Drake has escalated his ongoing authorized battle towards his document label, Common Music Group (UMG), by submitting defamation lawsuit towards 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 ” company greed over the protection and well-being of its artists,” in response to The New York Instances.
In his submitting, Drake’s group 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, 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 towards him,” the criticism reads. “Despite the fact that UMG enriched itself and its shareholders by exploiting Drake’s music for years, and knew that the salacious allegations towards 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 capturing at Drake’s house a couple of days after the tune 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 in all places,” the submitting reads.
In keeping with 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 makes an attempt on his house that occurred following the discharge of the tune had been attributable to 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 mates,” in response to 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 attributable to security considerations, and as soon as faculty ended for the summer time, Drake organized for his son and mom to depart Toronto solely.”
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Drake’s group is making it identified that the brand new lawsuit will not be directed at Lamar and is clearly putting the blame on Common for releasing, distributing and selling the tune.
“This lawsuit will not be concerning the artist who created ‘Not Like Us,’” the go well with reads. “It’s, as an alternative, solely 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 take care of the label is nearing the top of its time period, the corporate is trying to devalue his music and popularity 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 had been denied by each corporations.
In earlier allegations that UMG known as “ offensive and unfaithful ,” the submitting stated the document firm “launched a marketing campaign to govern and saturate the streaming companies and airwaves with a tune, ‘Not Like Us,’ with the intention to make that tune 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 provided particular licensing charges to Spotify for the tune.
The petition additionally stated UMG has fired workers 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 known as Drake a “colonizer” and attributed his success to the numerous different rappers Drake has labored with. It has turn out to be the primary diss observe to succeed in one billion streams on Spotify, in response to figures listed on streaming service. It’s additionally nominated for 5 Grammy Awards, together with tune and document of the yr.
The feud between Drake and Lamar is among the many greatest in hip-hop lately, with two of the style’s greatest 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 combat escalated steeply earlier final yr.
—With recordsdata from The Related Press and World Information
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