This is not the Aubrey Graham I fell in love with.

As I’m sure you all know by now, sometime in Nov. of 2024, Drake submitted a petition to the court to possibly file a lawsuit again Universal Music Group (UMG), alleging that they used bots to push Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us” diss track.  As of January 2025, Drake has followed through with his lawsuit against UMG, and this time he’s even naming YouTube content creators in the suit. Lord Jesus…

According to the legal document, Drake is suing UMG because of the defamatory lyrics in “Not Like Us,” describing Drake as a “certified pedophile.”  Apparently, the accusations have made Drake and his family’s life a living hell.  They’ve been fired upon, someone tried to get into Drake’s house, and he even had to move Adonis and his child’s mother out of Toronto.  The suit goes on to state, and I quote, “[this] lawsuit involves no claims against Kendrick Lamar or any other artist; instead, it is about UMG—the publisher and exclusive rights holder of Lamar’s music, as well as Drake’s—and its malicious decision to publish and promote, through covert means, false allegations about Drake that UMG knew were false, explosive, inflammatory, and certain to result in both vitriol and substantial harm to Drake’s reputation.”

My heart goes out to Drake and his family for being harassed.  But with that being said, I think that’s a clear sign for him to beef up his security, not take UMG to court.  I still have a problem with this lawsuit, and I’ll tell you why. 

First of all, as I mentioned in my “2024:  The Year of Hip Hop Beef!” post, Hip Hop was built on battles.  If you go back and look at the history of the genre, you’ll see a million beefs between artists.  However, none of the artists sued the record company for pushing the winning rapper’s songs, no matter what was said on wax.  Nas said that Jay-Z was ugly and women weren’t hollerin’ at him for his looks.  Jigga didn’t seek litigation.  Pac threatened Biggie’s kids on “Hit ‘Em Up” (“My .44 make sure all y’all kids don’t grow!”). Biggie didn’t file a suit.  LL Cool J claimed that Kool Moe Dee had rotten teeth, MC Hammer was too old to rap, and Ice-T was a no-talent hood.  Neither of them subpoenaed witnesses for a case.  Ice Cube pretty much destroyed NWA as a group.  The fellas didn’t talk to attorneys, although according to the film Straight Outta Compton, Jerry Heller wanted them to.  Drake, you yourself weren’t sued when you bodied Meek Mill.

I’m sure y’all are thinking, “Kendrick called Drake a pedophile, though!”  Yes, he did.  However, let’s not forget that Drake also called Kendrick a wife beater.  Not only that, Drake claimed that one of Kendrick’s kids wasn’t biologically his.  Let’s not act like Kendrick was the only one hurling accusations during this beef.

My other gripe with all of this is the fact that Drake is suing UMG for “promoting inflammatory allegations” with the “Not Like Us” track.  Okay…so why don’t you just sue Kendrick?  The lawsuit makes it clear that Kendrick isn’t the one being sued in this case…but he wrote the song.  Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t want Kendrick to be sued.  Again, lawsuits have no place in Hip Hop beef.  I’m just saying, if you’re going to sue someone for lyrics that defame your character, shouldn’t you be suing the writer of said lyrics, instead of the record company that released the music?  It reminds me of what Saul Goodman said during his legendary debut on Breaking Bad, “If a mosquito’s buzzing around you and bites you in the ass, you don’t go gunnin’ for the mosquito’s attorney!”  Or, in this case, you don’t go gunnin’ for the mosquito’s record label.  Why is Drake suing the record company and not the man the wrote the song? Let’s not also forget, Drake claimed in “The Heart Part 6” that he “finessed” Kendrick into putting lies about him on wax. Okay…so if you fed him these lies, and he made a song with the lies you told him…why are you mad? And why are you suing UMG for promoting shit you made up?

Then there’s the fact that Drake, as well as Kendrick, are signed to UMG, who promoted both of them over the years.  Drake’s suit claims that UMG purposefully allowed “Not Like Us” to get the airplay it received because they wanted to hurt his reputation.  A spokesperson for UMG denied these allegations, stating, “We have invested massively in his music and our employees around the world have worked tirelessly for many years to help him achieve historic commercial and personal financial success.” I believe the spokesperson, seeing as how the company promoted Drake’s 2018 Scorpion album.

When Scorpion was released, Spotify listeners had to endure a slew of promotion for the then new album.  Drake was being promoted on every playlist under the sun:  R&B, Country, Gospel, and Jazz, just to name a few.  I promise you I’m not kidding.  I didn’t hear Drake complain not one time.  Now that the tables have turned, he’s upset (no pun intended).  That’s a bit hypocritical isn’t it, Drizzy?  The lawsuit even mentions that UMG execs are handsomely rewarded for “exploiting artistic works,” and have annual incentive programs that allow them to gain bonuses for meeting and surpassing sales.  I’m sure UMG and Drake both profited over them over hyping Scorpion back in 2018.

