Drake sues longtime label UMG for defamation over Kendrick Lamar diss track 'Not Like Us'
Canadian rapper Drake sued his longtime label Universal Music Group on Wednesday for promoting rival Kendrick Lamar's song "Not Like Us", saying the diss track released as part of a bitter rap beef last year contained false accusations that put him and his family in danger.
Rapper Drake on Wednesday filed suit against his own label, saying Universal Music Group's release and promotion of a Kendrick Lamar track dissing him amounted to defamation and harassment.
UMG – which is behind both Drake and Lamar – adamantly denied the accusations, saying "the notion that we would seek to harm the reputation of any artist – let alone Drake – is illogical" given the company's longtime investment in helping him "achieve historic commercial and personal financial success."
Last year the two superstar rappers exchanged a litany of increasingly vitriolic diss tracks, with Lamar delivering the major blow with his chart-topping, Grammy-nominated song "Not Like Us."
In his suit, Drake said Universal betrayed him in favor of profits by promoting the song with punchlines that accuse him of pedophilia.
In the documents filed in Manhattan's federal court and seen by AFP, Drake says Universal "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 pedophile, and to suggest that the public should resort to vigilante justice in response."
(AFP)
Read more on FRANCE 24 English
Read also:
Music show: Kendrick Lamar drops surprise album 'GNX'
'The last great rap beef': Kendrick Lamar and Drake feud intensifies
