Drake’s Label Files to Dismiss Lawsuit Over Kendrick Lamar’s ‘Not Like Us,’ Says Rapper ‘Lost a Rap Battle He Provoked’

Universal Music Group has filed a scathing motion to dismiss Drake’s New York lawsuit against them for promoting Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us,” stating that he’s only suing because he “lost a rap battle” and took legal action to “salve his wounds.”

The motion, filed earlier today and reviewed by Variety, took a cutting approach to making the case for dismissal, claiming that Drake “lost a rap battle that he provoked and in which he willingly participated. 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.”

The filing notes that Drake himself signed a public petition less than three years ago criticizing “the trend of prosecutors using artists’ creative expression against them” by interpreting rap lyrics as fact. “Drake was right then and is wrong now,” reads the motion. “Complaint’s unjustified claims against UMG are no more than Drake’s attempt to save face for his unsuccessful rap battle with Lamar.”

Drake initially filed his New York lawsuit in January, claiming that Universal “approved, published, and launched a campaign to create a viral hit out of a rap 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.” “Not Like Us” arrived last May and became the biggest hit to emerge from the Lamar-Drake beef, which Drake says is because Universal artificially inflated the track.

In its motion to dismiss, Universal is arguing that Drake fails to make a claim for defamation in his suit, stating that it’s a double standard to expect them to promote his diss tracks against Lamar and not vice versa. The motion adds that “Not Like Us” “conveys nonactionable opinion and rhetorical hyperbole, not fact,” meaning they can’t be accused of acting with malice, and further claims that there’s no basis for the suit since Drake failed to state a claim for “harassment in the second degree” and under New York General Business Law.

That same month, Universal filed a motion to dismiss Drake’s separate petition for pre-suit deposition in Texas, citing lack of evidence in the rapper’s claims against the record company that it artificially inflated and promoted “Not Like Us.”