As folks geared up for Super Bowl LIX, Drake and his legal team were busy making moves. Just hours before Kendrick Lamar hit the stage for his much-anticipated halftime show, they dropped a statement ramping up their lawsuit against Universal Music Group.
“UMG is masquerading as a champion of artistic freedom by calling its actions merely ‘entertainment’, but there is nothing entertaining about pedophilia or child abuse in the real world,” they told Joe Coscarelli from The New York Times. “We are confident that the evidence we will ultimately present at trial—including information we’ve already learned and continue to receive since filing the lawsuit—will expose UMG’s gross prioritization of its own corporate profits and executive bonuses over its exclusively signed artists’ well-being and the truth.”
The 38-year-old rapper officially took legal action against his label in mid-January, filing a defamation suit over their promotional tactics for K. Dot’s hit diss track “Not Like Us.” Back in November 2024, he had already filed two pre-action suits, alleging that they boosted the song’s popularity through the use of bots, playlist manipulation, and other questionable methods.
Drizzy was labeled the loser in his beef back in May 2024, while Lamar took a victory lap, dropping The Pop Out in June and the “Not Like Us” music video in July. Last week, he snagged five Grammy wins, and now he’s shining in the spotlight with a Super Bowl halftime performance, smirking at the camera while rapping, “Say Drake, I hear you like ’em young.”
RELATED: Universal Music Responds To Drake’s Defamation Lawsuit
Earlier in the performance, Kendrick Lamar playfully hinted at performing “Not Like Us” while chatting with his female backup dancers. He said he wanted to give the crowd their favorite track but hesitated, joking, “They love to sue.” This marked the first time the Compton rapper addressed the lawsuits, which are related to his song but don’t actually involve him directly.
Universal Music Group has stood firm, insisting there was no wrongdoing regarding the record’s success, claiming it rose to popularity purely because of its quality. They pointed out that Drake himself has tapped into their resources to promote his tracks, including disses aimed at other rappers, without raising any concerns about UMG’s support at that time.
It’ll be intriguing to see how this lawsuit unfolds and what impact it might have on Drake’s upcoming collaborative album with PARTYNEXTDOOR, titled $ome $exy $ongs 4 U, dropping this Friday (Feb. 14). This timing holds a special significance for the Toronto superstar, as he released his breakthrough mixtape So Far Gone on February 13, 2009, and six years later, surprised everyone with his mixtape If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late on the same date in 2015.
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