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The “Hotline Bling” hitmaker claims he was targeted at his Toronto home by armed intruders in “the 2024 equivalent of ‘Pizzagate’” after Kendrick Lamar branded him as pedophile in the lyrical barbs of “Not Like Us”.
MANHATTAN (CN) — Claiming that false accusations of pedophilia in Kendrick Lamar’s 2024 summer hit “Not Like Us” incited acts of violence and retaliation, Canadian pop rapper/singer Drake filed a defamation suit Wednesday against the Universal Music Group, which oversees both Lamar’s music and his own.
Lamar, the Compton-born 2018 Pulitzer Prize-winning rapper takes multiple lyrical jabs at Drake in “Not Like Us,” hinting at underage sexual pursuits with lines like “Certified Lover Boy? Certified pedophiles,” and “Tryna strike a chord and it’s probably A-minor.”
“The recording 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,” the Toronto-born rapper/singer says in an 81-page civil complaint.
Drake, named as Aubrey Drake Graham in the complaint, claims UMG, which has worked with him since 2009 and knew he was not a pedophile, “intentionally sought to turn [him] into a pariah, a target for harassment, or worse.”
Represented by Wilkie Farr & Gallagher, Drake repeatedly affirms in the three-count civil suit that he is not a pedophile, and has “never been charged with, or convicted of, any criminal acts whatsoever.”
“As UMG knows and has known at all relevant times, the recording, image, and video’s allegations are unequivocally false,” he states in the complaint. “Drake has never engaged in any acts that would require he be ‘placed on neighborhood watch.’”
Citing YouTube comments that compare the accusations of Drake having sex with minors to convicted or accused sexual abusers “Weinstein, Diddy, and Epstein,” Drake says such viral online conspiracies can rapidly accelerate into real-life acts of violence like the 2016 “Pizzagate” incident where a North Carolina man entered Washington, D.C. pizzeria with an assault rifle because of an online hoax that falsely identified Comet Pizza as the headquarters of a child sex-trafficking ring led by Hilary Clinton.
Drake’s suit, filed in the Southern District of New York federal court, accuses UMG of defamation per se, harassment, and deceptive business practices.
He claims the record label deployed “bots” to artificially boost streaming figures of “Not Like Us” on Spotify, and engaged in old school “payola” — paying radio stations for airplay — which is illegal under Federal Communications Commission regulations.
Drake cites a “whistleblower” who claims to have been paid $2,500 over Zelle “via third parties to use ‘bots’ to achieve 30,000,000 streams on Spotify in the initial days following the recording’s release.”
The “Not Like Us” video, which debuted on July 4, 2024, has over 200 million views on YouTube, and currently charts at #21 on YouTube Music top 100 music videos in the United States as of the filing of Drake’s lawsuit.
Drake previously mounted civil claims against the record label over ‘Not Like Us’ in prelitigation filings in New York state supreme court and separately in Bexar County, Texas.
Representatives for Universal Music Group did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Wednesday.
Kendrick Lamar is scheduled to headline the halftime show entertainment next month at the NFL Super Bowl at the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans.
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