Drake‘s legal team has raised concerns that “millions of people” believe Kendrick Lamar was directly accusing him of being a paedophile in his diss track. The claim comes amid a legal battle that began last November when the Hotline Bling singer filed a dispute against Universal Music Group in New York. In the lawsuit, Drake alleges that the publisher and label had “artificially inflated” streams for Lamar’s track Not Like Us, alongside other serious allegations.
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The legal feud between Lamar and Drake
In the legal filing, Drake’s Frozen Moments LLC accused Universal Music Group (UMG) and Spotify of “illegally” inflating streams for Kendrick Lamar’s track Not Like Us to benefit Lamar, who had been involved in a highly publicised rap feud with Drake the previous year. In response, UMG filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit, suggesting that Drake’s legal action was the result of his inability to accept a “lost rap battle.”
They argued that rather than accepting the defeat “like the unbothered rap artist he often claims to be,” Drake had opted to “sue his own record label in a misguided attempt to salve his wounds.”
UMG also referenced a 2022 petition in which Drake, alongside other artists, had campaigned against the use of rap lyrics as evidence in criminal trials, stating, “Drake was right then and is wrong now,” and dismissing the lawsuit as nothing more than an attempt “to save face for his unsuccessful rap battle with Lamar,” as reported by NME.
Drake states people take Lamar’s lyrics as true statements
On March 20, Drake’s team responded to UMG’s statement that most people will not take the “outrageous insults” in Lamar’s track as literal facts. According to Billboard, the rapper’s lawyer has now argued that UMG’s central argument is “doomed to fail” as people are taking the lyrics as facts. His lawyers wrote, “UMG completely ignores the complaint’s allegations that millions of people, all over the world, did understand the defamatory material as a factual assertion that plaintiff is a paedophile,” as reported by NME.
When Lamar performed at Super Bowl 2025, it gave birth to a new viral meme across social media, as fans pointed out in the line “Say Drake, I hear you like ’em young.” Many noticed the rapper’s subtle smirk at the camera, which quickly became the focal point of memes.
Drake’s lawyer continued, “UMG also ignores [the lawsuit’s claim] that the statements in question (and surrounding context) implied that the allegations were based on undisclosed evidence and the audience understood as much.”
