Drake’s ‘Not Like Us’ lawsuit: Rapper’s claims, from house shooting to devalued music -USA TODAY
Drake has officially upped the ante in his battle over Kendrick Lamar’s chart-topper “Not Like Us,” with a new lawsuit accusing his and Lamar’s music distributor of profiting off his defamation by releasing the diss track.
In the lawsuit, filed in New York federal court Wednesday and obtained by USA TODAY, Drake’s legal team claimed that despite a decade-long relationship, Universal Music Group “intentionally sought to turn Drake into a pariah, a target for harassment, or worse.” They also wrote the company sought to “profit from damaging Drake’s reputation.”
Drake sued for defamation, second-degree harassment via promoting violence against him and deceptive business practices. “Not Like Us,” he alleged, spreads defamatory claims about Drake, including that he engages in sexual relations with minors and sex trafficking and also harbors sex offenders.
In a statement to USA TODAY, UMG called Drake’s claims “untrue,” denying ever engaging in defamation. The spokesperson said, in part, that Drake is trying to “weaponize the legal process to silence an artist’s creative expression and to seek damages from UMG for distributing that artist’s music
