Drake’s Lawsuit Receives UMG Response Calling His Claims “Illogical”

Drake‘s lawsuit against Universal Music Group has warranted a response from the label regarding his defamation claims, and they’re not backing down.

After Drizzy dropped his petition against Spotify and UMG, the Canadian quickly moved to file an official suit against the entities. The suit accused the two companies of inflating Kendrick Lamar‘s streams for “Not Like Us” to push a “false and malicious narrative” that the global star was a pedophile, which Aubrey claims harmed his reputation and livelihood. UMG fired back at the suit’s defamation claims, asserting that the accusations were “illogical” while accusing Drizzy of “weaponizing the legal process.” Their statement, which they issued on Wednesday (Jan. 15), denied all of the allegations found in Drake’s lawsuit and critiqued Drake’s actions in the process.

“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,” UMG typed. “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.”

The lawsuit claims that UMG knew that “inflammatory and shocking allegations” in Lamar’s scathing diss track were false, but chose to place “corporate greed over the safety and well-being of its artists.”

Universal then used Drake’s history of beefing with rappers in the past as examples of him using over-the-top accusations in a battle. UMG stated that Drake used their resources to record and release music attacking their character—the same thing he now claims is illegal or “defamation.”

“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,” UMG added. “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.”

“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.”

The culture decided the Drake-Kendrick Lamar feud’s victor after K. Dot released his scathing hit diss track, “Not Like Us.” The song rang off all throughout the summer of 2024 and into the fall as it amassed milestones and award nominations, including raking in a billion streams on Spotify, snagging the No. 1 spot on the Billboard 100, and recognition from the Grammys.

Instead of simply taking his L in peace, Drake dug himself a bigger hole by taking the feud to court. Three days after Lamar released GNX to critical acclaim, Drizzy issued his petition to UMG, claiming that his own label had conspired against him by distributing “Not Like Us” and then plotted to turn the track into a viral moment to tear a part Drizzy’s image and harm him financially.

Much like with Aubrey’s latest legal attempt, UMG has vehemently denied ever using defamation to sour the image of one of their artists, and found Graham’s claims to be “offensive and untrue.”

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