UMG files to dismiss Drake's "attempt to save face for his unsuccessful rap battle"

Drake initially sued UMG for promoting Kendrick Lamar's "Not Like Us" in January.

By Emma Keates | March 17, 2025 | 3:52pm

Photo: John Salangsang/Getty Images

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At this point, it may be past time to deploy the old “Stop! He’s Already Dead!” Simpsons meme to save what little is left of Drake’s dignity. Universal Music Group (UMG) basically wrote a diss track of its own in a newly filed motion to dismiss the rapper’s “Not Like Us” defamation suit, which he filed against the label he shares with nemesis Kendrick Lamar in January.

In the court filing, which was reviewed by Variety, UMG made it abundantly clear who it viewed as the victor in Drake and Lamar’s escalating beef last summer. Drake “lost a rap battle that he provoked and in which he willingly participated,” the document reads. “Instead of accepting the loss like the unbothered rap artist he often claims to be, he has sued his own record label in a misguided attempt to salve his wounds. Plaintiff’s Complaint is utterly without merit and should be dismissed with prejudice.”

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In his original January suit, Drake accused the label of promoting a song “intended to convey the specific, unmistakable and false factual allegation that Drake is a criminal pedophile.” In their own filing, however, UMG notes that less than a year ago, Drake himself signed a petition critiquing “the trend of prosecutors using artists’ creative expression against them” by interpreting rap lyrics as factually accurate statements. “Drake was right then and is wrong now,” the motion continues. “Complaint’s unjustified claims against UMG are no more than Drake’s attempt to save face for his unsuccessful rap battle with Lamar.”

UMG’s suit additionally calls attention to the (frankly hilarious) fact that it represents both Drake and Lamar, pointing out that it can’t be expected to promote one artist’s diss tracks and not the other’s. In the label’s view, “Not Like Us” conveys “nonactionable opinion and rhetorical hyperbole, not fact.” Therefore, the label can’t be accused of acting with malice.

Of course, Drake’s attorney had a strongly worded statement in response to UMG’s motion. “UMG wants to pretend that this is about a rap battle in order to distract its shareholders, artists and the public from a simple truth: a greedy company is finally being held responsible for profiting from dangerous misinformation that has already resulted in multiple acts of violence,” he wrote, via Variety. “This motion is a desperate ploy by UMG to avoid accountability, but we have every confidence that this case will proceed and continue to uncover UMG’s long history of endangering, abusing and taking advantage of its artists.”

Earlier this month, Drake settled a separate dispute over the track with iHeartMedia out of court. Meanwhile, Lamar had over 133 million viewers singing along to the offending “certified pedophile” lyric after calling out Drake’s propensity for legal action at his Super Bowl halftime show in February.