A hip-hop celebrity beef was cranked up one other notch Wednesday when Drake sued Common Music Group for defamation over rival Kendrick Lamar’s diss monitor “Not Like Us.”
The lawsuit, filed in federal courtroom in New York Metropolis, alleges UMG printed and promoted the monitor although it included false pedophilia allegations towards Drake and urged listeners ought to resort to vigilante justice. Lamar isn’t named within the swimsuit.
The end result, the swimsuit says, was intruders capturing a safety guard at Drake’s Toronto dwelling, in addition to on-line hate and harassment, successful to his fame and lowering his model’s worth earlier than his contract renegotiation with UMG this 12 months. The corporate has contracts with each stars.
“The lawsuit is not about the artist who created ‘Not Like Us,’” the lawsuit says, referring to Lamar. “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.”
The swimsuit later alleges, “UMG did so because it understood that the Recording’s inflammatory and shocking allegations were a gold mine.”
And, the swimsuit claims, the music firm has made massive investments and used its connections to rearrange for “Not Like Us” to be carried out at subsequent month’s Tremendous Bowl, the place Lamar would be the halftime leisure.
The lawsuit, which is searching for a trial and an undisclosed amount of cash for damages, additionally repeated allegations in different authorized filings that UMG falsely pumped up the recognition of “Not Like Us” on streaming providers.
The monitor is nominated for 5 Grammys, together with document of the 12 months and music of the 12 months.
Representatives for Drake declined to remark Wednesday. Representatives for UMG and Lamar didn’t instantly reply to emails searching for remark.
In a earlier assertion responding to comparable allegations in pre-litigation filings, the document firm stated the “suggestion that UMG would do anything to undermine any of its artists is offensive and untrue. We employ the highest ethical practices in our marketing and promotional campaigns.”
The feud between Drake, a 38-year-old Canadian rapper and singer and five-time Grammy winner, and Lamar, a 37-year-old Pulitzer Prize winner, is among the many greatest in hip-hop in recent times, with two of the style’s greatest stars at its heart.
The 2 have been occasional collaborators greater than a decade in the past, however Lamar started taking public jabs at Drake beginning in 2013. The combat escalated steeply final 12 months.
Drake’s attorneys, from New York-based Willkie Farr & Gallagher, stated the lawsuit seeks to carry UMG accountable for knowingly selling false and defamatory allegations towards him.
“Beginning on May 4, 2024 and every day since, UMG has used its massive resources as the world’s most powerful music company to elevate a dangerous and inflammatory message that was designed to assassinate Drake’s character, and led to actual violence at Drake’s doorstep,” the regulation agency stated in an announcement.
“This lawsuit reveals the human and business consequences to UMG’s elevation of profits over the safety and well-being of its artists, and shines a light on the manipulation of artists and the public for corporate gain,” it stated.
