Last night, Drake withdrew his legal action in New York against his label Universal and Spotify for inflating streaming numbers on Kendrick Lamar's Drake diss"Not Like Us" through illegal tactics like botting and payola.
But that doesn't mean he's dropping the case.
Instead, he just simplified his legal strategy
Drake is still going forward with his federal defamation case against UMG.
In it, he claims the label pumped up "Not Like Us" to knock Drake down a peg and give themselves leverage in future contract negotiations.
“The recording is defamatory because its lyrics, album image (the "Image"), and music video (the "Video") all advance the false and malicious narrative that Drake is a p*dophile. The lyrics repeatedly accuse Drake of engaging in criminal acts, including calling him a "certified p*dophile" and a "predator" who needs to be "placed on neighborhood watch." The [cover] was designed to reinforce—and, in fact, does reinforce—that accusation by depicting Drake's actual Toronto house covered in icons known to be used by law enforcement and public safety applications, such as Citizen, to identify the residences of child s*x offenders. The Video bolsters this same message by, for example, showing images associated with s*x trafficking and juxtaposing the game of hopscotch with lyrics accusing Drake of "Tryna strike a chord and it's probably A-Minor."
Drake's team says they have receipts proving UMG botted "Not Like Us" by at least 30 million.
He also argues that UMG pushed to have Kendrick do the Super Bowl and that the false claims of pedophilia in "Not Like Us" endangered him and his family.
Drake is suing UMG in federal court for 3 claims
— DJ Akademiks (@Akademiks) January 15, 2025
1. Defamation.
2. Harrasment
3. Violation of New York General Business Law (using bots to falsely inflate streams),