Drake is taking his rap beef with Kendrick Lamar from the streets to the courtroom.
The "Hotline Bling" rapper has filed a second legal action over Lamar's hit song "Not Like Us." This time, he is alleging that Lamar has falsely called him a pedophile.
According to Billboard, the new filing was filed late on Nov. 25 and was made public on Nov. 26. In it, Drake claims UMG "funneled payments" to iHeart as part of a "pay-to-play scheme" to promote "Not Like Us" on radio.
Additionally, in the filing Drake says UMG knew that Kendrick's song "falsely" accused him of being a "certified pedophile" and "predator" but chose to release it anyway.
In "Not Like Us" Lamar raps: "Say, Drake, I hear you like 'em young / You better not ever go to cell block one / To any b**ch that talk to him and they in love / Just make sure you hide your lil' sister from him."
"Certified Lover Boy? Certified pedophiles," Lamar added before going on to rap: "Tryna strike a chord and it's probably A minor."
"UMG ... could have refused to release or distribute the song or required the offending material to be edited and/or removed," the lawyer for Drake writes in the lawsuit. "But UMG chose to do the opposite. UMG designed, financed and then executed a plan to turn 'Not Like Us' into a viral mega-hit with the intent of using the spectacle of harm to Drake and his businesses to drive consumer hysteria and, of course, massive revenues. That plan succeeded, likely beyond UMG's wildest expectations."
The new legal documents are not a lawsuit, rather they are a pre-action filing aimed taking depositions from key figures at UMG and iHeart in order to obtain more information that might support Drake's accusations in a future lawsuit.
However, Billboard reports that Drake already has enough evidence to pursue a "claim for defamation" against UMG and that his legal team might include additional claims of civil fraud and racketeering based on what they discover from the depositions.
Lamar is not named as a respondent and has not been accused of any wrongdoing legally as of now.
The additional legal action comes after Drake filed a previous legal action against UMG on Nov. 25. In that action, he claimed that UMG used payola to inflate the success of "Not Like Us" during its release week.
According to Variety, the filing claims that UMG "engaged in conduct designed to artificially inflate the popularity of 'Not Like Us' [...] including by licensing the song at drastically reduced rates to Spotify and using 'bots' to generate the false impression that the song was more popular than it was in reality."
"UMG appears to have used similar tactics with other streaming services. On information and belief, UMG paid, or approved payments to, Apple Inc. to have its voice-activated digital assistant 'Siri' purposely misdirect users to 'Not Like Us,'" the lawsuit goes on to say.
This action was also not a legal lawsuit, but it could also turn into a lawsuit in the future.
After the first lawsuit, UMG released a statement about Drake's filing.
"The suggestion that UMG would do anything to undermine any of its artists is offensive and untrue. We employ the highest ethical practices in our marketing and promotional campaigns. No amount of contrived and absurd legal arguments in this pre-action submission can mask the fact that fans choose the music they want to hear," they said via Billboard.
© 2024 MusicTimes.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
