Drake’s ongoing legal battle with his label, Universal Music Group, has escalated. The artist filed a lawsuit today in federal court, accusing UMG of damaging his reputation and jeopardizing profits. The suit is derived from the diss track “Not Like Us” by Kendrick Lamar, another UMG artist. Drake’s legal complaint also again accuses UMG of using bots on Spotify and other streaming platforms, and payola to make the song more popular.
“On May 4, 2024, UMG approved, published and launched a campaign to create a viral hit out of a rap song that falsely accuses Drake of being a pedophile and calls for violent retribution against him,” the complaint states. “Even though UMG enriched itself and its shareholders by exploiting Drake’s music for years and knew the outrageous allegations against Drake were false, UMG chose corporate greed over the safety and well-being of its artists.”
The lawsuit details a shooting at Drake’s (real name: Aubrey Graham) home just days after the song was released, in which a security guard was injured. Multiple walkouts occurred in the following days, which the lawsuit alleges were caused by UMG’s actions.
Why would UMG pit two of its own artists against each other? Drake’s team has a theory:
UMG’s actions are motivated, at least in part, by UMG’s desire to best position itself in negotiations with Kendrick Lamar in 2024 and Drake in 2025. With respect to Lamar, on information and belief, UMG was driven to prove it could maximize Lamar’s sales—by any means necessary—once they were able to get him to sign a short-term exclusive contract. UMG wanted Lamar to see her value in an accelerated timeline in order to convince Lamar to resign exclusively and for a longer period of time. As for Drake, in 2024, his contract was close to being fulfilled. Upon information and belief, UMG anticipated that extending Drake’s contract would be costly to UMG; as such, she was encouraged to devalue Drake’s music and brand in order to gain leverage in negotiations for an extension
Lamar is not named as a defendant in the suit; Instead, Drake’s legal team blames UMG for releasing the song, despite knowing that “the song’s claims are unequivocally false.”
“Drake is not a pedophile. Drake has never engaged in any acts that would require him to be “put on neighborhood watch.” Drake has never had sex with a minor. “Drake has not been charged or convicted of any criminal offense,” the lawsuit states.
The lawsuit follows a petition filed in November in which Drake accuses UMG and Spotify of artificially inflating the success of “Not Like Us” using payola and streaming bots. The petition — which is not itself a lawsuit but a precursor — was withdrawn this week. But the lawsuit filed today includes similar allegations of pay-for-play schemes to have “Not Like Us” played on radio stations and promoted on streaming platforms. The lawsuit also again accuses UMG of using bots to “artificially inflate the spread” of the song. It cites a “whistleblower” who claimed he was paid $2,500 over Zelle “via third parties to use ‘bots’ to achieve 30,000,000 streams on Spotify in the first few days after the Record was released.”
like New York Times Notes, Drake has enlisted Michael J. Gottlieb, the attorney who represented the restaurant owner involved in the “Pizzagate” conspiracy theory. Drake’s complaint draws parallels between the shooting at the artist’s home and the restaurant shooting, calling it “2024’s equivalent of ‘Pizzagate’.”
“The response online was just as violent and hateful. “An avalanche of online hate speech has labeled Drake a sex offender and pedophile, among other epithets,” the complaint states.
UMG did not immediately respond to a request for comment.