Drake sues UMG Recordings, Inc. for defamation over Kendrick Lamar’s ‘Not Like Us’

Drake is battling his own record label over a song that is the lynchpin of a now legendary hip-hop feud.

Drake is battling his own record label over a song that is the lynchpin of a now legendary hip-hop feud. In a lawsuit against UMG Recordings, Inc., brought Wednesday in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, the Canadian rapper and actor has accused the label of defamation in the publishing and promotion of Kendrick Lamar’s hit “Not Like Us.” Drake is seeking compensatory and punitive damages. Lamar is not named as a defendant in the lawsuit. The suit begins with what Drake says happened in May 2024, when a security guard he employed was shot on the grounds of his Canadian estate. “In the middle of the night on May 7,2024 an armed group of assailants drove up to the Toronto house in which Drake and his family resided. Drake was inside,” according to the suit. “The car stopped in front of the residence, someone yelled ‘F**k Drake,’ and at least one gunman began to open fire. One bullet went through the security gate and hit Drake’s front door; another bullet struck and wounded a security guard, who was also one of Drake’s friends.” The suit states that it took nearly 30 minutes for an ambulance to arrive, during which time those present “labored to keep the man alive by applying pressure to the gunshot wound with towels.” While the guard ultimately was taken to the hospital and survived, the suit describes more incidents the following days in which intruders attempted to get into Drake’s residence.