On Tuesday, January 14, Drake withdrew his legal action accusing Spotify and Universal Music Group (UMG) of artificially boosting streams of Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us.” The withdrawal came less than two months after Drake took multiple legal actions against parties also including iHeartRadio, alleging that various sections of the music industry conspired to make Lamar’s diss track a hit.
The withdrawal of Drake’s New York state petition follows a counter-filing from Spotify that unequivocally rejected the claims and called the action a “subversion of the normal judicial process.” UMG also denied the claims. In the new filing, Drake’s company Frozen Moments LLC said it would voluntarily withdraw the action “without costs to any party.”
While the new filing states that “Spotify has no objection to the withdrawal and discontinuance,” UMG has “reserved its position.” Pitchfork has emailed each company’s respective representatives for comment.
On Wednesday, January 15, Drake newly sued Universal Music Group, in a New York federal court, for defamation and harassment, The New York Times reports. The complaint, obtained by Pitchfork, opens with an epigraph from UMG’s chairman and chief executive, Sir Lucian Grainge:
From there, Drake and his legal team invoke the shooting outside the rapper’s Toronto mansion last May. The attack, along with two other alleged attempted intrusions, occurred in the days after Kendrick Lamar released “Not Like Us,” on May 4, in partnership with UMG’s Interscope Records.
“UMG is the ‘world’s largest music company,’ and also the music company that has represented Drake for more than a decade,” the lawsuit reads. “Yet, on May 4, 2024, UMG approved, published, and launched a campaign to create a viral hit out of a rap track that falsely accuses Drake of being a pedophile and calls for violent retribution against him. Even though UMG enriched itself and its shareholders by exploiting Drake’s music for years, and knew that the salacious allegations against Drake were false, UMG chose corporate greed over the safety and well-being of its artists.”
Drake’s legal team, led by attorney Michael J. Gottlieb, says that Lamar’s song “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. The Recording is defamatory because its lyrics, its album image… and its music video… all advance the false and malicious narrative that Drake is a pedophile.”
Nevertheless, the lawyers also make clear that the complaint “is not about the artist who created ‘Not Like Us.’ It is, instead, entirely about UMG, the music company that decided to publish, promote, exploit, and monetize allegations that it understood were not only false, but dangerous.” They continue: “Drake is not a pedophile. Drake has never engaged in any acts that would require he be ‘placed on neighborhood watch.’ Drake has never engaged in sexual relations with a minor. Drake has never been charged with, or convicted of, any criminal acts whatsoever.”
Universal Music Group has previously denied Drake’s claims of wrongdoing. Pitchfork has reached out to the company’s representatives for comment.
The lawsuit continues by alleging that Universal Music Group undertook a “successful” and “unrelenting campaign” to promote the song, its single artwork (“depicting Drake’s actual Toronto house”), and its music video “as widely as possible.” “UMG did so because it understood that the Recording’s inflammatory and shocking allegations were a gold mine,” Drake’s team contends.
UMG’s campaign, according to the lawsuit, involved helping secure Kendrick Lamar’s spot as the Super Bowl LVI halftime show performer and paying to promote the Grammy candidacy of “Not Like Us.” The song ultimate got five nominations for the 2025 Grammy Awards.
The lawsuit outlines traditional promotional tactics for a hit song, such as marketing and licensing, but also accuses UMG of “[conspiring] with and [paying] currently unknown parties to use ‘bots’ to artificially inflate the spread of the Recording on Spotify.” In addition, the lawyers allege that “UMG also offered financial incentives, including direct payments and reduced licensing rates, to various third parties to promote the Recording.”
Drake, according to his lawyers, “confronted UMG about its role in promoting allegations of sexual misconduct lacking ‘the slightest factual basis’ against him,” but the label allegedly “refused to do anything to help.” The rapper also says that he “attempted to address these claims privately with UMG,” but the label apparently “responded that Drake would face humiliation if he brought legal action.”
Further, Drake says he took it upon himself to deny Lamar’s “Not Like Us” claims through his response song “The Heart Part 6.” In the track, “Drake explained that he has ‘never been with no one underage’ and that his name is not on the ‘sex offender list,’” the lawsuit notes.
A separate action, in Bexar County, Texas, against Universal Music Group and iHeartRadio remains pending. That contained two separate claims: that UMG should have blocked the song’s release, on the basis that it “falsely [accused] him of being a sex offender, engaging in pedophilic acts, harboring sex offenders, and committing other criminal sexual acts”; and that UMG funneled payments to iHeartRadio in a pay-to-play promotional scheme that violates the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act.
This article was originally published on Wednesday, January 15, at 9:38 a.m. Eastern Standard Time. It was last updated on January 15 at 11:22 a.m. Eastern Standard Time.
