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On Wednesday, January 15, 2025, Capella Grey tweeted in support of Drake's recent defamation lawsuit against the Universal Music Group (UMG). The singer-songwriter, born Curtis Anthony Jackson, wrote in his first tweet:
"Picture u in negotion with your label to give u close to a billion and they start doubling up funding a record that calls u a pedo having everybody worldwide singing it thus making your negotiation value go down so they can pay u less. Lol. Ni**a f**k what the streets saying give me my bread or im suing."
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In a subsequent tweet, Capella questioned why an artist's label should act against them despite making so much money through him.
"y would my label who ive made so much money be putting up money to help the opposition extra violate? U dont expect to fight in church but if u do, u not expecting the pastor to snuff u to help the other person lol," Capella wrote.
Grey's tweets come a day after Drake filed a federal defamation lawsuit over his rival, Kendrick Lamar's diss track from 2024, Not Like Us.
Drake claims Not Like Us was a "gold mine" for UMG
According to a Daily Mail article published on Wednesday, January 15, Drizzy accused UMG of allowing the "inflammatory and shocking allegations" made against him in Lamar's Not Like Us. He alleged that it happened because the company saw the song as a "gold mine."
Per the Worst Behavior rapper's lawsuit, UMG's motive behind actively promoting Not Like Us was the intention to devalue Drake's music and brand, which would give them leverage against him in future negotiations. Drizzy is signed to UMG's subsidiary, Republic Records, while Kendrick is signed to the company's Interscope Records.
Clarifying that the lawsuit has nothing to do with Lamar himself, the documents read:
"This lawsuit is not about the artist who created Not Like Us. It 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.”
Elsewhere in the lawsuit, the God's Plan rapper also mentioned K-Dot's upcoming performance at the Super Bowl halftime game in New Orleans next month. Drizzy alleged that UMG was in on getting Lamar the gig so the song could be platformed on "one of the most significant (and viewed) cultural events of the year."
Not Like Us was released by Kendrick on May 4, 2024, and peaked on Billboard's Hot 100 chart. Soon afterward, the song touched no.1 on the chart twice, staying on it for 22 weeks. The track also spent 21 weeks atop Billboard's Hot Rap Songs chart.
On Spotify, Not Like Us hit over 914 million plays, which makes it rank third on the platform's Rap Streaming Songs chart. Per Drizzy's lawsuit, UMG allegedly paid a third party to increase its streams by at least 30 million by using bots.
The track has also received five nominations in the upcoming Grammys, including Song of the Year and Record of the Year.
UMG has denied Drake's allegations in a statement
Soon after Drake's defamation lawsuit was filed, UMG issued a statement denying the allegations made in it, as per Daily Mail. It stated:
"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."
Highlighting how the Wants and Needs rapper had himself featuring bombastic claims about his opponents during rap beefs in the past, 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."
The date of a court hearing for Drake's defamation lawsuit is yet to be announced.
