Drake reportedly claims UMG had a hand in getting Kendrick Lamar the Super Bowl Halftime gig in defamation lawsuit

On Wednesday, January 15, Drake filed a defamation lawsuit against Universal Music Group (UMG), claiming that the global music company "approved, published and launched a campaign to create a viral hit out of a rap track". The track mentioned in the lawsuit was Kendrick Lamar's 2024 track, Not Like Us.

While the God's Plan rapper kept K-Dot out of his lawsuit, his suit claimed that the song “intended to convey the specific, unmistakable and false factual allegation that Drizzy is a criminal p*dophile, and to suggest that the public should resort to vigilante justice in response.”

According to TMZ, Drizzy's lawsuit also alleges that UMG was involved in getting the Money Trees rapper his Super Bowl Halftime gig, which is scheduled to take place in New Orleans next month.

The Wants and Needs rapper's defamation lawsuit comes a day after he dropped the court filings made against UMG and Spotify two months ago.

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Drake's lawsuit clarifies that it's not about Kendrick Lamar

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Drizzy's legal team has clarified that his lawsuit isn't directed at Kendrick Lamar, with the documents reading:

"This lawsuit is not about the artist who created 'Not Like Us'. I is, instead, entirely about UMG, the music company that decided to publish, promote, exploit and monetize allegations that it understood were not only false, but dangerous."

The diss track in question, which was released on May 4, 2024, peaked atop Billboard's Hot 100 chart, also breaking several streaming records on Spotify. Not Like Us has also received five nominations in the upcoming 2025 Grammy, including two of the Big Four categories - Record of the Year and Song of the Year.

The Champagne Poetry rapper claimed in his lawsuit that the release of Lamar's Not Like Us led to physical threats and attacks, with his security guard getting shot outside Drizzy's Toronto home.

The lawsuit read in the wake of the threats and online harassment, Drake pulled his son out of his elementary school, later arranging for him and his mother to leave Toronto entirely. It continued:

"Day to day, Drake continues to take steps to address persistent threats to his security."

The alleged threats that Drizzy's lawsuit talks about are possibly the result of Kendrick Lamar calling him a p*dophile and accusing him of appropriating Black culture in Not Like Us.

According to TMZ, the Marvins Room rapper believes that UMG had an "ulterior financial motive" in promoting Lamar's track. Drake claims UMG knew that it would devalue his music and brand, giving the company leverage in future contract negotiations with the rapper.

The media outlet also reported that the last contract Drake signed with UMG - in 2022 - was reported to be worth $400 million.

It appears that the UMG was prepared for Drizzy's lawsuit, and responded to it swiftly in a statement:

"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."

UMG's statement continued:

"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."

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A trial date for Drizzy's lawsuit against UMG is yet to be announced.