Drake is taking his rap beef with Kendrick Lamar from the streets to the courtroom.
The “Hotline Bling” rapper has filed a second lawsuit over Lamar’s hit song “Not Like Us.” This time, he alleged that Lamar falsely called him a pedophile.
According to BillboardThe new filing was filed late on November 25 and made public on November 26. In it, Drake claims UMG “routed payments” to iHeart as part of a “pay-to-play scheme” to promote “Not Like Us” on radio.
Additionally, in the filing, Drake said that UMG knew that Kendrick’s song “falsely” accused him of being a “certified pedophile” and “predator” but still chose to release it.
In “Not Like Us” Lamar raps: “Hey Drake, I heard you like the kids / You better never go to jail one / With any bitch that talks to him and they’re in love / Just make sure you hide your sister from him.”
“Certified Lover Boy? Certified pedophiles,” Lamar added before continuing to rap: “Try to hit a chord and it might be A minor.”
“UMG… could have refused to release or distribute the song or requested that the infringing material be edited and/or removed,” Drake’s attorney wrote in the lawsuit. “But UMG chose to do the opposite. UMG designed, financed, and then executed the plan to turn ‘Not Like Us’ into a viral hit with the intent of using the spectacle to harm Drake and others. his business to fuel consumer hysteria and of course, that plan succeeded, far exceeding UMG’s greatest expectations.”
The new legal documents are not a lawsuit, but rather a pre-filing that seeks to elicit testimony from key figures at UMG and iHeart to gain additional information that could support Drake’s allegations in a future lawsuit.
However, Billboard reports that Drake has enough evidence to pursue a “libel claim” against UMG and that his legal team may bring additional claims of civil fraud and racketeering based on the allegations. What did they discover from the statements?
Lamar is not named as a defendant and has not been charged with any legal wrongdoing to date.
The additional legal action comes after Drake previously filed a lawsuit against UMG on November 25. In that lawsuit, he claimed that UMG used payola to inflate the success of “Not Like Us” during release week.
According to Diversitythe filing claims that UMG “engaged in conduct designed to artificially inflate the popularity of ‘Not Like Us’ […] including licensing the song at a significantly reduced price to Spotify and using ‘bots’ to create the false impression that the song was more popular than it actually was.”
“UMG appears to have used similar tactics with other streaming services. Upon information and belief, UMG paid or approved payments to Apple Inc. for technical assistant requests The ‘Siri’ voice-activated number intentionally misdirects users to ‘Don’t Like Us,'” the lawsuit goes on to say.
This action is also not a legal action but it could also become a lawsuit in the future.
Following the initial lawsuit, UMG released a statement regarding Drake’s filing.
“The suggestion that UMG would do anything to undermine any of its artists is insulting and untrue. We employ the highest ethical practices in our marketing and promotional campaigns No artificial and unreasonable legal arguments in this submission before the action can conceal the truth.” fans choose the music they want to hear,” they said through Billboard.
Tag Drake Kendrick Lamar