Drake allegedly references LeBron James in leaked chat about UMG battle

Canadian rapper Drake continues his legal battle with Universal Music Group. On Tuesday, a screenshot of the rapper's alleged conversation containing a mention of LA Lakers star LeBron James circulated online.

A screenshot purportedly from Chris Blake's Instagram account was circulated on the social media platform X (formerly Twitter). This screenshot featured an alleged conversation with the "God's Plan" rapper, in which the four-time Grammy winner addressed his legal issues with UMG.

"Me and Universal is like if Nike was funding a campaign about LeBron cheating on his wife," the alleged conversation read.

"Everybody before me that tried the label was too eccentric so they wrote them off as crazy and they never had to pay for their sins and mistakes."

On Nov. 25, Drake filed a petition alleging that UMG and Spotify inflated the streams of Kendrick Lamar's diss track about him, "Not Like Us." He claimed that the companies violated the "RICO Act" by using illegal schemes. UMG denied the allegations in a statement released on the same day.

The following day, the rapper behind the hit song "Hotline Bling" filed another petition. He alleged that a "pay-to-play" system between iHeartRadio and UMG was defamatory.

In response to the initial petition, Spotify published opposing documents on Dec. 20 refuting claims of "any arrangement" between them and UMG.

This stemmed from his beef with rapper Kendrick Lamar. The two artists went back and forth in 2024, releasing diss tracks about each other.

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Fans react to Drake's alleged mention of LeBron James

Fans were enthralled with the post and immediately took to X to express their opinions.

"He’s exposing LeBron in a crazy way that’s my king 😭😭😭😭❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️," one fan said.

"Why couldn’t he just say “a basketball player” he used LeBron specifically.. lol," another fan said.

"There he goes w LeBron again! This n****s such a b***h 😂 always crying lol," a fan said.

Others found it offensive that Drake mentioned James.

"Why is he mentioning LeBron ? nah my goat is otw fr ! 😂😭😭😭😭," one fan said.

"Savannah already knows this though, he is losing the plot…," another fan said.

"That LeBron part is so random 😭," a fan said.

James has not released a statement addressing Drake's alleged mention of his name.