Drake sues Universal Music over Kendrick Lamar's 'Not Like Us': TMZ

Drake is doubling down against Universal Music Group (UMG) by reportedly accusing his own record label for alleged defamation.

According to a report from TMZ, Drake filed a defamation suit against UMG over alleged spread of "false and malicious" narrative stemming from Kendrick Lamar's hit diss track "Not Like Us." TMZ reported that the Canadian rapper "ripped UMG" and that the record label "knew full well Kendrick's lyrics, and images in the music video, referring to Drake as a pedophile were false and dangerous."

Less than two months before the lawsuit, Drake had publicly accused UMG of "falsely inflating" the popularity of the popular Kendrick Lamar song. The Canadian rapper claimed back in November 2024 that record label had "launched a campaign to manipulate and saturate the streaming services and airwaves with a song, ‘Not Like Us,’ in order to make that song go viral, including by using ‘bots’ and pay-to-play agreements."

Drake ultimately ended up not suing UMG over the Nov. 2024 claims and instead shifted his focus onto the lawsuit he filed on Wednesday, January 15.

PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Drake claims Universal falsely inflated popularity of Kendrick Lamar diss track ‘Not Like Us’

Back in Spring 2024, Drake and Kendrick Lamar's feud garnered national headlines and was the talk of social media over the two A-list rappers exchanging explosive allegations in their song lyrics.

In the aforementioned hit "Not Like Us," the Compton native accused Drake of being a pedophile in the lyrics.

"Certified Lover Boy? Certified pedophiles," Kendrick said in the latest diss track.

"Say, Drake, I hear you like 'em young. You better not ever go to cell block one. To any ***** that talk to him and they in love. Just make sure you hide your lil' sister from him," Kendrick adds in the song.

The allegations prompted Drake to vehemently deny the pedofilia allegations. In a rebuttal-themed diss track titled "The Heart Part 6," he explicitly denied having sexual relations with Stranger Things star Millie Bobby Brown – who he befriended long before the actress turned 18 in 2022.

"These pedophile raps and **** you so obsessed with, it's so excessive," Drake said in the song. "Drake is not a name that you gon' see on no sex offender list, Eazy-Duz-It… Only ******* with Whitneys, not Millie Bobby Browns, I'd never look twice at no teenager."

The Compton native also mocked the Canadian rapper for being associated with "Baka Not Nice," a rapper signed with Drake's label OVO who was once connected to a human trafficking case. The charges against Baka Not Nice have since been dropped.

"Baka got a weird case, why is he around?" Kendrick said in the song.

Prior to the release of "Not Like Us," Drake accused Kendrick Lamar of being involved in a domestic violence incident in the song "Family Matters," and in "The Heart Part 6," he called the Compton native a "woman beater."

"I don't wanna fight with a woman beater, it feeds your nature," Drake said in "The Heart Part 6."

As for the alleged spread of "Not Like Us," the track ended up being a rally song for not only every sports team representing Southern California, but the song became a global streaming hit with the music video garnering more than 207 million on YouTube and more than 1 billion streams on Spotify.

TMZ shared a statement released by UMG in response to Drake's lawsuit:

"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. We have invested massively in his music and our employees around the world have worked tirelessly for many years to help him achieve historic commercial and personal financial success.

Throughout his career, Drake has intentionally and successfully used UMG to distribute his music and poetry to engage in conventionally outrageous back-and-forth ‘rap battles’ to express his feelings about other artists. 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.

We have not and do not engage in defamation -- against any individual. At the same time, we will vigorously defend this litigation to protect our people and our reputation, as well as any artist who might directly or indirectly become a frivolous litigation target for having done nothing more that write a song."

The Source: This report used information provided by TMZ and previous FOX 11 reports. The number of streams were provided by both YouTube and Spotify.

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