UMG Insists Drake Is Just Upset He Lost Rap Battle
UPDATE (March 17):
Drake‘s legal team has provided the following statement to XXL in response to UMG asking that the rapper’s defamation lawsuit be dismissed.
“UMG wants to pretend that this is about a rap battle in order to distract its shareholders, artists and the public from a simple truth: a greedy company is finally being held responsible for profiting from dangerous misinformation that has already resulted in multiple acts of violence,” the statement reads. “This motion is a desperate ploy by UMG to avoid accountability, but we have every confidence that this case will proceed and continue to uncover UMG’s long history of endangering and abusing its artists.”
ORIGINAL STORY (March 17):
Universal Music Group has filed a motion to dismiss Drake’s federal defamation lawsuit.
UMG Wants Drake Lawsuit Thrown Out
According to court documents obtained by XXL on Monday (March 17), UMG wants a judge to throw out Drizzy’s case, which accuses the company of defaming the rap star by distributing Kendrick Lamar‘s “Not Like Us,” a song that refers to Drake as a child predator. UMG calls Drake a willing participant in the rap battle who is mad because the outcome did not turn out in his favor.
“Plaintiff, one of the most successful recording artists of all time, lost a rap battle that he provoked and in which he willingly participated,” the filing reads. “Instead of accepting the loss like the unbothered rap artist he often claims to be, he has sued his own record label in a misguided attempt to salve his wounds. Plaintiff’s Complaint is utterly without merit and should be dismissed with prejudice.”
UMG also uses Drake’s lyrics against him. The filing quotes lyrics from Drake’s Kendrick Lamar diss “Taylor Made Freestyle,” where Drake taunted K-Dot into engaging in a rap battle by using the AI voices of other rappers. Specifically, Drake using the voice of the late Tupac Shakur and rapping, “We need a no-debated West Coast victory, man/ Call him a b***h for me/Talk about him likin’ young girls, that’s a gift from me/Heard it on the Budden Podcast, it’s gotta be true.”
UMG goes on to say, “facts and criticism concerning Drake’s relationships with minors predate ‘Not Like Us’ and have been widely reported,” and reference Drake being called out for texting then-underage actress Millie Bobby Brown in 2018.
Drake sued UMG for defamation back in January after filing two pre-action petitions against UMG in court in New York and Texas last November. The court filings accuse the company of colluding with Spotify and iHeartMedia to artificially inflate “Not Like Us” through bots and payola. Drake has since dropped the legal action in New York. He recently settled with iHeartMedia in the Texas case after they agreed to deliver documents that proved their innocence.
XXL has reached out to Drake’s attorney for comment.