Imagine it or not, the authorized fracas over Kendrick Lamar’s iconic diss document, “Not Like Us” is on-going. Although the seeds of the lively beef between Lamar and Drake began in March 2024, Drake and his attorneys are nonetheless in sizzling pursuit a 12 months and a half later for proof that Common Music Group (UMG) conspired to inflate the recognition and presence of the document on the expense of their very own artist (Drake), by actively selling a document alleging that Drake was a pedophile. Each artists are underneath the UMG umbrella.
In accordance with Billboard, Drake is attempting to get his palms on a litany of paperwork associated to Kendrick Lamar as an artist, a human and something that would tie sure individuals to the document and its success within the latter half of 2024 when the document was inescapable. Drake’s attorneys declare that UMG has not been very forthcoming throughout the discovery course of, having supplied little or no of the requested paperwork, and what has been supplied has been ineffective. On August 12, Drake’s authorized workforce filed a number of motions to require UMG to supply the requested information, claiming as an example, that although they did obtain a replica of Kendrick Lamar’s recording contract with Interscope, the overwhelming majority of it was redacted “rendering it just about unreadable and incomprehensible.”
Equally, Drake is attempting to get ahold of e-mail exchanges and textual content messages from UMG CEO Lucian Grainge, claiming that due to his place of energy and authority, he had information of and allowed the plot to defame Drake by the meat—and specifically “Not Like Us”—to occur, in an try and devalue Drake’s model and market worth amid contract negotiations with UMG. UMG claims that Grainge had “no significant involvement” within the back-and-forth, however Drake’s attorneys really feel in any other case, claiming that he beforehand alleged no involvement in any respect.
Within the Tuesday filings, Drake can be in search of details about the valuation of Kendrick Lamar’s catalog, compensation figures for different label heads, details about whether or not or not the label has ever declined to advertise content material or supplies deemed defamatory, alleging that when Drake was in a beef with rapper Pusha T (who simply launched an album as a part of his group The Clipse) in 2018, UMG might have minimize verses from Pusha’s take-down document, “The Story of Adidon,” as a result of they had been too offensive.
Curiously, Drake can be in search of information associated to any potential allegations of home violence, any violence actually, in opposition to Kendrick Lamar and details about Lamar affiliate Dave Free’s relationship to each Lamar and Lamar’s youngsters. Whereas Drake is anxious that Lamar referred to him as a “licensed pedophile” in “Not Like Us,” Drake claimed through the document “Household Issues” that Dave Free is the precise father to one in all Lamar’s youngsters and likewise claimed that Kendrick dedicated home violence in opposition to his fiancée, Whitney Alford.
In March, UMG sought to have the case dismissed, claiming that Drake misplaced a rap battle that he had a hand in beginning and willingly participated in, stating that Drake isn’t any stranger to rap beefs or understanding, primarily, how they work.
