Drake Sues Own Record Label For Defamation Over Kendrick Lamar Track

LOADINGERROR LOADINGDrake has filed suit against Universal Music Group for defamation, alleging the music giant put its profits over his safety by releasing Kendrick Lamar’s “false and malicious” diss track, “Not Like Us.”In a Wednesday filing to with the U.S.District Court for the Southern District of New York, lawyers for the rapper, real name Aubrey Drake Graham, accused the artist’s longtime label of deliberately allowing Lamar to make “inflammatory and shocking allegations” calling Drake a “certified pedophile,” despite knowing how the claims would threaten his reputation and safety.Advertisement The suit asserts that UMG was fully aware that there is no factual basis for claims made in the song and its music video, but the company proceeded to publish and distribute “Not Like Us,” because it “understood” that the salacious nature of the accusations would be a financial “gold mine.”Drake performs in Atlanta, Georgia, in December 2022.

On Wednesday, the rapper proceeded with a defamation suit against his record label, Universal Music Group.Prince Williams via Getty Images“The recording was intended to convey the specific, unmistakable, and false factual allegation that Drake is a criminal pedophile, and to suggest that the public should resort to vigilante justice in response,” Drake’s attorneys claim.Advertisement Citing a list of “palpable threat[s] to Drake’s safety” prompted by the release of “Not Like Us” and its music video, the court filings claim UMG put “corporate greed over the safety and well-being of its artists” by distributing and promoting the song.Among the incidents referenced in the lawsuit are a drive-by shooting at Drake’s Toronto area home and several attempted break-ins which took place just days after the diss track’s release.“UMG’s greed yielded real world consequences,” the lawsuit contends.While it is Lamar who aired the allegations, the suit contends that UMG’s ...