Universal Music Group fired back with some serious heat in response to Drake’s lawsuit over Kendrick Lamar’s diss track, “Not Like Us.” As we previously reported, Drake is calling out the label for defamation in a new lawsuit filed on Wednesday.
In response to Drake’s lawsuit, Universal Music released a lengthy statement to Variety that reads: “Not only are these claims untrue, but the notion that we would seek to harm the reputation of any artist — let alone Drake — is illogical. We have invested massively in his music and our employees around the world have worked tirelessly for many years to help him achieve historic commercial and personal financial success.
RELATED: It’s Not Over! Drake Files Defamation Lawsuit Against UMG Over ‘Not Like Us’
Throughout his career, Drake has intentionally and successfully used UMG to distribute his music and poetry to engage in conventionally outrageous back-and-forth ‘rap battles’ to express his feelings about other artists. He now seeks to weaponize the legal process to silence an artist’s creative expression and to seek damages from UMG for distributing that artist’s music.”
“We have not and do not engage in defamation — against any individual,” the statement concludes. “At the same time, we will vigorously defend this litigation to protect our people and our reputation, as well as any artist who might directly or indirectly become a frivolous litigation target for having done nothing more that write a song.”
The lawsuit, submitted in federal court in New York City, claims that UMG went ahead and pushed the track, even though it dropped some serious false allegations against Drake, including pedophilia claims and a call for vigilante justice. Interestingly, Kendrick Lamar isn’t mentioned in the suit at all.
According to the lawsuit, this whole situation led to some wild consequences, like a security guard getting shot at Drake’s crib in Toronto. On top of that, Drake’s been facing a wave of online hate and harassment, which has taken a toll on his reputation and messed with the value of his brand, especially with his contract renegotiation with UMG coming up this year. Keep in mind, the label has deals with both artists.
“The lawsuit is not about the artist who created ‘Not Like Us,’” the lawsuit says, referring to Lamar. “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 later alleges, “UMG did so because it understood that the Recording’s inflammatory and shocking allegations were a gold mine.”
