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Key Takeaways:
- Drake’s authorized staff is escalating a defamation case tied to Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us.”
- The lawsuit claims United Music Group promoted damaging allegations and used bots to spice up the diss observe’s attain.
- The case highlights how viral moments just like the Tremendous Bowl can affect authorized and cultural narratives in Hip Hop.
On Monday (June 30), Drake’s authorized staff appeared in a Manhattan federal courtroom, urging a decide to let his defamation lawsuit towards Common Music Group transfer forward.
UMG, after all, would like to see your complete case get thrown out, however Drake’s aspect clearly isn’t backing down with no combat. Of their preliminary swimsuit, the Toronto rapper’s attorneys claimed that the world’s largest music firm determined to “publish, promote, exploit and monetize” allegations of pedophilia in Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us.”
Among the lyrics, together with Lamar’s “licensed pedophiles” bar, had been even cited in court docket, in keeping with VIBE. A spokesperson for the “God’s Plan” rapper later issued a press release increasing on their place. “UMG is determined to see this case not transfer ahead as a result of the corporate can’t conceal its misconduct in a courtroom the way in which it does within the boardroom,” they wrote on Tuesday (July 1).
It continued, “Quickly, along with going through involved regulators and traders, the management of music’s strongest label should reply for the harm it has brought on to each artist that has been silenced, exploited, endangered or discarded.”
Among the many different claims within the swimsuit, Drake accused UMG of “approving, publishing and launching a marketing campaign to create a viral hit from a rap observe” utilizing bots. He additionally alleged that his and Lamar’s shared label labored to color him as a “felony pedophile.”
Although Lamar isn’t the one being sued, “Not Like Us” is clearly on the middle of all of it. The diss spent three non-consecutive weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Sizzling 100 chart, received a large increase from the Tremendous Bowl LIX Halftime Present, and later swept up 5 Grammy Awards that very same February.