Drake has escalated his ongoing authorized battle in opposition to his document label, Common Music Group (UMG), by submitting defamation lawsuit in opposition to the guardian document label he and rival Kendrick Lamar are signed to.
The Toronto rapper filed a federal lawsuit within the Southern District of New York on Wednesday, Jan. 15, and referred to the discharge of Lamar’s diss observe, “Not Like Us,” for instance of ” corporate greed over the safety and well-being of its artists,” in keeping with The New York Occasions.
In his submitting, Drake’s staff says the diss observe aimed on the Canadian rapper spreads the “false and malicious narrative” that he’s a pedophile.
“On Could 4, 2024, UMG authorised, printed, and launched a marketing campaign to create a viral hit out of a rap observe that falsely accuses Drake of being a pedophile and requires violent retribution in opposition to him,” the grievance reads. “Despite the fact that UMG enriched itself and its shareholders by exploiting Drake’s music for years, and knew that the salacious allegations in opposition to Drake have been false, UMG selected company greed over the security and well-being of its artists.”
The submitting states that Drake is “not a pedophile” and he has “by no means engaged in any acts that might require him to be ‘positioned on neighborhood watch’.”
“Drake has by no means engaged in sexual relations with a minor. Drake has by no means been charged with, or convicted of, any prison acts in any respect,” the go well with reads.
The lawsuit goes on to element a capturing at Drake’s house just a few days after the music was launched, leading to a safety guard being seriously injured .
“In the course of the almost half-hour it took for the ambulance to reach, Drake and others labored to maintain the person alive by making use of stress to the gunshot wound with towels. Blood was in every single place,” the submitting reads.
In response to the go well with, nothing like that had occurred to Drake or his household in the course of the twenty years that he’s been working within the music business.
The lawsuit additionally states that the a number of break-in attempts on his house that occurred following the discharge of the music have been brought on by UMG’s actions.
“With the palpable bodily risk to Drake’s security and the bombardment of on-line harassment, Drake fears for the security and safety of himself, his household, and his buddies,” in keeping with the brand new go well with. “After the assaults on his house, Drake pulled his son out of the elementary faculty he attended in Toronto as a consequence of security considerations, and as soon as faculty ended for the summer season, Drake organized for his son and mom to go away Toronto totally.”
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Drake’s staff is making it identified that the brand new lawsuit will not be directed at Lamar and is clearly inserting the blame on Common for releasing, distributing and selling the music.
“This lawsuit will not be in regards to the artist who created ‘Not Like Us,’” the go well with reads. “It’s, as an alternative, totally about UMG, the music firm that determined to publish, promote, exploit, and monetize allegations that it understood weren’t solely false, however harmful.”
Common distributes each Drake and Lamar’s music however the go well with claims that as a result of Drake’s present cope with the label is nearing the top of its time period, the corporate is making an attempt to devalue his music and fame in an effort to realize more-favorable phrases in any renegotiation.
On Tuesday, Jan. 14, the 38-year-old rapper withdrew his authorized motion, backtracking on his claims that UMG and Spotify conspired to falsely increase the streaming numbers for “Not Like Us” after the allegations have been denied by each firms.
In earlier allegations that UMG referred to as “ offensive and untrue ,” the submitting stated the document firm “launched a marketing campaign to control and saturate the streaming companies and airwaves with a music, ‘Not Like Us,’ to be able to make that music go viral, together with through the use of ‘bots’ and pay-to-play agreements.” It stated the corporate and Spotify “have a long-standing, symbiotic enterprise relationship” and alleges that UMG supplied particular licensing charges to Spotify for the music.
The petition additionally stated UMG has fired workers seen as loyal to Drake “in an obvious effort to hide its schemes.”
Lamar’s wildly well-liked single “Not Like Us,” was launched in Could as a part of a flurry of dueling tracks by the 2 artists and contains the lyrics, “Say, Drake, I hear you want ’em younger, You higher not ever go to cell block one.”
Lamar additionally referred to as Drake a “colonizer” and attributed his success to the numerous different rappers Drake has labored with. It has develop into the primary diss observe to succeed in one billion streams on Spotify, in keeping with figures listed on streaming service. It’s additionally nominated for 5 Grammy Awards, together with music and document of the yr.
The feud between Drake and Lamar is among the many largest in hip-hop lately, with two of the style’s largest stars at its centre.
The 2 have been occasional collaborators greater than a decade in the past, however Lamar started taking public jabs at Drake beginning in 2013. The combat escalated steeply earlier final yr.
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—with recordsdata from The Related Press and World Information
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