Drake's legal team has filed motions demanding that Universal Music Group provide any documents they have related to allegations of domestic violence against Kendrick Lamar. Additionally, they want access to any documents involving Dave Free’s relationship with him and his children. They filed the motions on Tuesday evening.
Overall, the motion requests 75 document requests. For document request No. 50, Drake's attorneys write: "From January 1, 2014 to the present, all Documents and Communications relating to allegations of domestic violence, violence against women, and/or other forms of violence committed by Kendrick Lamar Duckworth." For No. 51, they add: "From January 1, 2019 to the present, all Documents and Communications relating to David Isaac Friley (a/lc/a Dave Free) and his relationship with Kendrick Lamar Duckworth and Kendrick Lamar Duckworth's children."
Why Is Drake Suing UMG?
The requests pertain to the discovery phase of Drake's defamation lawsuit against UMG. He is suing the company over its alleged promotion of Kendrick Lamar's diss track, "Not Like Us." He claims it used bots to artificially increase the popularity of the song, on which Lamar labels him a “certified pedophile.”
UMG previously warned Drake against entering into discovery against the company back in April. "Two weeks ago, his representatives celebrated a ‘win’: the granting of a routine discovery motion," they said in a statement at the time. "That ‘win’ will become a loss if this frivolous and reckless lawsuit is not dropped in its entirety because Drake will personally be subject to discovery as well. As the old saying goes, ‘be careful what you wish for.’"
As caught by Billboard, another section of the motions requests documents pertaining to Pusha T's 2018 diss track, "The Story of Adidon.” His lawyer, Michael Gottlieb, says they want to see whether UMG censored any lyrics from that song which may have been defamatory.
“Such documents would reveal why, and under what circumstances, UMG believes it is appropriate to censor its artists’ expression, which plaintiff could evaluate alongside UMG’s decisions regarding ‘Not Like Us,’” Gottlieb writes. “UMG’s past practice, and knowledge regarding prior defamatory material it has refused to publish, would be highly probative of UMG’s knowledge here.”
