CNN
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Drake claims he was defamed by Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl halftime show, and at the Grammy Awards, where over 100 million combined television viewers heard Lamar’s notorious diss track “Not Like Us,” according to court filings.
The Canadian rapper levied the new allegations Wednesday in an expanded federal defamation lawsuit against his own record label, Universal Music Group. Drake originally filed the lawsuit in connection with the track in January.
“These prestigious and high-exposure events introduced new listeners” to the allegedly defamatory song, Drake’s lawyers wrote in the latest filing. “Not only did streams of the Recording increase significantly following these two mega-cultural events, but threats against Drake and his family did as well.”
Drake’s current label is Republic Records, a division of UMG. Lamar – who is not named in the lawsuit – is an Interscope Records artist, also a division of UMG. Drake’s amended complaint does not accuse Pulitzer Prize-winner Lamar of any wrongdoing. UMG has argued that the lawsuit should be dismissed, and their motion is still pending.
“Drake, unquestionably one of the world’s most accomplished artists and with whom we’ve enjoyed a 16-year successful relationship, is being misled by his legal representatives into taking one absurd legal step after another,” UMG told CNN in a statement on Thursday, in response to Drake’s amended lawsuit.
The dispute stems from last year’s epic feud between rappers Drake and Lamar, who traded increasingly personal and unverified insults in a series of songs. In “Not Like Us,” Lamar claimed Drake was a “certified pedophile,” an allegation that Drake vehemently denies.
That song was “broadcast to the largest audience for a Super Bowl halftime show ever,” Drake’s lawyers wrote Wednesday, adding, “It was the first, and will hopefully be the last, Super Bowl halftime show orchestrated to assassinate the character of another artist.”
During the halftime show, Lamar skipped over the “certified pedophile” line, but did rap another line where he accused Drake of targeting young girls – a moment that went viral.
In Wednesday’s filing, Drake’s lawyers argued that Lamar didn’t utter the song’s most famous lyric because, “nearly everyone understands that it is defamatory.” They also claimed their damages were compounded because, “the image of Lamar looking directly at the camera when he named Drake and stated that Drake ‘likes ’em young’ … became a viral meme.”
One week before the Super Bowl, at the Grammys, Lamar took home five awards, including record of the year and song of the year. He didn’t perform “Not Like Us” during the ceremony, but snippets were played on multiple occasions when Lamar won his Grammys, and the crowd audibly sang along to another controversial line about Drake.
CNN previously reported that Lamar’s Super Bowl performance earned an average of 133.5 million viewers, making it the “most-watched Super Bowl halftime performance in history” according to Fox, the big show’s broadcaster. According to the Hollywood Reporter, the Grammys drew in 15.4 million viewers when it aired in January.
UMG has repeatedly denied Drake’s defamation allegations, and his claims that the label paid to inflate online streams of the song, and says his lawsuit is both “illogical” and “frivolous.” UMG says the lawsuit could restrict free-speech protections for musical artists.
Drake was handed an early procedural victory earlier this month, when Judge Jeannette Vargas rejected an attempt by UMG to pause the legal fact-finding process known as “discovery.” Judge Vargas said Drake can move forward with and pursue UMG’s documents about the Super Bowl performance, the Grammy Awards, Lamar’s record contract, and more.
“With discovery now moving forward, Drake will expose the evidence of UMG’s misconduct, and UMG will be held accountable for the consequences of its ill-conceived decisions,” Drake’s lawyer Michael Gottlieb told CNN in a statement Thursday.
Regarding the recent ruling, UMG said “Drake will personally be subject to discovery as well. As the old saying goes, ‘be careful what you wish for.’”
Later on Thursday, Drake’s lawyers told CNN, in part, “Drake knows exactly what he asked for: the truth and accountability.”
The lawsuit is still in its initial stages. If there isn’t an out-of-court settlement, which is common in defamation cases, the trial is on track to potentially begin in summer 2026.
