Drake’s lawyer responds to UMG claiming he lost Kendrick Lamar rap battle
Universal Music Group filed a motion to dismiss Drake‘s defamation lawsuit earlier this week over promoting Kendrick Lamar’s ‘Not Like Us’. The Toronto rapper’s label claimed he lost his beef with Kendrick, alleging he “encouraged” the feud and “goaded” him to respond.
Drizzy’s legal team has now hit back at Universal, accusing them of playing a role in spreading misinformation that ended up with a shooting at his home and a security guard being injured.
“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,” Drake’s lead attorney, Mike Gottlieb, said in a statement.
“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 and abusing its artists.”
Universal attempted to dismiss the filing on March 17th after Drake claimed the record company “approved, published and launched a campaign to create a viral hit out of a rap track” that was “intended to convey the specific, unmistakable and false factual allegation that Drake is a criminal paedophile, and to suggest that the public should resort to vigilante justice in response.”
Their filing read, “Plaintiff, one of the most successful recording artists of all time, lost a rap battle that he provoked and in which he willingly participated. Instead of accepting the loss like the unbothered rap artist he claims to be, he has sued his own record label in a misguided attempt to salve his wounds. Plaintiff’s Complaint is utterly without merit and should be dismissed with prejudice.”
The documents added, “Notably, less than three years ago, Drake himself signed a public petition criticising ‘the trend of prosecutors using artists’ creative expression against them’ by treating rap lyrics as literal fact.”