keep in mind, Drake’s last UMG contract, signed in 2022, was a blockbuster deal worth a reported $400 million!

Drake says he’s got bot receipts to show just how far the label went to turn Kendrick’s song into an anthem. According to the suit, UMG paid a third party to use bots to increase the song’s streams by at least 30 million — and engaged in a “pay for play” scheme with at least one radio promoter. He claims UMG attached the label “chart-topper” to “Not Like Us,” despite knowing that title was based on fraudulent data.

It’s also clear Drake’s very mindful of what’s going down in New Orleans next month — in the suit, he claims UMG was in on getting Kendrick the Super Bowl Halftime gig … so, the song could be performed on that massive stage, which he calls “one of the most significant (and viewed) cultural events of the year.” Ya gotta wonder — will the NFL and FOX, which is airing the Super Bowl, allow Kendrick to use the pedophile lyrics when he performs??

Interestingly, Drake isn’t going directly after Kendrick in the suit — in fact, he says, “This lawsuit is not about the artist who created ‘Not Like Us.’ It is, instead, entirely about UMG, the music company that decided to publish, promote, exploit, and monetize” the song which it knew contained false claims.

A spokesperson for Universal Music Group tells TMZ … “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. 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 that write a song.”

[From TMZ]

If I’m being honest, I think there’s a small sliver of truth to the idea that UMG wasn’t mad that Drake was being taken down a few pegs because that meant Drake couldn’t negotiate another hugely lucrative deal. But that’s the only part of Drake’s lawsuit which has any grounding in reality – the rest of it is Drake’s delusional cope. This is one of the most important parts of UMG’s response: “Drake has intentionally and successfully used UMG to distribute his music and poetry to engage in conventionally outrageous back-and-forth ‘rap battles’… 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.” That’s it in a nutshell – Drake wants to play victim and act like UMG should have been judicious in how they disseminated Kendrick’s songs, and yet UMG did the right thing by simply letting the beef play out without censoring anyone.

As for defamation… Drake said that Kendrick’s partner Whitney was cheating on him and that Kendrick’s son Enoch wasn’t biologically his. Drake said that Kendrick physically abused Whitney. Drake also said that Kendrick was molested. All of those lyrics were lies, and UMG “allowed” Drake to release that music too. Kendrick hasn’t gone around, suing people over it. Kendrick just churned out some of the best disses ever in response to Drake’s lies.

There’s so much stuff in Drake’s lawsuit, but something which is getting a lot of attention is that he name-checked a lot of YouTube reactor channels. Before last year, I never watched music reactors, but I got into several YouTubers because of the Drake-Kendrick beef. Those people are just doing it because they love the music, the gossip and the drama. They weren’t being PAID to promote Kendrick. Most of those people were Drake fans! I wanted to post No Life Shaq’s reaction to being name-checked in Drake’s lawsuit because I was laughing my ass off, especially when he brought his son out to call Drake a snitch. NSFW for language. Everything he says here is the truth. I think I’ll also include a reaction compilation for “Not Like Us.”

Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Drake’s IG.