A hip-hop celebrity beef was cranked up one other notch Wednesday when Drake sued Universal Music Group for defamation over rival Kendrick Lamar’s diss monitor “Not Like Us.”
The lawsuit, filed in federal court docket in New York City, alleges UMG printed and promoted the monitor although it included false pedophilia allegations in opposition to Drake and advised listeners ought to resort to vigilante justice. Lamar just isn’t named within the go well with.
The consequence, the go well with says, was intruders taking pictures a safety guard at Drake’s Toronto dwelling, in addition to on-line hate and harassment, a success to his status and lowering his model’s worth earlier than his contract renegotiation with UMG this yr. The firm has contracts with each stars.
“The lawsuit is not about the artist who created ‘Not Like Us,’” the lawsuit says, referring to Lamar. “It is, instead, entirely about UMG, the music company that decided to publish, promote, exploit, and monetize allegations that it understood were not only false, but dangerous.”
The go well with later alleges, “UMG did so because it understood that the Recording’s inflammatory and shocking allegations were a gold mine.”
And, the go well with claims, the music firm has made giant investments and used its connections to rearrange for “Not Like Us” to be carried out at subsequent month’s Super Bowl, the place Lamar would be the halftime leisure.
The lawsuit, which is in search of a trial and an undisclosed amount of cash for damages, additionally repeated allegations in different authorized filings that UMG falsely pumped up the recognition of “Not Like Us” on streaming providers.
Representatives for Drake declined to remark Wednesday. Representatives for UMG and Lamar didn’t instantly reply to emails in search of remark.
In a earlier assertion responding to comparable allegations in pre-litigation filings, the file firm mentioned 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.”
The feud between Drake, a 38-year-old Canadian rapper and singer and five-time Grammy winner, and Lamar, a 37-year-old Pulitzer Prize winner, is among the many greatest in hip-hop lately, with two of the style’s greatest stars at its heart.
The two had been occasional collaborators greater than a decade in the past, however Lamar started taking public jabs at Drake beginning in 2013. The battle escalated steeply final yr.
Drake’s attorneys, from New York-based Willkie Farr & Gallagher, mentioned the lawsuit seeks to carry UMG accountable for knowingly selling false and defamatory allegations in opposition to him.
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