What we know about the Florida State University shooting suspect
Profile
Sections
Local
tv
Featured
More From NBC
Follow NBC News
news Alerts
There are no new alerts at this time
Drake is expanding his legal battle with Universal Music Group over Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us,” claiming the rival rapper’s Grammys success and Super Bowl performance further damaged his reputation.
Both Drake and Lamar are signed to UMG, under different divisions. (UMG has no relationship to NBCUniversal, the parent company of NBC News.) They engaged in a prolific diss track battle last year, with Lamar coming out on top in the charts.
Drake, whose real name is Aubrey Drake Graham, originally sued UMG in January, alleging that it defamed him by spreading a “false and malicious narrative” when it promoted Lamar’s diss track. The song’s lyrics describe Drake as a “certified pedophile” and a “predator” who needs to be “placed on neighborhood watch.”
UMG filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit last month, arguing the claims are “no more than Drake’s attempt to save face for his unsuccessful rap battle” with Lamar.
In the amended complaint, filed Wednesday in federal court in New York City, Drake’s lawyers claim that the Super Bowl and the Grammys were “prestigious and high-exposure events” that “introduced new listeners” to the allegedly defamatory song.
“Not only did streams of the Recording increase significantly following these two mega-cultural events, but threats against Drake and his family did as well,” according to the amended lawsuit.
Lamar took home five Grammy awards in February and went on to headline the halftime show a week later. He omitted the word “pedophile” during his performance, which averaged 133.5 million viewers, according to The Associated Press.
Drake’s complaint says the lawsuit is “not about” Lamar but rather that it is aimed at “the music company that decided to publish, promote, exploit, and monetize allegations that it understood were not only false, but dangerous.” Representatives for Lamar, who is not a defendant in the lawsuit, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Drake’s lawyers argue that by continuing to promote “Not Like Us,” UMG „intentionally sought to turn Drake into a pariah, a target for harassment, or worse.”
The complaint alleges several instances of assailants’ attempting to threaten Drake at his home last May in the days after the song was released, including one case of a gunman shooting and wounding his security guard.
“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,” the complaint says, adding that the label “continued to fan the flames even after learning of the incitement to violence on May 7 and 8, along with the unrelenting vitriol towards Drake that has followed.”
Drake’s attorneys claim that UMG leveraged its connections to platform Lamar’s diss track at one of the biggest cultural events of the year.
“It was the first, and will hopefully be the last, Super Bowl halftime show orchestrated to assassinate the character of another artist,” the complaint says.
The lawsuit also accuses UMG of conferring benefits and leveraging business relationships “to secure Grammy nominations (and eventually wins)” for “Not Like Us.”
In a statement responding to the latest claims in the lawsuit, a spokesperson for UMG called it “frivolous and reckless.”
“Drake, unquestionably one of the world’s most accomplished artists and with whom we’ve enjoyed a 16-year successful relationship, is being misled by his legal representatives into taking one absurd legal step after another,” the statement said.
“It is shameful that these foolish and frivolous legal theatrics continue,” it added. “They are reputationally and financially costly to Drake and have no chance of success.”
A federal judge this month denied UMG’s request to delay discovery in the case, thus allowing both parties to request sensitive documents that may be used as evidence.
“With discovery now moving forward, Drake will expose the evidence of UMG’s misconduct, and UMG will be held accountable for the consequences of its ill-conceived decisions,” Drake’s attorney Michael Gottlieb said in a statement.
In response to the ruling, a spokesperson for UMG said: “Drake will personally be subject to discovery as well. As the old saying goes, ‘be careful what you wish for.’”
Angela Yang is a culture and trends reporter for NBC News.
© 2025 NBCUniversal Media, LLC
