As I am sure you are aware, Drake and Kendrick Lamar’s long-running beef came to a head last year when they became embroiled in a heated exchange of seriously brutal diss tracks. You can read a full breakdown of the feud here, but all you really need to know is that Kendrick is undeniably the one who emerged from the battle triumphant, considering his song “Not Like Us” — where he literally calls Drake a pedophile — ended up winning five Grammys earlier this year.
And Drake hasn’t exactly taken the situation on the chin; back in January, he filed a lawsuit against his own record label, Universal Music Group, which is also the label behind Kendrick. In the suit, Drake accused UMG of defamation and harassment, and claimed that they “approved, published, and launched a campaign to create a viral hit out of a rap track” that was “intended to convey the specific, unmistakable, and false factual allegation that Drake is a criminal pedophile, and to suggest that the public should resort to vigilante justice in response.”
But on Monday, Universal hit back as they filed an absolutely brutal motion to dismiss Drake’s suit against them, alleging that the artist is simply trying to “salve his wounds” after losing a rap battle. Per Variety, the scathing suit claims that Drake “lost a rap battle that he provoked and in which he willingly participated. Instead of accepting the loss like the unbothered rap artist he often claims to be, he has sued his own record label in a misguided attempt to salve his wounds. Plaintiff’s Complaint is utterly without merit and should be dismissed with prejudice.”
And the whole thing has caused quite a stir on social media, with many people reacting to UMG’s claims against Drake on X. One particularly viral tweet responding to Variety’s quotes from the suit simply reads: “something really devastating about a legal document stating you’ve lost a rap battle.”
Drake has not publicly responded to the suit, but his attorney, Michael J. Gottlieb, said in a statement to Variety: “UMG wants to pretend that this is about a rap battle in order to distract its shareholders, artists and the public from a simple truth: a greedy company is finally being held responsible for profiting from dangerous misinformation that has already resulted in multiple acts of violence. This motion is a desperate ploy by UMG to avoid accountability, but we have every confidence that this case will proceed and continue to uncover UMG’s long history of endangering, abusing and taking advantage of its artists.”
What do you make of the situation? Let me know in the comments!