Drake‘s ongoing defamation lawsuit against Universal Music Group over Kendrick Lamar‘s “Not Like Us” is currently in the middle of a dispute over scheduling — one that has caused Drizzy’s legal team to talk about K.Dot’s performance of the track during his Super Bowl halftime show.
In a letter to Judge Antonio Vargas filed on Monday (February 24), Drake’s attorney Michael J. Gottlieb responds to UMG’s recent claim that his side was getting ready to drop “key allegations” in their suit against the music giant.
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Gottlieb hits back, saying that UMG is concerned about only a “single factual allegation” — one that, even if Drake adjusted the lawsuit to deal with the company’s concerns, would result in very minimal changes.
All of this back-and-forth has to do with a pre-trial conference scheduled for April 2 that UMG wants to delay, so that Judge Vargas can have time to consider Universal’s motion to dismiss the case entirely — a motion they have to file by March 17.
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Gottlieb, on the other hand, wants the conference to happen as scheduled. He also wants UMG to begin the process of turning over evidence related to the case, known as discovery — something the company has so far resisted, as they said in a letter filed Friday (February 21) that discovery was “premature” given the state of the case.
Gottlieb argues against delaying discovery in his letter to Judge Vargas, citing Kendrick’s Super Bowl performance as an example of the harm that comes with waiting.
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“[D]elaying discovery would unfairly prejudice [Drake], who is continuing to suffer the consequences of UMG’s defamatory campaign,” he writes. “Indeed, at the same time UMG has been delaying here, UMG launched new campaigns to further spread the defamatory content [“Not Like Us”], including at the 2025 Super Bowl halftime show, which had over 133.5 million viewers.”
Drizzy filed his complaint last month in New York federal court accusing the music giant — the parent company of his and Kendrick’s respective record labels — of defamation and harassment.
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In the suit, which has been viewed by HipHopDX, the Toronto rap star condemns UMG for having “approved, published, and launched a campaign to create a viral hit out of a rap track that falsely accuses Drake of being a pedophile and calls for violent retribution against him.”
He repeats previous claims that the company used “unlawful” methods to turn “Not Like Us” into a global hit, including secretly paying for fake streams and radio play.
The motive for this, he says, was financial. Not only would the song generate massive amounts of money through streams and sales, but UMG knew its “dangerous” content would “devalue Drake’s music and brand” and give them an advantage when it came time to renegotiate his contract.
“UMG anticipated that extending Drake’s contract would be costly,” the lawsuit reads. “By devaluing Drake’s music and brand, UMG would gain leverage to force Drake to sign a new deal on terms more favorable to UMG.”
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Supporting his claim of defamation, the complaint includes numerous examples of the “avalanche of online hate speech” that has “branded Drake a sex offender and pedophile.”
It also cites a shooting at the rapper’s Toronto home shortly after the release of “Not Like Us” which injured a security guard, as well as multiple trespassing incidents. According to Drake, UMG is to blame.
