Drake is escalating his fight against his record label over their amplification of Kendrick Lamar’s diss track “Not Like Us,” alleging in an amended complaint, “UMG waged an unrelenting campaign” to spread the allegedly defamatory rap as widely as possible.
The new complaint said UMG made significant financial investments and leveraged its professional connections to arrange for “massive amplification of defamatory claims” to more than 133 million viewers at the Super Bowl and more than 15 million viewers at the Grammys.
“UMG has unleashed every weapon in its arsenal, including, on information and belief, certain practices that are unlawful,” the amended complaint said. “It is not just fans of rap music who now believe that Drake is a “certified pedophile,” because it is not just fans of rap music who have been repeatedly exposed to the song’s lyrics. Instead, the Recording has become ubiquitous, in significant part because of UMG’s deliberate efforts designed to accomplish just that.”
Drake accused UMG of removing copyright restrictions on YouTube and Twitch to ensure content creators would republish the track. Drake also accused UMG of covertly offering financial incentives to third parties to stream the song, play it on the radio “and to otherwise promote and endorse the Defamatory Material, all without ever publicly disclosing the payments.”
UMG will respond in court papers but has previously sought to dismiss Drake’s lawsuit, casting him as the sore loser of a rap battle.
Drake is undeterred.
“Drake’s amended complaint makes an already strong case stronger,” Drake’s attorney, Michael Gottlieb, said in a statement. “UMG’s PR ‘spin’ and failed efforts to avoid discovery cannot suppress the facts and the truth. With discovery now moving forward, Drake will expose the evidence of UMG’s misconduct, and UMG will be held accountable for the consequences of its ill-conceived decisions.”
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