Canadian rapper Aubrey Graham, affectionately known as Drake, has reportedly filed a lawsuit against his own record label, Universal Music Group (UMG), for allegedly promoting a diss track released by American rapper, Kendrick Lamar.
Both artists are signed under the parent label but with different divisions, Lamar being under Interscope.
Drake accused UMG of betrayal and promoting Lamar’s Not Like Us diss at the expense of his reputation.
The rapper’s legal swipe at the label comes after last year’s beef with Lamar, where they released numerous diss tracks against each other.
The God’s Plan hitmaker threw shade at Lamar with songs like Push Ups, Family Matters and Taylor Made Freestyle, while Kendrick hit back with 6:16 in LA, Euphoria as well as Meet The Grahams.
The beef ended suddenly after Not Like Us accumulated more numbers and quickly became the favourite in the whole drama and arguably declared Lamar the winner of the rap feud.
UMG has however sought to dismiss Drake’s allegations through a statement.
“Not only are these claims untrue, but he notion that we would seek to harm the reputation of any artist, let alone Drake, is illogical.
We have invested massively in his music and our employees around the world have worked tirelessly for many years to help him achieve historic commercial and personal financial success.
We do not engage in defamation against any individua.
At the same time, we will vigorously defend this litigation to protect our people and our reputation, as well as any artist who might directly or indirectly become a frivolous litigation target for having done nothing more than write a song,” read the statement from UMG.
The current lawsuit comes soon after Drake dropped a separate case against UMG and streaming platform, Spotify, where he was accusing the companies of what he described as “artificially boost streams” of Not Like Us, at the expense of his own music.
He further alleged that Universal was doctoring the popularity of the song to appear bigger than what it was.
The involvement of the courts in this beef, has left the artists’ fans divided.
Many took it as Drake’s admission of defeat, especially since diss tracks are considered as a long-standing tradition in the rap culture, where artists go head-to-head to flex their lyricism amongst others.
