Getty ImagesRap superstar Drake is suing Universal Music Group (UMG) for defamation and harassment over the release of Kendrick Lamar's diss track Not Like Us last year.
The song, which was part of a furious spat between the two stars, accused Drake and his entourage of being “certified pedophiles” who should be “registered and put under neighborhood watch”.
In documents filed in New York, Drake's lawyers accused the record company of launching a “campaign to create a viral hit” from a song that makes a “false factual claim that Drake is a criminal pedophile and that it suggests the public should resort to vigilante justice in response'.
Universal has yet to respond to the allegations.
The move comes just 24 hours after Drake dropped a separate lawsuit against UMG and Spotify in which he accused the two companies of conspiring to artificially boost Not Like Us streams at the expense of his own music.
In that case, he alleged that Universal licensed the song “at drastically discounted prices to Spotify” and used bots to generate additional plays, creating “the false impression that the song is more popular than it really is.”
In a statement at the time, Universal told the BBC: “The suggestion that (the company) would go to any lengths to undermine any of its artists is insulting and untrue.”
It added that “no amount of contrived and absurd legal arguments … can hide the fact that fans choose the music they want to hear.”
Spotify also responded that there is “no economic incentive for users to stream Not Like Us over any of Drake's songs.”
The Swedish streaming company later filed an opposition to Drake's petition, saying it “should be dismissed.”
His lawyers dropped the case Tuesday after meeting with representatives of both companies, according to court documents.
That seemed to draw a line under the lawsuit — until the story took a dramatic turn Wednesday morning.
In a lawsuit filed in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, Drake accused Universal – which distributes both his music and Lamar's – of prioritizing “corporate greed over the safety and well-being of its artists.”
His lawyers noted that the Not Like Us piece was based on an aerial photo of Drake's $100 million Toronto mansion, littered with red markers often used to represent the presence of registered sex offenders.
Court documents linked the piece to a shooting at the property shortly after Kendrick's song was released, calling it “2024's equivalent of Pizzagate.”
The comment referred to a conspiracy theory about an American child sex ring operating out of a pizzeria in Washington, D.C. which led to the discovery of a gunman firing at the establishment in 2016.
PA MediaNot Like Us was widely considered the decisive blow in the long-running feud between Drake and Lamar, which dates back to the early 2010s.
In the lyrics, Lamar claims that Drake “likes them young” and accuses him of using other, more credible rappers to boost his profile.
Drake responded with a song called The Heart Part 6, where he denied the allegations, saying, “I've never been with anyone under age.” He also claims he gave Lamar “false” information through a double agent.
However, his track failed to garner the same attention as Not Like Us, which debuted at number one on the US charts and attracted more than 1 billion streams on Spotify.
The song is nominated for five awards, including record and song of the year, at the Grammy Awards on February 3. A week later, Lamar will headline the Super Bowl halftime show.
However, the new lawsuit is not aimed at Lamar himself, according to Drake's lawyers.
“This case is not about the artist who created Not Like Us,” the court documents state.
“Instead, this is all about UMG, the music company, that decided to publish, promote, use and monetize claims that it understands to be not only false, but dangerous.”