Drake Ramps Up Legal Battle Against Label

Drake doesn’t just have rap beef—he has issues with his label, too.

The Canadian rapper has taken legal action against his record label, Universal Music Group, accusing them of defamation and harassment over his rival Kendrick Lamar’s record-breaking diss track about him.

The lawsuit, filed in New York federal court Wednesday, alleged that the parent company behind both entertainers’ labels “seized” on their feud and continued to “fan the flames” for its own profit, costing him his reputation in the process.

Drake, whose real name is Aubrey Graham, alleged in the suit the company used Lamar’s song, “Not Like Us,” to promote a “false and malicious narrative” that he is a pedophile. He claimed the label knew the lyrics and images featured for the track were “false and dangerous,” but chose to release it anyway.

The song 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,” the suit said.

Earlier on Tuesday, it was reported that Drake dropped a legal petition against streaming giant Spotify and UMG which claimed the companies conspired to boost streaming numbers for his rival Kendrick Lamar’s diss track “Not Like Us.”

His new suit included similar allegations, again claiming that UMG inflated the streams.

One point made clear in the new suit was that Lamar was not the target.

“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.”

UMG previously denied wrongdoing in November after Drake had filed his first legal action.

“The suggestion that UMG would do anything to undermine any of its artists is offensive and untrue,” the label’s statement read.

Fans of the two stars did not take well to the news of Drake’s newest court battle.

“Losing a rap battle so badly that you file a lawsuit is funny,” one X user wrote. “Crying to a judge about it is a new level of L.”

“This Drake lawsuit is embarrassing,” another posted. “The fact it’s against UMG and not Kendrick Lamar makes it even more cowardly.”