In the world of hip-hop, diss tracks are flying all around. Usually it is only a ‘who is the best rapper’ fight, but in the case of Drake and Kendrick Lamar it escalated up to a lawsuit.
It started with a few innocent diss tracks, but in 2024 things got out of hand and accusations grew ever more serious. In ‘Family Matters’, Drake accused Lamar of domestic violence. This was soon followed by ‘Meet the Grahams’, in which Lamar in turn accused Drake of sex trafficking.
Then the bomb was dropped. In 2024 Lamar released ‘Not Like Us’ in which the called Drake a ‘certified paedophile’. This song was a super hit and was awarded 5 Grammy’s, including for ‘song of the year’ and ‘record of the year’.
A striking detail is that Drake and Lamar are with the same label: Universal Music Group. This makes it remarkable that Drake did not go after Lamar, but targeted Universal and even Spotify and iHeartMedia. First, Drake brought two ‘pre-action petitions’ in November 2024. In fact this is a phase prior to an official lawsuit, during which a party seeks access to information the other party has before bringing an action.
In the first pre-action petition Drake accused Universal and Spotify of conspiring to boost the streams of ‘Not Like Us’, including by using ‘bots’, with the alleged purpose of cashing on the hype at the expense of Drake’s reputation. This action has meanwhile been withdrawn. In the second pre-action petition Drake accused Universal and iHeartMedia of having concluded an illegal deal, in which Universal had paid iHeartMedia for playing the song ‘Not Like Us’ and promoting it via the radio. In this action, a settlement was eventually made with iHeartMedia. Drake withdrew the case in exchange for access to documents showing that iHeartMedia had done nothing wrong.
In addition, Drake separately targeted his own label Universal. He blamed them of having released and promoted the ‘tortuous’ song. Universal calls the claim ‘illogical’, since they have invested massively in Drake. Universal also feels it was taken advantage of by Drake to fight his the battle with Lamar and silence him:
“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.”
On 9 February 2025, Lamar then performed at the greatest show of the year: the Super Bowl. Lamar played ‘Not Like Us’ for a record audience. He left out the world ‘paedophile’ in his performance, which was remarkable. Drake seized this opportunity to support his argument that the song is tortuous. His damage had allegedly only increased by the enormous reach of the performance.
At present, the case is still in a kind of early stage: the ‘pretrial procedure’. Drake recently gained a small victory. The Court denied Universal's request to stop a discovery. This means that Drake can require all kinds of documents from Universal about, for instance, the Super Bowl show, the Grammy awards and all contracts with Lamar. On the other hand, Universal can do the same about Drake. On 30 June 2025, the ‘motion to dismiss’ submitted by Universal will be heard, and then the court will decide whether or not to reject the matter. If the matter is not rejected, and no settlement was reached in the meantime, the proceedings on the merits will probably only follow in the summer of 2026.
To be continued.
