Drake Files Defamation Suit Against UMG Over ‘Not Like Us’

Rapper Drake has altered his course of attack against Universal Music Group, now going after the media conglomerate for defamation less than 12 hours after pulling a prior petition.

The Canadian superstar just filed a new suit in New York City, claiming that UMG’s promotion of Kendrick Lamar’s mega-hit “Not Like Us” helped to push a “false and malicious narrative” that labels the “Best I Ever Had” performer as a pedophile.

Drake and Lamar are currently signed to the parent label via subsidiaries Republic Records (Drake) and Interscope Records (Lamar).

In the suit, filed Wednesday morning, Drake calls out UMG for being more concerned with “corporate greed over the safety and well-being of its artists” by allowing Lamar’s “Not Like Us” to be released.

Via court documents, the performer, born Aubrey Drake Graham, alleges UMG “approved, published, and launched a campaign to create a viral hit out of ‘Not Like Us’” that was “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.”

Since the song’s release, there has been a bevy of shootings near and around Drake’s Toronto home, including one that saw a bodyguard of Drake’s become injured.

Lamar released “Not Like Us” in May 2024 as the last of five responses to Drake in a drawn-out feud that was reignited that March.

In his song, the “Humble” rapper alludes to past allegations against Drake regarding his close friendships with several young women, including “Stranger Things” star Millie Bobbie Brown.

Lamar also questions the Canadian entertainer’s position in Black culture, referring to Drake in “Not Like Us” as a “f-cking colonizer,” among other things.

Within days, the song became one of the biggest hits of 2024. It hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, where it stayed for two weeks, and the top spot on Billboard’s Hot Rap Songs Chart, where it remained for 20 weeks.

Per The Hollywood Reporter, Lamar is not among the claimants being sued by Drake, despite being the sole lyricist of “Not Like Us.”

“[This suit is] entirely about UMG,” the court docs continue, “the music company that decided to publish, promote, exploit, and monetize allegations that it understood were not only false, but dangerous.”

Drake’s new filing comes less than a day after he withdrew a previous petition against UMG and streaming app Spotify for engaging in illegal tactics to “boost” numbers for “Not Like Us.”

First filed in November, the petition, considered a “pre-action” move and not a full suit, purported that UMG and Spotify “engaged in conduct designed to artificially inflate the popularity of “Not Like Us.’”

This included, “licensing the song at drastically reduced rates to Spotify, and using ‘bots’ to generate the false impression that the song was more popular than it was in reality.”

UMG fired back in a statement to Variety, calling Drake’s accusations meritless.

“The suggestion that UMG would do anything to undermine any of its artists is offensive and untrue,” it reads. “We employ the highest ethical practices in our marketing and promotional campaigns. 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.”

Spotify would respond to Drake’s claims via a counterclaim in December, noting that they had “no economic incentive” to force users to stream “Not Like Us” more than they chose to, and “have never had any arrangement in which UMG ‘charged Spotify licensing rates 30 percent lower than its usual licensing rates for ‘Not Like Us.’”

In response, Drake’s legal team accused Spotify of attempting to “distance themselves” from UMG.

“If Spotify and UMG have nothing to hide, then they should be perfectly fine complying with this basic discovery request,” they would add.

Drake and his company, Frozen Moments, would voluntarily withdraw their petition late Tuesday “without costs to any party.”

Though Drake and Lamar’s feud had been brewing for some time, it was Drake who caused the matter to intensify.

On May 3, 2024, he released the controversial track, “Family Matters,” which featured accusations of Lamar physically assaulting and cheating on his wife, and rumors of one of Lamar’s children being fathered by another man.

It would be these dark allegations that pushed Lamar to record three songs in retaliation – “6:16 In LA,” “Meet the Grahams,” and his final response, “Not Like Us.”