Toronto rapper Drake still has beef, but unlike last year, it's not with Kendrick Lamar.
Drake (real name Aubrey Drake Graham) on Wednesday filed a federal defamation and harassment lawsuit in the U.S. against his record label, Universal Music Group (UMG).
According to The New York Times, Drake's lawyer said in the lawsuit that UMG — which also represents his rapper foe Lamar — “approved, published, and launched a campaign to create a viral hit out of a rap track" that subsequently tainted Drake's public image.
The stars made international headlines and delighted their many fans when they engaged in a rap feud last year, dropping repeated diss tracks about one another, including Lamar's Not Like Us, which is the subject of the lawsuit.
Though Drake, 38, took aim at Lamar in his music — such as the song Family Matters — Lamar's Not Like Us bar calling Drake, as well as his crew, a "certified pedophile" appears to have crossed a line for the Toronto native.
Drake's lawsuit said UMG's release and promotion of Not Like Us is exemplary of "corporate greed over the safety and well-being of its artists.”
He argued the release of Not Like Us “intended to convey the specific, unmistakable, and false factual allegation that Drake is a criminal pedophile, and to suggest that the public should resort to vigilante justice in response.”
The lawsuit outlines some of the difficulties allegedly faced by Drake as a result of Lamar's diss track, including a May 2024 shooting at his Toronto home that saw a security guard wounded. The superstar pointed a finger at the cover artwork for Not Like Us, which depicts an aerial view of Drake's Toronto Bridle Path mansion, layered with icons meant to represent the location of a sex offender.
(Warning: The following video contains strong language.)
The lawsuit makes it clear the allegations of misconduct are not about Lamar's music or "about a war of words between artists,” but rather with UMG's alleged push of false allegations against Drake.
Drake earlier sued UMG in New York and Texas, though that suit was withdrawn on Tuesday in favour of the federal filing.
Spotify and iHeartMedia were also named in the original lawsuit as entities that allegedly helped promote Not Like Us using bots on social media and payola — meaning an undisclosed payment to promote the song, for example, to a radio disc jockey.
At the time the initial lawsuit was filed, UMG denied any wrongdoing and called the accusations "offensive and untrue."
"We employ the highest ethical practices in our marketing and promotional campaigns," a UMG spokesperson told The New York Times. "No amount of contrived and absurd legal arguments in this pre-action submission can mask the fact that fans choose the music they want to hear.”
The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
Both UMG and Lamar have yet to respond publicly to the new lawsuit.
