{"id":860707,"date":"2025-07-07T06:12:23","date_gmt":"2025-07-07T11:12:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/07\/07\/umg-hits-back-at-drakes-astonishing-claims-in-updated-suit-over-kendricks-super-bowl-show\/"},"modified":"2025-07-07T06:12:23","modified_gmt":"2025-07-07T11:12:23","slug":"umg-hits-back-at-drakes-astonishing-claims-in-updated-suit-over-kendricks-super-bowl-show","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/07\/07\/umg-hits-back-at-drakes-astonishing-claims-in-updated-suit-over-kendricks-super-bowl-show\/","title":{"rendered":"UMG Hits Back at Drake\u2019s \u2018Astonishing\u2019 Claims in Updated Suit Over Kendrick\u2019s Super Bowl\u00a0Show"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The music giant says the new claims about the performance prove that Drake’s case is just an “attack on the commercial and creative success of the rap artist who defeated him.”<\/p>\n<\/header><\/div>\n

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\t\t\t\t\tDrake leaves the court following the NBA game between the Toronto Raptors and the Golden State Warriors at Scotiabank Arena on Jan. 13, 2025 in Toronto, Canada.<\/span><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCole Burston\/Getty Images<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

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\n\tU<\/span>niversal Music Group wants a federal judge to dismiss Drake<\/a>\u2019s updated defamation lawsuit that complained about Kendrick Lamar<\/a>\u2019s Super Bowl halftime performance of \u201cNot Like Us,\u201d arguing he\u2019s just upset about a \u201crap artist who defeated him.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWeeks after Drake filed an amended version<\/a> of his case that claimed the halftime show was intended to \u201cassassinate the character of another artist,\u201d UMG fired back Wednesday \u2013 arguing that the new claims about the Super Bowl are as legally faulty as the rest of the case.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cDrake\u2019s new allegations are astonishing,\u201d the music giant\u2019s lawyer Rollin Ransom<\/strong> writes. \u201cAs Drake concedes, Lamar\u2019s Super Bowl performance did not include the lyric that Drake or his associates are \u2018certified pedophiles\u2019 (i.e., the alleged \u2018Defamatory Material\u2019 that is at the heart of this case).\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n\t\u201cThe focus of Drake\u2019s new claims \u2014 that \u2018the largest audience for a Super Bowl halftime show ever\u2019 did not hear Lamar call Drake or his crew pedophiles \u2014 betrays this case for what it is: Drake\u2019s attack on the commercial and creative success of the rap artist who defeated him, rather than the content of Lamar\u2019s lyrics,\u201d Ransom added.<\/p>\n

\n\tLamar released \u201cNot Like Us\u201d last May amid a high-profile beef<\/a> with Drake that saw the two UMG stars release a series of bruising diss tracks. The song, a knockout punch that blasted Drake as a \u201ccertified pedophile\u201d over an infectious beat, became a chart-topping hit<\/a> in its own right and won five Grammy Awards<\/a>, including record and song of the year.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn January, Drake took the unusual step of suing UMG<\/a> over the song, claiming his own label had defamed him by boosting the track\u2019s popularity. The lawsuit, which doesn\u2019t name Lamar himself as a defendant, alleges that UMG \u201cwaged a campaign\u201d against its own artist to spread a \u201cmalicious narrative\u201d about pedophilia that it knew to be false.<\/p>\n

\n\tUMG believes the case is clearly meritless<\/a> \u2013 that \u201chyperbolic insults\u201d and \u201cvitriolic allegations\u201d are par for the course in diss tracks and cannot form the basis for a libel lawsuit. The company has pointedly noted that Drake himself was happy to make such attacks, including accusing Lamar of domestic abuse, until he lost the battle.<\/p>\n

\n\tDuring the halftime show, which took place weeks after Drake filed his case, Lamar omitted the word \u201cpedophile.\u201d But after much speculation<\/a> over whether he\u2019d play the song at all, Kendrick really didn\u2019t hold back<\/a> otherwise \u2013 making it the centerpiece of the set and clearly rapping similar lyrics, including: \u201cSay, Drake, I hear you like \u2019em young.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIn his amended complaint last month, Drake\u2019s attorneys argued that the decision to censor the word \u201cpedophile\u201d during the broadcast failed to avoid the song\u2019s defamatory meaning \u2013 and instead had underscored the rapper\u2019s legal case against UMG.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cKendrick Lamar would not have been permitted to perform during the Super Bowl Performance unless the word \u2018pedophile\u2019\u2026 was omitted from the lyrics \u2014 that is because nearly everyone understands that it is defamatory to falsely brand someone a \u2018certified pedophile\u2019,\u201d wrote Drake\u2019s attorney Michael Gottlieb<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\n\tBut in Wednesday\u2019s motion to dismiss the case, UMG argued that Drake\u2019s censorship argument was logically flawed.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cDrake contends that the decision not to include the word \u2018pedophiles\u2019 \u2026 could only reflect that the language is defamatory,\u201d UMG\u2019s lawyers write. \u201cBut this ignores any number of other explanations for the decision \u2014 such as threats by Drake of additional meritless litigation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWednesday\u2019s motion also highlighted that Drake had \u201cremoved obviously false factual allegations\u201d from his original complaint, including that UMG directly paid for bots to boost streams of Kendrick\u2019s track: \u201cDrake is now reduced to citing a different podcast host who claimed that \u2018Kendrick used bots\u2019 [and] a now-deleted anonymous X comment accusing Lamar of \u2018buying promo.’\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tDrake\u2019s lawyers will have a chance to respond to the motion to dismiss in the weeks ahead, and the judge will issue a ruling at some point in the next few months.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn a statement to Billboard<\/em> on Thursday, a spokesman for UMG underscored the arguments in the motion to dismiss: \u201cNowhere in the hundred-plus page \u2018legal\u2019 blather written by Drake\u2019s lawyers do they bother to acknowledge that Drake himself has written and performed massively successful songs containing equally provocative taunts against other artists.\u00a0 Nor do they mention that it was Drake who started this particular exchange.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIn the same statement, UMG said Drake\u2019s lawyers were chasing \u201cwild conspiracies\u201d about \u201cwhy one song that upset Drake had massive global appeal,\u201d when in reality the company was \u201cworking tirelessly\u201d to promote all of its artists.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cOur continuing partnership with Drake and his enduring success is a shining example,\u201d the company said in the statement.\u00a0\u201cDespite his lawyers\u2019 attempts to silence other artists and threaten the companies that work with them, we remain committed to propelling Drake\u2019s\u00a0career while maintaining our unwavering support of\u00a0all<\/u><\/em>\u00a0our artists\u2019 creative expression. Drake\u2019s included.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Music The music giant says the new claims about the performance prove that Drake’s case is just an “attack on the commercial and creative success of the rap artist who defeated him.” Drake leaves the court following the NBA game between the Toronto Raptors and the Golden State Warriors at Scotiabank Arena on Jan. 13, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":860708,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[131522],"class_list":{"0":"post-860707","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business-news","8":"tag-podcast-music"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/860707","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=860707"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/860707\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/860708"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=860707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=860707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=860707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}