\n<\/p>\n
Universal Music Group has denied new allegations made by Drake\u2019s lawyers that its British chair and chief executive Lucian Grainge had a \u201crole in and knowledge of the scheme to defame and harass\u201d the Canadian rapper by peer Kendrick Lamar, and that as such the label should \u201ccollect, review and produce\u201d communications by Grainge.<\/p>\n
Drake is suing UMG \u2013 his label Republic\u2019s parent company \u2013 over its release of Lamar\u2019s 2024 diss track Not Like Us, which contains the line: \u201cSay, Drake, I hear you like \u2019em young \u2026 Certified Lover Boy? Certified pedophiles.\u201d The artwork for the global hit single features an image of Drake\u2019s home dotted with icons used to identify the homes of registered sex offenders.<\/p>\n
Drake has denied the allegations, and in January filed a lawsuit against UMG \u2013 not Lamar himself \u2013 alleging that it \u201capproved, published and launched a campaign to create a viral hit out of a rap track\u201d that was \u201cintended to convey the specific, unmistakable and false factual allegation that Drake is a criminal paedophile, and to suggest that the public should resort to vigilante justice in response\u201d.<\/p>\n
The label initially responded that the suit was \u201cutterly without merit\u201d.<\/p>\n
<\/span>Lucian Grainge said that he never heard the song prior to its release. <\/span> Photograph: Bloomberg\/Getty Images<\/p>\n Drake\u2019s latest motion argued that Drake believes \u201cGrainge was personally involved in decisions made regarding the marketing and promotion of [Not Like Us] around its release\u201d.<\/p>\n Lawyers for UMG have now called for Drake\u2019s motion to be denied, labelling it a \u201ctransparent attempt to use discovery to harass UMG and force it to waste time and resources out of spite\u201d and that his \u201cattempts to show Sir Lucian\u2019s relevance are so strained that they defy credulity\u201d.<\/p>\n In legal documents, Grainge declared that he never heard the song prior to its release.<\/p>\n Lawyer Rollin A Ransom continued: \u201cThe premise of Drake\u2019s motion \u2013 that he could not have lost a rap battle unless it was the product of some imagined secret conspiracy going to the top of UMG\u2019s corporate structure \u2013 is absurd. Sir Lucian is the CEO of a multinational enterprise; his days are spent determining and implementing global strategy, not vetting individual tracks or album covers or driving the release and promotional plans for any one recording.\u201d<\/p>\n Drake previously agreed not to seek documents from Grainge, the letter states. \u201cAnd even if Sir Lucian had any responsive documents, they would surely be captured by discovery from UMG\u2019s other document custodians, who were actually responsible for releasing and promoting Not Like Us. Drake does not come close to meeting his burden of showing that Sir Lucian must be a custodian.\u201d<\/p>\n The letter concludes: \u201cDrake argues that Sir Lucian must be a custodian for no other reason than because Drake asked for him. That is entirely inconsistent with the law and is particularly inappropriate given that Drake\u2019s request is clearly based on a desire to harass UMG, rather than for a legitimate reason.\u201d<\/p>\n Drake has not responded to the new filing. The Guardian has contacted his representatives.<\/p>\n UMG is seeking to have the case dismissed entirely, claiming in March that Drake \u201clost a rap battle that he provoked and in which he willingly participated \u2026 diss tracks are a popular and celebrated art form centred around outrageous insults, and they would be severely chilled if Drake\u2019s suit were permitted to proceed\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Universal Music Group has denied new allegations made by Drake\u2019s lawyers that its British chair and chief executive Lucian Grainge had a \u201crole in and knowledge of the scheme to defame and harass\u201d the Canadian rapper by peer Kendrick Lamar, and that as such the label should \u201ccollect, review and produce\u201d communications by Grainge. Drake<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16113,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[673,9542,3608,9544,9546,3303,9173,9543,9545,8731],"class_list":{"0":"post-16112","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-attack","9":"tag-deny","10":"tag-drake","11":"tag-grainge","12":"tag-involved","13":"tag-kendrick","14":"tag-lamar","15":"tag-lucian","16":"tag-personally","17":"tag-universal"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16112","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16112"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16112\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/16113"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16112"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}