Today, Drake's legal dispute with Universal Music Group took an interesting turn. Earlier this week, the Toronto rapper withdrew his pre-action petition against UMG and Spotify, which he filed last month. In it, he accused the two companies of artificially boosting Kendrick Lamar's diss track, "Not Like Us." Just a day after withdrawing the petition, he decided to file a formal lawsuit against UMG for alleged defamation and harassment.
He accuses the company of knowingly spreading the “false and malicious narrative” that he's a pedophile through the promotion of the song and more. Now, per Variety, UMG has issued a response. In it, the company vehemently denies the allegations, also arguing that the suit itself is simply "illogical."
UMG Fires Back Amid Drake Lawsuit
“Not only are these claims untrue, but the notion that we would seek to harm the reputation of any artist — let alone Drake — is illogical," a UMG spokesperson said in part. "We have invested massively in his music and our employees around the world have worked tirelessly for many years to help him achieve historic commercial and personal financial success."
“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," they also added. “We have not and do not engage in defamation — against any individual. At the same time, we will vigorously defend this litigation to protect our people and our reputation, as well as any artist who might directly or indirectly become a frivolous litigation target for having done nothing more than write a song.”
