Drake lawsuit accuses Universal Music Group of defamation for ‘Not Like Us’

Drake is suing the world’s biggest record company — a company to which he himself is signed. In a federal lawsuit filed Wednesday, the superstar rapper accused Universal Music Group of defamation and harassment for releasing and promoting Kendrick Lamar’s song “Not Like Us,” in which Lamar describes Drake as a pedophile. Over a festive beat by the veteran Los Angeles producer Mustard, Compton-born Lamar tells Drake, “I hear you like ’em young,” and warns that he “better not ever go to cell block one”; later in the song, Lamar describes what he views as a history of cultural appropriation by Drake, who hails from Canada, before branding him a “f—ing colonizer.” Music Mustard on fatherhood, his new album and the world-stopping ‘Not Like Us’ The L.A. producer’s moment in hip-hop has been a lifetime in the making. Now, Drake says in his lawsuit that Universal Music Group put his life in danger by having “approved, published, and launched a campaign to create a viral hit out of a rap track that falsely accuses Drake of being a pedophile and calls for violent retribution against him.” The suit adds that UMG — which “enriched itself and its shareholders by exploiting Drake’s music for years” — “knew that the salacious allegations against Drake were false” yet “chose corporate greed over the safety and well-being of its artists.” The complaint cites an incident at Drake’s home in Toronto — a mansion depicted in the cover art for “Not Like Us” as housing registered sex offenders — in which someone shot and injured a security guard days after the release of “Not Like Us.” In a statement, a UMG spokesperson said, “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. “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.” Drake’s suit was brought in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York by a legal team led by Michael J. Gottlieb, who has made headlines in recent years by using defamation law in cases against Rudy Giuliani and perpetrators of the so-called Pizzagate conspiracy theory in which a Washington, D.C., pizzeria was characterized as a hub for a child sex ring.