Drake sues for defamation over Kendrick Lamar song ‘Not Like Us’ for “false allegation of being criminal paedophile”

Drake is suing Universal Music Group (UMG) for releasing Kendrick Lamar‘s diss track ‘Not Like Us‘ last year – where Drake and his peers were described as “certified paedophiles” who should “be registered and placed on neighbourhood watch”.

The lawsuit, filed in a New York federal court today (January 15), called the release and promotion of the track, where Lamar alleged Drake “likes ‘em young”, an example of valuing “corporate greed over the safety and wellbeing of its artists”.

As The Guardian reports, the lawsuit alleges that UMG “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”.

The suit also draws attention to the artwork for ‘Not Like Us’, which features a picture of Drake’s Toronto house with markers used to identify the homes of registered sex offenders. It then mentions a shooting which occurred outside the rapper’s house two days after the track was released, calling it “the 2024 equivalent of ‘Pizzagate’”.

Lawyer Michael J Gottlieb is representing Drake in this case. Gottlieb has previously represented the owner of a Washington DC pizzeria targeted by “Pizzagate” conspiracy theorists in 2016, and election workers falsely accused by Rudy Giuliani of aiding a fictional plot during the 2020 US presidential election to sway the vote towards Joe Biden.

Universal has yet to respond to the allegations, according to the BBC.

Earlier today Drake dropped a legal case which accused labels of inflating the number of streams on ‘Not Like Us’. He pursued the legal case last November and alleged that Universal Music Group (UMG) and Spotify had “artificially inflated” the number of listens on the track.

However, there are now reports that the rapper met with Spotify and Universal representatives yesterday (January 14) to discuss the case. The BBC reported that Spotify – which had filed an opposition – had no objections, and Universal, which hadn’t filed an opposition, reserved its position.