Universal Music Moves to Dismiss ‘Meritless’ Drake Lawsuit

Universal Music Group has officially moved to dismiss the defamation lawsuit filed against it by Drake. Photo Credit: The Come Up Show

Universal Music Group (UMG) is once again firing back against Drake’s “Not Like Us” lawsuit – this time with a firmly worded motion to toss the “meritless” complaint.

The major label doubled down on its dismissal push today, two months and change after Drake officially submitted the action. In part because of Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl halftime-show set, many are already familiar with the defamation dispute and the underlying rap battle.

We last checked in on the ugly showdown towards this month’s beginning, when, despite UMG’s clear-cut criticism of Drake’s arguments, the discovery wheels were in motion.

(Early March also saw Drake and iHeartMedia settle their separate suit accusing the latter of “Not Like Us” payola.)

Now, the dismissal wheels are in motion as well – with UMG kicking off its related memorandum of law by calling out the purported motivation behind Drake’s suit.

Drake, UMG said here, “one of the most successful recording artists of all time, 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.”

Unsurprisingly, given that contention, the record-label defendant further dove into a point-by-point recap of the “increasingly vitriolic and incendiary ‘diss tracks’” exchanged between Drake and Lamar.

And those diss tracks, UMG opined in more words, represent business as usual in the rap-battle world – including because Drake himself allegedly levied a variety of “incendiary attacks” against Lamar.

“Drake has been pleased to use UMG’s platform to promote tracks leveling similarly incendiary attacks at Lamar,” Universal Music indicated, “including, most significantly, that Lamar engaged in domestic abuse and that one of Lamar’s business partners and managers is the true father of Lamar’s son.”

Following the idea to its conclusion, “Not Like Us” allegedly conveys “nonactionable opinion and rhetorical hyperbole.” Revolving “around outrageous insults,” this rhetorical hyperbole constitutes protected First Amendment speech that could “be severely chilled” by Drake’s suit, per UMG.

Shifting to Drake’s specific defamation arguments concerning “Not Like Us,” the song allegedly advances “the false and malicious narrative that Drake is a pedophile,” we reported of the original complaint in mid-January.

“Again,” UMG retorted in its dismissal motion, “no reasonable viewer would believe that the [official ‘Not Like Us’] image of Drake’s Toronto mansion with 13 sex offender markers is real; the image is hyperbolic and exaggerated, conveying opinion, not fact.”

(Drake and his legal team, having emphasized alleged “real-life” consequences of the “Not Like Us” image in the initial suit, presumably have much to say about this claim in particular.)

Meanwhile, even if Universal Music had actually set out to devalue Drake’s brand by releasing and aggressively marketing “Not Like Us,” the plaintiff rapper’s suit “never alleges that UMG specifically intended to cause violence against him—and any such allegation would be utterly implausible,” per the dismissal-focused text.

Many appear to share UMG’s position that Drake’s suit is an effort to even the rap-battle score – not a genuine attempt to secure damages for actual defamation. But in light of the massive commercial reach of “Not Like Us” (and the above-highlighted consequences claimed by Drake), it’ll be interesting to see if the court feels the same way.