Maeve Bidonde, Staff Writer
This past week UMG, the record label at the center of a lawsuit Drake filed against them after a rap battle with Kendrick Lamar has filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit. According to NBC News, UMG argues that Drake’s claims are “no more than Drake’s attempt to save face for his unsuccessful rap battle.” Drake filed the defamation suit alleging that the label was unfairly promoting Lamar’s hit song “Not Like Us,” a song that alleges that Drake engaged in unsavory activities with minors.
According to NBC News, UMG’s court filing states Drake “lost a rap battle that he provoked and in which he willingly participated. Instead of accepting the loss like the unbothered rap artist he often claims to be, he has sued his own record label in a misguided attempt to solve his wounds.” This comes on the heels of a year long rap battle where Lamar and Drake released diss track after diss track aimed at the other. Fans determined that Kendrick Lamar won the battle against Drake.
“Not Like Us” gave Lamar five Grammys wins and he performed the song during his Super Bowl halftime show back in February. When Drake sued UMG for defamation, he said the label was promoting an untrue and harmful narrative defaming him when they promoted Lamar’s track. Lamar’s name is not listed in the suit against UMG.
According to NBC News Mike Gotlieb, Drake’s lead attorney responded to the filing saying “UMG wants to pretend that this is about a rap battle in order to distract its shareholders, artists and the public from a simple truth: a greedy company is finally being held responsible for profiting from dangerous misinformation that has already resulted in multiple acts of violence. This motion is a desperate ploy by UMG to avoid accountability, but we have every confidence that this case will proceed and continue to uncover UMG’s long history of endangering, abusing and taking advantage of its artists.”
According to The New York Times, in order for Drake’s lawsuit for defamation to stand he would need to prove that false and damaging information was knowingly put out into the world with malice intentions. Furthermore Drake’s evidence to support his suit is that UMG would not have continued to have a business relationship with him if the allegations of sexual abuse against him were true. He goes on to claim that UMG were purposefully devaluing him because his contract would be up for renegotiation soon.
UMG though says that “Not Like US” was following a precedent of insults Drake set when he released a diss track accusing Lamar of domestic abuse. They go on to say “No reasonable viewer would believe that the image of Drake’s Toronto mansion with 13 sex offender markers is real; the image is hyperbolic and exaggerated.”
The New York Times states that Drake’s most recent album titled “Some Sexy Songs 4U” debuted at number 1 on the BillBoard album chart in February. It was released by Republic Records which is a UMG subsidiary. The world will have to wait to see if the motion to dismiss works and the suit is dismissed.
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