The fallout from the Drake-Kendrick rap battle remains to be ongoing, and UMG is blasting Lawbrey’s lawsuit, calling his allegations “astonishing.”
As BOSSIP beforehand reported, Drake filed the primary lawsuit in November 2024. In January 2025, he withdrew the New York criticism and refiled it as a federal defamation case. In Drake’s UMG lawsuit, he claims that UMG, in collaboration with Spotify, illegally boosted “Not Like Us” on streaming providers. It’s his perception that this was finished as a result of his contract was up for renewal, that means UMG was invested in seeing Drake’s downfall, so negotiations had been of their favor.
In response to the lawsuit, UMG informed Billboard, “The suggestion that UMG would do something to undermine any of its artists is offensive and unfaithful. We make use of the best moral practices in our advertising and promotional campaigns. No quantity of contrived and absurd authorized arguments on this pre-action submission can masks the truth that followers select the music they wish to hear.”
Nonetheless, Drake doubled down and amended the lawsuit, including newer occasions, together with Lamar’s 2025 Tremendous Bowl efficiency and the 2025 Grammy Awards. In keeping with Selection, he alleges that UMG promoted Lamar’s Tremendous Bowl efficiency and consented to “Not Like Us” being performed on the Grammys, additional defaming the Nokia rapper.
Nonetheless, it seems to be like UMG isn’t taking Drake’s lawsuit mendacity down.
In a current courtroom submitting, the label has reportedly moved to dismiss the amended criticism, calling Drake’s new allegations “astonishing.” Selection stories that UMG’s authorized crew argues that Drake’s claims are baseless and a thinly veiled try to avoid wasting face after what they see as a decisive loss within the rap battle.
Drake’s UMG Lawsuit Reportedly Misses Key Particulars
The label’s response to Drake UMG lawsuit reportedly doesn’t mince phrases, suggesting that Drake’s deal with the Tremendous Bowl efficiency and the omission of sure lyrics solely highlights the weak point of his argument.
“As Drake concedes, Lamar’s Tremendous Bowl efficiency didn’t embody the lyric that Drake or his associates are ‘licensed pedophiles’ (i.e., the alleged ‘Defamatory Materials’ that’s on the coronary heart of this case). The main target of Drake’s new claims—that ‘the most important viewers for a Tremendous Bowl halftime present ever’ didn’t hear Lamar name Drake or his crew pedophiles—betrays this case for what it’s: Drake’s assault on the industrial and inventive success of the rap artist who defeated him, relatively than the content material of Lamar’s lyrics,” the movement reads per Selection.
They look like framing the lawsuit as an assault on inventive expression and the pure consequence of a public feud that Drake himself willingly engaged in. The movement to dismiss suggests UMG is stating the irony of Drake, an artist recognized for provocative lyrics himself, now claiming defamation. The label is seemingly able to combat again in opposition to what they understand as a frivolous try and rewrite the narrative of Kendrick and Drake’s extremely publicized rap conflict.
“Nowhere within the hundred-plus web page ‘authorized’ blather written by Drake’s legal professionals do they trouble to acknowledge that Drake himself has written and carried out massively profitable songs containing equally provocative taunts in opposition to different artists. Nor do they point out that it was Drake who began this specific alternate. Apparently, Drake’s legal professionals imagine that when Drake willingly participates in a performative rap-battle of music and poetry, he might be ‘defamed’ though he engages in the very same type of artistic expression,” an UMG spokesperson informed Selection.
The case is presently nonetheless within the discovery part, during which Drake and his authorized crew have entry to paperwork like Kendrick Lamar’s contract. A choose ought to resolve on UMG”s movement to dismiss within the coming months.
