Drake drops petition against iHeartMedia and reaches "amicable" settlement after discovering the company “did nothing wrong”

Toronto rapper Drake recently dropped his petition against iHeartMedia and accepted a settlement after learning that they "did nothing wrong.” According to Rolling Stone’s March 3 report, iHeartMedia is no longer a defendant in the rapper's investigation into accusations of payola related to Kendrick Lamar's song Not Like Us.

Court records delivered to the Bexar County District Court confirmed that the company is no longer the focus of pre-suit discovery. After initially filing the petition against both the firm and UMG, the rapper has chosen to concentrate entirely on the latter.

As per Hot New Hiphop’s March 3 report, an iHeartMedia source explained:

“In exchange for documents that showed iHeart did nothing wrong, Drake agreed to drop his petition. No payments were made – by either one of us.”

This withdrawal came three months after the One Dance singer filed a petition against iHeartMedia and UMG on November 21. However, this was not a lawsuit but rather a prelude to possible legal action.

The aim was to look into the brands’ activities and gather evidence supporting his allegation. He alleged that his music distributor, UMG, "funneled payments" to iHeartRadio as part of a "pay-to-play scheme" in order to reportedly "inflate artificially the metrics" and promote Not Like Us on the radio.

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Drake withdrew his petition against iHeartMedia, but the same against UMG is still in action

The rapper's petition against UMG is still going on (Image via Getty Images)

Drake filed the petition against the large corporations in New York and Texas. iHeartMedia was one of the companies mentioned in the Texas petition, but Drizzy has chosen to drop them. As per the Rolling Stones’ report, the court documents stating the same read:

“Petitioner and iHeartMedia.. Have reached an amicable resolution of the dispute to the satisfaction of both sides."

Meanwhile, according to the Hot New Hiphop report, in a separate response, the rapper’s team stated:

"We are pleased that the parties were able to reach a settlement satisfactory to both sides and have no further comment on this matter.”

The God's Plan singer's legal team further clarified in the court documents that the rejection is "without prejudice," which means that none of the petition's allegations against UMG should be affected. That is to say, the rapper is still targeting UMG.

Drake's Texas petition is therefore still pending with UMG. Over the past few months, there has been a heated back-and-forth between the rapper and the record label. UMG has asked that the pretrial conference scheduled for April 2 be postponed.

However, Drake's defense team retaliated, accusing the label of attempting to stall the lawsuit without any reason. The rapper's lawyer asked that the April 2 date be kept, pointing out that UMG allegedly has had plenty of time to prepare for it. According to the XXL Mag's March 3 report, they recently wrote in a motion:

“Delaying discovery would unfairly prejudice Plaintiff, who is continuing to suffer the consequences of UMG’s defamatory campaign. Indeed, at the same time UMG has been delaying here, UMG launched new campaigns to further spread the defamatory content, including at the 2025 Super Bowl halftime show, which had over 133.5 million viewers."

On the other hand, the deadline for UMG to submit a motion to dismiss the petition is March 16. However, they haven't said anything else and have already refuted all of the Toronto rapper's allegations multiple times.

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Drake initially submitted the petition against iHeartMedia and UMG in November 2024, alleging that they were aware that Kendrick Lamar's song Not Like Us had called him a "certified ped*phile," and that it would tarnish the rapper's reputation. According to his petition, the two companies allegedly:

"Knew that the song itself, as well as its accompanying album art and music video, attacked the character of another one of UMG’s most prominent artists, Drake, by falsely accusing him of being a s*x offender, engaging in pe*ophilic acts, harboring s*x offenders, and committing other criminal s*xual acts."

Now with iHeartMedia's name being dropped from the petition, it remains to be seen how Drake's legal battle with UMG pans out.