Kai Cenat has reacted to being named in Drake‘s defamation lawsuit against his longtime record label, Universal Music Group.
The streamer’s video reaction to Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us” is mentioned in the suit, which claims that UMG removed the diss track’s copyright restrictions on YouTube and Twitch “for the purpose of spreading the [song] and its defamatory content, as broadly as possible and as quickly as possible.”
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During his Twitch stream, Cenat read through the lawsuit and was astonished to discover his name and content mentioned in the bombshell legal filing.
“Wait, why am I in this shit?! Wait, hold on! I’m getting sued?!” he initially asked his viewers after misunderstanding the situation.
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He then referenced the fact that Drake messaged him on Instagram back in May and tipped him off to the release of his own diss song “Family Matters.”
“N-gga, this night I was told to stay on stream!” he yelled incredulously.
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Kai eventually realized that he was not in fact being sued by Drake and breathed a sigh of relief: “Oh, I’m good! I’m alright! So he’s just using us as examples of spreading misinformation type shit?”
He then denied unsubstantiated rumors that he and other streamers/YouTubers were paid by UMG to react to “Not Like Us.”
“N-ggas ain’t that weak!” he said, before gushing over the success of his video reactions to Drake and Kendrick’s respective diss tracks. “Both ways, n-ggas ate crazy, gang. I wasn’t even complaining. All my shit’s monetized.”
Kai Cenat reacts to Drake mentioning him in his lawsuit against UMG 👀 pic.twitter.com/MLSO1Rmh0M
— Akademiks TV (@AkademiksTV) January 17, 2025
In addition to the “Not Like Us” copyright claim, Drake’s lawsuit accuses UMG of damaging his reputation and inciting real-life violence thanks to the “dangerous” allegations contained within “Not Like Us.”
The complaint cites a shooting at his Toronto home that occured shortly after the song’s release and injured a security guard, as well as multiple trespassing incidents.
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As a result, “Drake fears for the safety and security of himself, his family, and his friends” and “pulled his son out of the elementary school he attended in Toronto due to safety concerns.”
The suit also repeats previous claims that the music giant artificially boosted the popularity of “Not Like Us” through streaming bots and payola, which was motivated by money and the desire to “devalue Drake’s music and brand in order to gain leverage” in renegotiating his contract.
Drake emphasizes in the filing that his dispute lies solely with UMG and not Kendrick Lamar, even though he is the one who wrote and rapped the allegedly defaming lyrics.
“This lawsuit is not about the artist who created ‘Not Like Us,’” it reads. “It is, instead, entirely about UMG, the music company that decided to publish, promote, exploit, and monetize allegations that it understood were not only false, but dangerous.”
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UMG has since issued a statement in response to the lawsuit, calling Drizzy’s accusations “untrue” and “illogical.”
“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 company said in part.
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“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.
“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.”
