Rap and R&B singer drake has sued his own label, Universal Music Group (UMG), for defamation due to the publication last year of ‘Not Like Us’, a song by Kendrick Lamar in which he accused him and his entourage of being “certified pedophiles.” » that they should “be registered and placed under neighborhood watch.”
In documents filed in New York, Drake’s lawyers accuse the record company of launching “a campaign to create a viral hit” based on a song that made the “Fallegation that Drake is a criminal pedophile“, and “suggest that the public should turn to justice in response.” His lawyers further noted that the cover of ‘Not Like Us’ was based on an aerial photograph of Drake’s $100 million Toronto mansion, dotted with red markings often used to represent the presence of registered sex offenders. Which, according to him, caused an unknown person to try to raid his property and a shootout occurred that left one of his bodyguards injured.
The lawsuit, which does not expressly name Lamar, “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 knew not to.” They were not only false, but dangerous. UMG did it because they understood that the incendiary and scandalous accusations in the song were a gold mine. The company has not yet commented on this lawsuit.
This judicial offensive comes 24 hours after Drake withdrew another lawsuit against UMG and Spotify, in which accused both companies of conspiring to artificially increase views of ‘Not Like Us’, alleging that Universal had licensed the song “at drastically reduced rates to Spotify” and used bots to generate additional plays, creating “the false impression that the song was more popular than it actually was.” In addition, he denounced that the record company had made large investments and used its contacts to get ‘Not Like Us’ performed at next month’s Super Bowl, in which Lamar will perform at halftime.
Universal did respond to this first lawsuit, ensuring that “not only are these claims false, but the notion that we would seek to damage the reputation of any artist – much less Drake’s – is illogical,” the company said. “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.”
The company added: “Throughout his career, Drake has intentionally and successfully used UMG to distribute his music and poetry to engage in outrageous ‘rap battles’ to express his feelings about other artists. He now intends to use the legal process to silence an artist’s creative expression and seek damages from UMG for distributing that artist’s music. “No contrived and absurd legal argument can mask the fact that fans choose the music they want to listen to.”
Spotify also responded that there was “no financial incentive for users to stream Not Like Us instead of any of Drake’s songs.” The Swedish streaming company later filed a brief opposing Drake’s request, stating that it “should be denied.”
A fight that has been going on for a long time
The dispute between Drake, 38-year-old Canadian rapper and R&B singer and winner of five Grammy Awards, whose full name is Aubrey Drake Graham, and Lamar, 37-year-old and winner of a Pulitzer Prize for his album ‘Damn’, is a of the biggest hip-hop stars in recent years. The two collaborated occasionally more than a decade ago, but Lamar began publicly taunting Drake starting in 2013 and the fight became increasingly heated.
Drake responded with a song titled ‘The Heart Part 6’, in which he rejected the accusations saying: “I have never been with any minor.” He also claimed that “false” information had been provided to Lamar through a “double agent.”
Tension between Drake and Lamar erupted into a musical confrontation last spring over eight songs that were quickly released and included increasingly strong personal attacks. In one of them, ‘Family Matters’, Drake questioned whether Lamar’s manager had secretly fathered one of his children and alleged that Lamar had “hit” his partner and had covered it up. Shortly after, on ‘Meet the Grahams,’ Lamar equated Drake with Harvey Weinstein, calling him a “pervert” and a “sick man” who “should die” to make the world safer for women. The next day Lamar released ‘Not Like Us’, which is what triggered this week’s legal action.
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