Drake settled his petition against iHeartMedia over Kendrick Lamar‘s “Not Like Us” after reportedly receiving proof that the company “did nothing wrong.”
In his petition, which was filed in November, the Canadian rapper raised suspicions that UMG may have paid iHeartMedia to play “Not Like Us” on its many radio stations across the country, an illegal practice known as payola.
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The filing was not a lawsuit, but instead sought depositions from representatives of both UMG and iHeartMedia for a potential future lawsuit in Bexar County, Texas.
In an amendment to his Texas petition on Wednesday (February 26), Drizzy’s legal team notified the court that he has decided to remove iHeartMedia as a respondent.
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It noted that the two parties “have reached an amicable resolution of the dispute to the satisfaction of both sides.”
Now in a new report from Rolling Stone, a source from iHeart added more insight into the settlement.
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“In exchange for documents that showed iHeart did nothing wrong, Drake agreed to drop his petition. No payments were made – by either one of us,” the unnamed source said.
A representative for Drake’s legal team responded to HipHopDX‘s request for comment, saying: “The parties have reached a resolution, and we have no further comment on this matter.”
Despite the removal of the media company from his Texas filing, Drake still plans to move forward with his case against UMG in federal court in New York.
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His lawyers recently brought Kendrick’s Super Bowl performance into the battle when responding to UMG’s claim that his side was getting ready to drop “key allegations” in their suit against the music giant.
Drake’s attorney Michael J. Gottlieb hit 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.
The back-and-forth centered around a pre-trial conference scheduled for April 2 that UMG wants to delay so that Judge Vargas can have time to consider the company’s motion to dismiss the case entirely — a motion they have to file by March 17.
Gottlieb argued 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 wrote. “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.”
Drake has alleged that UMG illegally boosted “Not Like Us” to harm his career and to provide the record label significant leverage when renegotiating his contract. UMG has denied any wrongdoing.
