As we discussed, Drake has filed some kind of legal action – not a lawsuit, but it’s basically a pre-lawsuit – against his label, Universal Music Group. UMG is also the label which distributes Kendrick Lamar’s music, through Kendrick’s own indie label pgLang and Interscope. Drake is arguing that Universal engaged in payola, bribery and bots to amplify Kendrick Lamar’s diss tracks against Drake this past spring. Drake’s accusations are widely believed to be confessions, considering many people within the music industry believe that Drake’s music has been amplified by similar methods – bots, paid influencers, bribery, payola. That was one of the reasons why Metro Boomin had beef with Drake in the first place (Future had beef with Drake for a different reason, allegedly). Well, if you weren’t convinced that Drake is the biggest Canadian Karen ever, please enjoy this: the dude is now accusing Universal of defaming him when they did nothing to stop Kendrick Lamar from releasing the diss tracks which Drake begged Kendrick to drop.
Drake has launched a second bombshell legal action against Universal Music Group over Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us,” accusing the music giant of defamation and claiming it could have halted the release of a song “falsely accusing him of being a sex offender.”
A day after filing an action in New York accusing UMG of illegally boosting Lamar’s track on Spotify, Drake’s company leveled similar claims in Texas court regarding radio giant iHeartRadio. The new filing, filed late Monday and made public on Tuesday, claims UMG potentially “funneled payments” to iHeart as part of a “pay-to-play scheme” to promote the song on radio.
But the filing also offers key new details about Drake’s grievances toward UMG, the label where he has spent his entire career. In it, he says UMG knew that Kendrick’s song “falsely” accused him of being a “certified pedophile” and “predator” but chose to release it anyway.
“UMG … could have refused to release or distribute the song or required the offending material to be edited and/or removed,” Drake’s lawyers write. “But UMG chose to do the opposite. UMG designed, financed and then executed a plan to turn ‘Not Like Us’ into a viral mega-hit with the intent of using the spectacle of harm to Drake and his businesses to drive consumer hysteria and, of course, massive revenues. That plan succeeded, likely beyond UMG’s wildest expectations.”
Like the New York filing on Monday, the new petition isn’t quite a lawsuit. Instead, it’s a so-called pre-action filing aimed taking depositions from key figures at UMG and iHeart in order to obtain more information that might support Drake’s accusations in a future lawsuit. In seeking that information, Drake’s lawyers say they already have enough evidence to pursue a “claim for defamation” against UMG, but that they might also tack on claims of civil fraud and racketeering based on what they discover from the depositions.
UMG and iHeartRadio did not immediately return requests for comment on the new filing. Lamar is not named as a respondent in the filing and is not legally accused of any wrongdoing.
Drake is the biggest loser, my god. “UMG designed, financed and then executed a plan to turn ‘Not Like Us’ into a viral mega-hit with the intent of using the spectacle of harm to Drake.” What actually happened is that Drake released “Family Matters” and one hour later, Kendrick released “Meet the Grahams,” a complete evisceration of Drake’s life, persona and character. Then while Drake was still stunned into silence, Kendrick dropped “Not Like Us” not even 24 hours later. The only promotion Kendrick did that weekend was send out two tweets. The fans did the rest. “Not Like Us” was a massive hit right out of the gate.
It’s also worth noting… Drake is arguing that Universal should have somehow stopped Kendrick from making or releasing “Not Like Us” (but not Euphoria or MTG?) but Universal did nothing to stop Drake when he was spinning wild and false accusations about Kendrick – that Kendrick beats his wife, that Whitney slept with Dave Free, that Kendrick isn’t Enoch’s biological father, that Kendrick was molested. Universal did the right thing by just stepping back and letting the rap battle play out, and now that Drake has lost and his career is definitively over, Drake is going out in the saddest way possible.
Some people are already saying that Drake’s endgame is trying to get “Not Like Us” taken down or shelved somehow. Like, no one can put that genie back in the bottle. No one wants to put that genie back in the bottle either. In the wake of Drake’s legal actions, “Not Like Us” reentered the the top 20 charts. The initial YouTube video has 178 million views. The music video has 179 million views. Imagine saying, months later, that Universal should have shut it down!
Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Instagram. Stills from the ‘Not Like Us’ video.