Drake’s defamation lawsuit against UMG has worn on for months with plenty of public scrutiny, but now, the label’s boss has stepped in with a statement of his own.
The Canadian rapper, Lucian Grainge, has expressed his frustration in a declaration letter, calling the lawsuit “farcical” and “nonsensical.”
In Drake’s filing earlier this week, he alleged that Grainge was involved with the release of Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us,” down to the cover art. But Grainge says that despite the perks of being CEO, he had nothing to do with approving the disparaging song or the hyped materials around it.
“Whilst, as part of my role, I certainly have financial oversight of and responsibility for UMG’s global businesses, the proposition that I was involved in, much less responsible for, reviewing and approving the content of ‘Not Like Us,’ its cover art or music video, or for determining or directing the promotion of those materials, is groundless and indeed ridiculous,” he writes.
Love Cassius Life? Get more! Join the Cassius Life Newsletter
We care about your data. See our privacy policy.
He adds that despite Lamar’s label Interscope being a subsidiary of UMG, he didn’t see the cover art or the music video until they dropped, and his lawyers say that asking them to dig into their finances is nothing more than forcing “it to waste time and resources out of spite.”
Drake has also alleged that while Lamar’s disses were propped up, his own were suppressed, which Grainge says is nonsensical given how many millions they’ve invested in him.
He writes that his claim “makes no sense due to the fact that the company that I run, Universal Music Group N.V., has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in Drake, including longstanding and critical financial support for his recording career, the purchase and ownership of the bulk of his recording catalog, and the purchase of his music publishing rights.”
In a separate letter, UMG’s lawyers further dismiss Drake’s claim, thinking Grainge’s got time to nitpickingly orchestrate a rap battle while running a global company.
They write that “the premise of Drake’s motion — that he could not have lost a rap battle unless it was the product of some imagined secret conspiracy going to the top of UMG’s corporate structure — is absurd. Sir Lucian is the CEO of a multinational enterprise; his days are spent determining and implementing global strategy, not vetting individual tracks or album covers or driving the release and promotional plans for any one recording.”
The pointed response from UMG’s side comes after Drake requested access to Grainge’s emails and texts surrounding the release of “Not Like Us.”
See social media’s response to Grainge’s willingness to respond to Drake below directly.
