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Universal Music Group (UMG) has filed a motion to dismiss an amended lawsuit filed by the record label’s own industry darling, Drake, who initially filed the suit in January — accusing the label of intentionally engaged in defamation by promoting Kendrick Lamar‘s cultural phenomenon of a diss track, “Not Like Us” — and amended the suit in April “to focus on events that took place since the initial filing,” according to Variety.
The lawsuit, which many people across the internet have panned as Drake’s misguided effort of saving face after he was thoroughly defeated in a beef with his Compton rival last summer, appears to blame UMG for Kendrick performing “Not Like Us” during the Super bowl halftime show in February, and during 2025 Grammy Awards the same month.
UMG had previously argued that Drake willfully engaged in the battle with K-Dot of his own accord, and he’s now just lashing out because it turned out to be an L that he insists on dragging out with his legal filings. (I’m definitely paraphrasing UMG, but basically, the label implied Drake has buyer’s remorse from writing a check his skills on the mic couldn’t cash.) UMG’s motion, which it filed Wednesday, noted that during the Super Bowl performance, Kendrick self-censored his “certified pedophile” line, which is cited in the defamation suit.
From Variety:
On Wednesday, UMG once again filed to dismiss, this time for the amended complaint, largely maintaining the arguments from the original motion while addressing the more recent claims made in the updated complaint. Counsel for the company began by stating that Drake filed an amended complaint where he “removed obviously false factual allegations,” and said that the “new allegations are astonishing.” Regarding the Super Bowl performance, lawyers for UMG wrote, “As Drake concedes, Lamar’s Super Bowl performance did not include the lyric that Drake or his associates are ‘certified pedophiles’ (i.e., the alleged ‘Defamatory Material’ that is at the heart of this case). The focus of Drake’s new claims—that ‘the largest audience for a Super Bowl halftime show ever’ did not hear Lamar call Drake or his crew pedophiles—betrays this case for what it is: Drake’s attack on the commercial and creative success of the rap artist who defeated him, rather than the content of Lamar’s lyrics.”
In a statement to Variety, UMG reiterated its argument that Drake walked himself into his beef with Kendrick all on his own, and that he has played the diss track game with other artists in the past.
“Nowhere in the hundred-plus page ‘legal’ blather written by Drake’s lawyers do they bother to acknowledge that Drake himself has written and performed massively successful songs containing equally provocative taunts against other artists,” a UMG spokesperson said. “Nor do they mention that it was Drake who started this particular exchange. Apparently, Drake’s lawyers believe that when Drake willingly participates in a performative rap-battle of music and poetry, he can be ‘defamed’ even though he engages in the exact same form of creative expression.”
