Drake covers Kendrick Lamar’s Not Like Us

Rap superstar Drake is suing Universal Music Group (UMG) for defamation and harassment over the release of his Kendrick Lamar album Not Like Us last year.

The song, which was part of a furious back-and-forth between the two stars, accused Drake and his entourage of being “certified pedophiles” who “should be registered and put on neighborhood watch.”

In documents filed in New York, Drake’s lawyers accused the label of launching a “campaign to create a viral hit” from a song that made a “true and false allegation that Drake is a criminal pedophile” and suggesting that the public should play it. In response to the guardian of justice.’

Universal has yet to respond to the allegations.

The move comes 24 hours after Drake dropped a lawsuit against UMG and Spotify, accusing the two companies of conspiring to artificially boost Not Like Us’ streams at the expense of his music.

In that case, it argued that Universal licensed the song to Spotify at a “drastically reduced rate” and used bots to generate additional plays, “creating the false impression that the song was more popular than it actually was.”

In a statement at the time, Universal told the BBC: “The suggestion that the company would do anything to undermine any of its artists is offensive and untrue.”

Furthermore, “no preposterous, contrived legal argument … can hide the fact that fans choose the music they want to hear.”

Spotify also responded that there is “no financial incentive for users to stream Not Like Us from Drake’s songs.”

The Swedish streaming company later filed a right of opposition against Drake’s request, stating that it “should have been denied.”

His lawyers withdrew the case on Tuesday after meeting with representatives of both companies, according to court documents.

That drew a line under legal action – until the story took a dramatic turn on Wednesday morning.

In a lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, Drake accuses Universal — which distributes both his music and Lamar’s — of prioritizing “the entire company over the safety and well-being of its artists.”

According to his lawyers, the Not Like Us artwork was based on an aerial photo of Drake’s $100 million Toronto mansion, which is splattered with red signs commonly used to indicate the presence of sex offenders.

Court documents link the artwork to a shooting at the property shortly after Kendrick’s song was released, calling it “the 2024 equivalent of ‘Pizzagate.’

The comment referred to a conspiracy theory about a US child sex ring operating at a pizza restaurant in Washington. which caused them to open fire in the dining room in 2016.

Not Like Us was seen as the final blow in a long feud between Drake and Lamar that dates back to the early 2010s.

In the lyrics, Lamar says Drake “likes young people” and accuses him of using other more credible rappers to boost his profile.

Drake responded with a song called The Heart Part 6, in which he dismissed the accusations, saying, “I never dated anyone underage.” He also said he gave Lamar “false” information through a double agent.

However, his response failed to attract the same attention as Not Like Us, which debuted at number one on the US charts and attracted more than 1 billion streams on Spotify.

The song is nominated for five awards, including album and song of the year, at the Grammy Awards on February 3. A week later, Lamar will headline the Super Bowl halftime show.

However, the new lawsuit is not aimed at Lamar himself, according to Drake’s lawyers.

“This lawsuit is not about the artist who created Not Like Us,” court documents state.

“Instead, this is entirely about UMG, the music company that decided to publish, promote, exploit and monetize the allegations, which it understood to be not only false, but dangerous.”