Getty ImagesRap superstar Drake is suing Universal Music Group (UMG) for defamation and harassment over the release of Kendrick Lamar’s diss song Not Like Us last year.
The song, which was part of a furious feud between the two stars, accused Drake and his entourage of being “certified pedophiles” who should be “registered and put on neighborhood watch.”
In papers filed in New York, Drake’s lawyers accused the record company of launching a “campaign to create a viral hit” from the song that made “false factual claims that Drake is a criminal pedophile, and suggests that the public should resort to justice in response caution”.
Universal has yet to respond to the allegations.
The move comes just 24 hours after Drake dropped a separate lawsuit against UMG and Spotify, accusing the two companies of conspiring to artificially boost Not Like Us streams at the expense of his own music.
In that case, he claimed that Universal licensed the song “at drastically reduced prices to Spotify” and used bots to generate additional plays, creating a “false impression that the song was more popular than it actually was.”
In a statement at the time, Universal told the BBC: “The suggestion that (the company) would do anything to undermine any of its artists is offensive and untrue.”
It added that “no amount of contrived and absurd legal arguments … can disguise the fact that fans choose the music they want to hear.”
Spotify also responded that there is “no economic incentive for users to stream Not Like Us over any Drake track.”
The Swedish streaming company later filed an objection to Drake’s request, stating that it “should be denied.”
His lawyers withdrew the case on Tuesday, after meeting with representatives of both companies, according to court documents.
That seemed to draw a line under the legal action — until the story took a dramatic turn Wednesday morning.
In the lawsuit filed in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, Drake accused Universal – which distributes both his and Lamar’s music – of prioritizing “corporate greed over the safety and well-being of its artists.”
His lawyers noted that the artwork for Not Like Us was based on an aerial photo of Drake’s $100 million Toronto mansion, dotted with red markers often used to represent the presence of registered sex offenders.
Court documents link the artwork to the shooting at the property shortly after Kendrick’s song was released, calling it “the 2024 equivalent of ‘Pizzagate’.”
The comment referred to a conspiracy theory about an American child sex ring operating out of a pizzeria in Washington, D.C. which led to the gunman opening fire in the restaurant in 2016.
So the mediaNot Like Us was considered by many to be the decisive blow in the long-running feud between Drake and Lamar, which dates back to the early 2010s.
In the lyrics, Lamar states that Drake “loves the youth” and accuses him of using other, more credible rappers to boost his profile.
Drake responded with a song called The Heart Part 6, where he dismissed the allegations, saying, “I’ve never been with anybody younger.” He also claimed he gave Lamar “false” information through a double agent.
However, his follow-up failed to garner the same attention as Not Like Us, which debuted at number one on the US charts and attracted more than a billion streams on Spotify.
The song is nominated for five awards, including record and song of the year, at the Grammy Awards on February 3. A week later, Lamar will host the Super Bowl halftime show.
However, the new lawsuit is not directed against Lamar himself, according to Drake’s lawyers.
“This lawsuit is not about the artist who created Not Like Us,” the court documents state.
“Instead, this is all about UMG, the music company, that decided to publish, promote, exploit and monetize allegations that it realized were not only false, but dangerous.”