It’s almost been a year since Kendrick Lamar and Drake engaged in their legendary rap battle. But the obvious loser in the situation seems to keep the events of the beef alive by revisiting them in a new lawsuit.
On Wednesday, the Toronto rapper filed a defamation and harassment suit accusing Universal Music Group (UMG) of spreading the false narrative that he is a pedophile through Lamar’s now-legendary diss track, “Not Like Us.” In the legal documents, Drake’s attorneys make it clear that this lawsuit is not about Lamar, who wrote and performed the song, but UMG, whom they claim “saw an opportunity, seized it, and continued to fan the flames.”
UMG responds to suit
The behemoth music company, which Drake has been signed to for more than a decade, responded swiftly to the statement just hours after the lawsuit was filed in New York federal court.
In a statement released to Variety, a UMG spokesperson said, “Not only are these claims untrue, but the notion that we would seek to harm the reputation of any artist — let alone Drake — is illogical. We have invested massively in his music and our employees around the world have worked tirelessly for many years to help him achieve historic commercial and personal financial success.”
They continued, “Throughout his career, Drake has intentionally and successfully used UMG to distribute his music and poetry to engage in conventionally outrageous back-and-forth ‘rap battles’ to express his feelings about other artists. He now seeks to weaponize the legal process to silence an artist’s creative expression and to seek damages from UMG for distributing that artist’s music.”
UMG closed its response by saying that they “do not engage in defamation” and are willing to “vigorously defend this litigation” to protect their reputation.
In other words, UMG says Drake has used them in the past to win rap battles and is now taking advantage of the legal system to try and silence Kendrick since he lost their rap battle in embarrassing fashion.
Black Twitter’s vicious reaction
Naturally, Black Twitter was quick to clown the 6-God for his questionable legal move, leading to some amusing posts on social media.
One user on X wrote, “Drake is keeping ‘Not Like Us’ and the narrative alive more than Kendrick is. That’s the funniest part about all of this.”
Another user added, “Drake got smoked so hard he was like ‘nah, this gotta be illegal’.”
The beef already appeared to do a lot of damage to Drake’s reputation, but it seems that this lawsuit is making things much and appears to have backfired in his face. We’ll see how he responds to it.