At 38 years old, Drake asserts that UMG’s promotion of Kendrick’s track exemplifies prioritizing ‘corporate greed over the safety and well-being of its artists’.
The longstanding rivalry between the two artists escalated last year when both released diss tracks targeting each other.
Kendrick unveiled ‘Not Like Us’ on May 4, shortly after Drake’s release of ‘Push Ups’.
However, Kendrick’s song emerged victorious in terms of streaming success, achieving over a billion streams on Spotify, whereas ‘Push Ups’ garnered approximately 170 million.
The lyrics of ‘Not Like Us’ include: “Say, Drake, I hear you like ’em young/ You better not ever go to cell block one/To any b**** that talk to him and they in love/Just make sure you hide your lil’ sister from him/They tell me Chubbs the only one that get your hand-me-downs.
“And Party at the party playin’ with his nose now/And Baka got a weird case, why is he around?/Certified Lover Boy? Certified pedophiles/Wop, wop, wop, wop, wop, Dot, f*** ’em up/Wop, wop, wop, wop, wop, I’ma do my stuff.
“Why you trollin’ like a b****? Ain’t you tired?/Tryna strike a chord and it’s probably A minor.”
The lawsuit filed today (January 15) accuses UMG of endorsing Kendrick’s track that 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’.
Drake’s association with UMG began in 2022, with a deal that Variety estimated to be around $400 million. This figure was based on Drake’s significant success, including being the first artist to exceed 50 billion streams on Spotify and generating approximately $50 million annually from his music.
Drake’s legal team had previously indicated plans to take action against UMG.
“UMG … could have refused to release or distribute the song or required the offending material to be edited and/or removed,” they stated in November.
“But UMG chose to do the opposite. UMG designed, financed and then executed a plan to turn ‘Not Like Us’ into a viral mega-hit with the intent of using the spectacle of harm to Drake and his businesses to drive consumer hysteria and, of course, massive revenues. That plan succeeded, likely beyond UMG’s wildest expectations.”