Drake Sues His Own Label for Defamation

Some saw Drake as backing away from his claims that Universal Music Group conspired against him in promoting a diss track accusing the rapper of pedophilia when he withdrew a pre-lawsuit petition from New York state court on Tuesday. But a day later, Drake filed a federal lawsuit accusing UMG of defamation and harassment, the New York Times reports. In the suit filed in federal court in the Southern District of New York, Drake alleges UMG did everything it could to promote rival Kendrick Lamar's "Not Like Us," effectively spreading the "false and malicious narrative" that Drake is a pedophile, in an effort to devalue his brand and thereby give UMG the upper hand in negotiations with the rapper, per TMZ.

The suit claims to not be about Lamar, with whom Drake has been feuding. "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," the suit reads. Its campaign to promote "Not Like Us" 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 suit reads. It refers to a shooting at Drake's mansion shortly after the song's release, calling it "the 2024 equivalent of Pizzagate." The suit was filed by the same law firm that represented the owner of the pizzeria targeted by the "Pizzagate" conspiracy theorists, the Times points out.

Drake says UMG knew the allegations of pedophilia were false. Otherwise, the company wouldn't have been in business with the rapper since 2009, the suit claims, accusing UMG of valuing "corporate greed over the safety and well-being of its artists." Drake also claims UMG used bots to artificially stream "Not Like Us" at least 30 million times and paid at least one radio promoter to air the track, per TMZ. "Not Like Us" was released after Drake's "Family Matters," in which Drake accused Lamar of beating his partner and covering it up, reports the Times. Drake also suggested Lamar's manager may have secretly fathered one of Lamar's children. (More Drake stories.)