Drake goes on to claim that UMG used bots to help “inflate the spread of the recording on Spotify.”  Lord have mercy, Aubrey.  I’m sure some bots helped promote “Not Like Us”—just like they were used to post those doggone ads for the Scorpion album—but that’s not the only reason the track became popular.  Let’s face it, the song is just fire.  The beat, the hook, the disses; it’s a certifiable classic.  “Not Like Us” belongs in the same category as “Hit ‘Em Up,” “No Vaseline” and the original recording of “Jack the Ripper” (don’t sleep on LL’s diss tracks, y’all).  That’s why the song’s been played non-stop since last May.  And if you don’t believe me, take a look at the screenshot below.  It’s the top seven songs from my Apple Music Replay ’24 playlist.  Look at what made number one!

Why bless my soul, I believe it’s “Not Like Us!”  And no, no one paid me to listen to that song; I bumped it whenever I had the chance.  Hell, I listened to it on my way to the grocery store just the other day! 

Last but not least, I hate that Drake named the YouTube creators in his lawsuit.  To add insult to injury, he didn’t just name any old YouTube creators…he mentioned all the black creators with big followings.  Damn shame.  What’s even worse is the suit claims that UMG “whitelisted” “Not Like Us,” meaning that they removed any copyright claims so the videos could be played without any restrictions.  No copyright claims also means the videos can be monetized, so they’ll end up in the YouTube algorithm, allowing further views, hence further promotion.  The most irritating thing about this is that it’s a lie.

The YouTube creators named in the suit, and a few others that reacted to “Not Like Us” last spring, took to the platform and shut down these claims quick, fast, and in a hurry.  The YouTubers did create reaction videos to “Not Like Us,” but they also reacted to Drake’s “Family Matters,” “Push Ups,” and “The Heart Part 6” diss tracks.  They followed the entire beef from start to finish and made reaction videos about everything.  Every-doggone-thing!  Also, the videos for “Not Like Us” were later flagged for copyright some time after they were released, but you know whose wasn’t?  Drake’s.  Many of the creators showed that their reaction videos to “Push Ups” and “Family Matters” remain monetized to this day with no copyright claims. 

Oh, yeah…and I love how Drake had the audacity to name Kai Cenat in the suit. Drake himself texted Kai and advised him to “stay on stream” so he could react to one of Drizzy’s diss tracks.  Ain’t that some mess?

Some folks believe that Drizzy is a victim to the shady practices of the music industry, much like Michael Jackson and Prince.  After all, there’s validity to Spotify users having “Not Like Us” play whenever they clearly requested to listen to Certified Lover Boy.  Drake also owns his masters just as Mike and Prince did.  However, there’s a big difference between what went down between Mike, Prince and their labels as opposed to Drake and UMG.  As I said before, Drake himself used UMG’s bots to promote his work, and UMG looked out for him with his past projects, as well as his own diss tracks with the 2024 beef with Kendrick.  Mike felt as if Sony was out to get him, and seeing how he met his demise…it’s a definite possibility…allegedly.  Prince fought Warner Bros. because they kept trying to undermine his creative control and weren’t paying him fairly, not to mention how they refused to allow him to make covers for his albums, but had no issues allowing other artists to make covers of his songs.        

No, like most fans out there, I believe that Drizzy is being petty because he lost.  I assume he could handle losing to Pusha T in 2018.  After all, Pusha won the battle, but Drake easily bounced back a few weeks later and arguably won the war.  This loss to Kendrick is whole ‘nother issue.  Drake didn’t just lose a rap battle.  He lost fans, cred, and now he’s being clowned on a daily basis. Not too long ago, he was revered by most in the Hip Hop industry.  What he doesn’t seem to realize is that this whole lawsuit business is causing him to lose the respect of his peers and fans alike.  It’s giving, “Waaaahh!  Kenny said mean things about me!”  His career may not ever come back from this.

Drake, my advice to you is this…take this L with grace and keep it pushing.  We all take L’s in life.  To quote a phrase, “You can’t win ‘em all.”  Drake, this is your L.  Just handle it with class and dignity.  Filing this lawsuit is not the way to go.  It makes you look weak, Karen-ish, hypocritical, and goes against everything Hip Hop stands for.  The damage has already been done to your career; please avoid any further harm and just bow out.  You made some great diss tracks.  Kendrick’s were just better.  Let it go.  Be the Drake we all came to love.

—Written by Nadiya

So what’s your opinion on Drake’s lawsuit against UMG?  Do you feel that it’s justified or do you think that Drake is being a big ol’ baby? Are you a fan of “Not Like Us” or any of Kendrick’s other disses? Did you enjoy any of Drake’s diss tracks?  Let me know in the comments section!