Drake is taking even more legal action against his own record label, with a second courthouse filing less than 24 hours after the first.
Monday, the ailing pop-rap superstar took legal action Universal Music Group and Spotify in New York. In the pre-action petition, a filing intended to gather more information before a lawsuit, Drake claimed UMG “launched a campaign to manipulate and saturate the streaming services and airwaves” with “Not Like Us,” the Kendrick Lamar hit that served as the decisive blow in the rap beef between the two artists. Drake’s team claimed UMG inflated the popularity of “Not Like Us” with tactics including bots and payola. (Both Drake and Kendrick record under the Universal umbrella: Drake for OVO/Republic, Kendrick for pgLang/Interscope.)
Today, Drake has filed a second legal action against UMG, this time in Texas. As Billboard reports, this time the filing targets Universal and iHeartMedia, arguing that the label “funneled payments” to the radio behemoth as part of a “pay-to-play scheme.” This new filing also takes UMG to task over the “Not Like Us” lyrics, which famously dub Drake a “certified pedophile” and a “predator.” Drake says UMG knew the allegations to be incorrect but did not block the release of a song “falsely accusing him of being a sex offender.” The filing reads:
UMG … could have refused to release or distribute the song or required the offending material to be edited and/or removed. But UMG chose to do the opposite. UMG designed, financed and then executed a plan to turn “Not Like Us” into a viral mega-hit with the intent of using the spectacle of harm to Drake and his businesses to drive consumer hysteria and, of course, massive revenues. That plan succeeded, likely beyond UMG’s wildest expectations.
…Before it approved the release of the song, UMG knew that the song itself, as well as its accompanying album art and music video, attacked the character of another one of UMG’s most prominent artists, Drake, by falsely accusing him of being a sex offender, engaging in pedophilic acts, harboring sex offenders and committing other criminal sexual acts.
This second maneuver is again a pre-action filing designed to acquire depositions from UMG and iHeart employees, which could then be used in a lawsuit. In response to Monday’s filing, UMG claimed they’d done nothing wrong: “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.”
The rift between Drake and UMG is a significant music industry development. Drake has been associated with Universal for 15 years, dating back to his deal with Lil Wayne’s Young Money label in 2009, and has been a commercial behemoth for the company, posting dominant sales and streaming numbers.
hi, grandma? can u come pick me up from my rap battle? it’s over. no, i lost. he saw u drop me off & did a pretty devastating rhyme about it
— chuuch (@ch000ch) October 19, 2013
