<\/p>\n
\n\tDrake has filed a lawsuit against Universal Music Group (UMG) over allegations that the music giant defamed him by promoting Kendrick Lamar\u2019s diss track \u201cNot Like Us,\u201d claiming the label boosted a \u201cfalse and malicious narrative\u201d that the star rapper was a pedophile and put his life in danger.<\/p>\n
\n\tHours after his attorneys withdrew an earlier petition<\/a>, they filed a full-fledged defamation lawsuit Wednesday against his longtime label \u2013 claiming UMG knew Lamar\u2019s \u201cinflammatory and shocking allegations\u201d were false but chose to place \u201ccorporate greed over the safety and well-being of its artists.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cUMG intentionally sought to turn Drake into a pariah, a target for harassment, or worse,\u201d the star\u2019s lawyers write in a complaint filed in Manahttan federal court. \u201cUMG did so not because it believes any of these false claims to be true, but instead because it would profit from damaging Drake\u2019s reputation.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tIn one of the lawsuit\u2019s most vivid accusations, Drake claims that the release of \u201cNot Like Us\u201d has subjected him to risk of physical violence, including a drive-by shooting on his Toronto area home just days after the song was released.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cUMG\u2019s greed yielded real world consequences,\u201d his lawyers write. \u201cWith the palpable physical threat to Drake\u2019s safety and the bombardment of online harassment, Drake fears for the safety and security of himself, his family, and his friends.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tNotably, the case does not target Lamar himself \u2014 a point that Drake\u2019s attorneys repeatedly stress in their filings.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cUMG may spin this complaint as a rap beef gone legal, but this lawsuit is not about a war of words between artists,\u201d Drake\u2019s attorneys say.<\/p>\n \n\tA spokesman for UMG did not immediately return a request for comment.<\/p>\n \n\tWednesday\u2019s lawsuit is yet another dramatic escalation a high-profile beef that saw Drake and Lamar exchange stinging diss tracks last year, culminating in Lamar\u2019s knockout \u201cNot Like Us\u201d \u2014 a track that savagely slammed Drake as a \u201ccertified pedophile\u201d and became a hit in its own right.<\/p>\n \n\tDrake shocked the music industry in November when he filed petitions suggesting he might sue over the fued \u2014 first accusing UMG and Spotify<\/a> of an illegal \u201cscheme\u201d involving bots, payola and other methods to pump up Lamar\u2019s song, then later claiming<\/a> that the song had been defamatory. But those cases were not quite full-fledged lawsuits, and Drake withdrew one of them late on Tuesday.<\/p>\n \n\tNow it\u2019s clear why: In Wednesday\u2019s lawsuit, he formally sued UMG over the same alleged scheme, claiming the label \u201cunleashed every weapon in its arsenal\u201d to drive the popularity of Lamar\u2019s track even though it knew the lyrics were \u201cnot only false, but dangerous.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cWith his own record label having waged a campaign against him, and refusing to address this as a business matter, Drake has been left with no choice but to seek legal redress against UMG,\u201d his lawyers write.<\/p>\n