Drake has escalated his ongoing authorized battle in opposition to his report label, Common Music Group (UMG), by submitting defamation lawsuit in opposition to the mum or dad report 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 ” company greed over the protection and well-being of its artists,” in response to The New York Occasions.
In his submitting, Drake’s crew 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 accepted, revealed, 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. “Regardless that UMG enriched itself and its shareholders by exploiting Drake’s music for years, and knew that the salacious allegations in opposition to Drake had been false, UMG selected company greed over the protection 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 may 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 taking pictures at Drake’s residence a number of days after the music was launched, leading to a safety guard being critically injured .
“In the course of the practically half-hour it took for the ambulance to reach, Drake and others labored to maintain the person alive by making use of strain to the gunshot wound with towels. Blood was all over the place,” the submitting reads.
In line with the go well with, nothing like that had occurred to Drake or his household through the 20 years that he’s been working within the music trade.
The lawsuit additionally states that the a number of break-in makes an attempt on his residence that occurred following the discharge of the music had been brought on by UMG’s actions.
“With the palpable bodily menace to Drake’s security and the bombardment of on-line harassment, Drake fears for the protection and safety of himself, his household, and his buddies,” in response to the brand new go well with. “After the assaults on his residence, Drake pulled his son out of the elementary college he attended in Toronto attributable to security issues, and as soon as college ended for the summer time, Drake organized for his son and mom to depart Toronto totally.”
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Drake’s crew is making it recognized that the brand new lawsuit is just not directed at Lamar and is clearly inserting the blame on Common for releasing, distributing and selling the music.
“This lawsuit is just not in regards to the artist who created ‘Not Like Us,’” the go well with reads. “It’s, as a substitute, 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 trying to devalue his music and status 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 enhance the streaming numbers for “Not Like Us” after the allegations had been denied by each firms.
In earlier allegations that UMG referred to as “ offensive and unfaithful ,” the submitting stated the report firm “launched a marketing campaign to control and saturate the streaming providers and airwaves with a music, ‘Not Like Us,’ in an effort to make that music go viral, together with by utilizing ‘bots’ and pay-to-play agreements.” It stated the corporate and Spotify “have a long-standing, symbiotic enterprise relationship” and alleges that UMG provided particular licensing charges to Spotify for the music.
The petition additionally stated UMG has fired staff seen as loyal to Drake “in an obvious effort to hide its schemes.”
Lamar’s wildly fashionable 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 various different rappers Drake has labored with. It has grow to be the primary diss observe to achieve one billion streams on Spotify, in response to figures listed on streaming service. It’s additionally nominated for 5 Grammy Awards, together with music and report 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 had been occasional collaborators greater than a decade in the past, however Lamar started taking public jabs at Drake beginning in 2013. The battle escalated steeply earlier final yr.
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