The drama between Drake and the Universal Music Group continues, and this time, the major label hit back at the “Passionfruit” rapper’s defamation lawsuit over Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us.”
In case you missed what has been going on, here’s a quick rundown on the feud between Drake and his home label, the UMG (not to mention with Lamar!).
Months after Lamar released “Not Like Us”—a diss track that accused Drake of pedophilia, Drake filed a motion against UMG and Spotify in November 2024, accusing them of using bots to promote and inflate Lamar’s song.
This prompted UMG to respond to Drake’s move, where they denied all of his accusations, saying: “The suggestion that UMG would do anything to undermine any of its artists is offensive and untrue. We employ the highest ethical practices in our marketing and promotional campaigns. No amount of contrived and absurd legal arguments in this pre-action submission can mask the fact that fans choose the music they want to hear.”
A day after, Drake then filed another motion, which alleged UMG of funneling payments through iHeartRadio. He also accused the label of defamation, arguing that UMG could have prevented the release and distribution of “Not Like Us” because the track is “falsely accusing him of being a sex offender.”
Fast forward to January of this year, Drake withdrew his legal action in November 2024 against UMG and Spotify. Instead, he filed a defamation case against UMG in a New York City court.
According to the lawsuit, the “God’s Plan” hitmaker alleged his home label of using third-party bots to turn Lamar’s song filled with “inflammatory and shocking allegations” into a chart-topping success.
And now, UMG fired back at Drake by filing a motion to dismiss the rapper’s lawsuit, stating that the latter is only suing to try “[saving] face for his unsuccessful rap battle with Lamar.”
In the motion filed last March 17, 2025, the label claimed that Drake has “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.”
Further, attorneys for UMG hit back at Drake, accusing him of double standards where it was okay for the label to promote his diss tracks against Lamar and not vice versa.
“Drake has been pleased to use UMG’s platform to promote tracks leveling similarly incendiary attacks at Lamar. But now, after losing the rap battle, Drake claims that ‘Not Like Us’ is defamatory. It is not,” UMG’s attorneys stated.
Following UMG’s move, a representative for Drake has responded, accusing the music giant that the motion to dismiss the case against them “is a desperate ploy by UMG to avoid accountability.”
“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,” Drake’s attorney Michael J. Gottlieb said in a statement.
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