Drake made some serious legal moves last year, hitting Universal Music Group and Spotify with one petition, then going solo on another just against UMG in Texas. He pulled back on the first petition to gear up for a full-on lawsuit, but he hasn’t said much about the second one yet. Now, UMG is pushing to get that second petition thrown out.
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On January 23, in Bexar County, Texas, UMG filed a motion to dismiss, claiming that Drake doesn’t have the solid evidence needed to back up his defamation and payola allegations in the “Not Like Us” case, so they say it should be dismissed.
“Because [Drake’s] petition is related to and was filed in response to UMG’s protected free speech, and because [Drake] cannot carry his burden to establish by clear and specific evidence that he is entitled to pre-suit discovery, the Court should dismiss [Drake’s] retaliatory legal action against UMG,” the filing reads. “[Drake] provides nothing outside of his verified petition, which alone cannot provide an evidentiary basis for a petition. Even looking into the petition […] there is no evidentiary support for his asserted need for pre-suit deposition of UMG.”
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UMG also points out that Drake has since launched a lawsuit that brings the same accusations from that petition to the forefront. They noted that he “already filed suit on his potential claims, obviating any need for pre-suit discovery.”
Drake and his team haven’t said much about the latest filing, but there’s a hearing set for January 28 to figure out if he can go ahead and depose employees from UMG and iHeartMedia. After dropping those petitions last November, Drake officially sued UMG this month for defamation, all stemming from claims Kendrick Lamar made on that hit track. The 6 God argues that UMG knew those pedophile allegations were straight-up false and still chose to push the record out there. He’s doubling down, saying UMG turned a blind eye to the “inflammatory and shocking allegations” because they knew it would be a “gold mine” for their pockets. He’s convinced that UMG is trying to sabotage his “brand” to gain more leverage in future deals.