Drake accuses UMG of undermining harm caused by Kendrick Lamar
The rapper's legal team accuses the record label of downplaying the reputational harm
After a few weeks of apparent silence, we have an update in the Drake versus Universal Music Group (UMG) saga.
Just to recap, the controversy began after last year’s intensification of Drizzy and Kendrick Lamar’s rivalry when the two rappers hurled personal insults at each other in a series of diss tracks.
The conflict led to Drake filing a lawsuit against UMG and Spotify in November for allegedly conspiring to inflate streaming figures of Lamar’s Not Like Us.
However, in January, he withdrew his petition and filed a new one for defamation against UMG for allegedly promoting the diss track.
In April, the 38-year-old expanded his federal defamation lawsuit against the conglomerate with further allegations including that Lamar’s performance in the Super Bowl 59 halftime show damaged his reputation.
In an additional court filing filed at the end of May, the Canadian artist’s attorney accused UMG of undermining the gravity of the situation by downplaying the impact of the inflammatory song.
“UMG tries to brush aside the public commentary expressing belief in the Defamatory Statements, claiming that the ‘subjective opinions of a handful of people do not factor in’ to the Court's ‘objective assessment of what a reasonable person could have understood the Recording to mean,” the filing claimed.
Drake’s legal team argues that Lamar’s lyrics are being considered factual by millions of listeners and UMG is attempting to dismiss the public beliefs as “unreliable.”
When will the Drake vs UMG trial begin?
The lawsuit filed by Drake’s legal representatives is currently in its initial stages, so the trial is expected to begin in summer of 2026. However, it is common in defamation cases for the two parties to reach a settlement before the trial.