Drake-Kendrick Lamar feud: What we learned from the UMG defamation lawsuit

Drake's defamation lawsuit against Universal Music Group revealed he was home at the time of a shooting outside his Bridle Path mansion.

Drake and his associates waited nearly half an hour for paramedics to arrive after a shooting outside his Toronto mansion last May left his security guard and friend fighting for his life.

That’s just one of many new details revealed in the recent defamation and harassment lawsuit filed by the rap star, real name Aubrey Drake Graham, against Universal Music Group (UMG), following his months-long feud with California rapper Kendrick Lamar, real name Kendrick Lamar Duckworth.

The lawsuit was filed in federal court in New York City on Wednesday and made clear that the action is not about Lamar, but about UMG’s promotion of his record-breaking diss track “Not Like Us,” which Drake says falsely accused him of being a pedophile and was released on May 4 – three days before the shooting and subsequent break-in attempts at his Bridle Path home. Both Drake and Lamar are signed to UMG.

The suit is seeking a trial and an undisclosed amount of money for damages. None of the allegations have been proven in court and a statement of defence has not been filed by the record label.

“In the two decades leading up to May of 2024, although Drake was constantly in the public eye, nothing remotely like these events had ever happened to him or his family. But these events were not coincidental. They immediately followed, and were proximately caused by, UMG’s actions leading up to and on May 4, 2024,” the lawsuit read, and alleged that the label chose “corporate greed” over the safety and well-being of one of its artists.

UMG denied the allegations in a statement to CTV News Toronto.

“We have not and do not engage in defamation—against any individual. At the same time, we will vigorously defend this litigation to protect our people and our reputation, as well as any artist who might directly or indirectly become a frivolous litigation target for having done nothing more than write a song,” the statement reads in part.

“Not Like Us” was one of several songs released in the war of words between the two rappers last spring.

CTV News Toronto read through the 81-page lawsuit. Here’s what we learned:

Drake was inside his Bridle Path mansion at the time of the shooting

Police were called to Drake’s sprawling Bridle Path mansion, near Park Lane Circle and Post Road, just after 2 a.m. on May 7 for reports of a shooting.

The lawsuit said that a car, filled with a group of armed assailants, pulled up to the home where Drake, and his family, live and stopped the vehicle in front of the residence while the musician was home.

“Someone yelled ‘F*** Drake,’ and at least one gunman began to open fire,” the court document read.

At least two shots rang out. One hit the front door of the property and the other struck a security guard, who lawyers said is also a friend of Drake’s. The victim sustained life-threatening injuries.

Up until Wednesday’s court filing, it was unclear if Drake was actually inside the residence at the time of the shooting.

Paramedics took nearly 30 minutes to respond

According to the lawsuit, Drake and others in the house did “everything possible” to keep the security guard alive until paramedics allegedly arrived nearly 30 minutes later.

“Drake and others labored to keep the man alive by applying pressure to the gunshot wound with towels. Blood was everywhere,” the claim stated.

CTV News Toronto has reached out to Toronto Paramedic Services for comment on the allegation made in the lawsuit but has not received a response.

Police continue to investigate the shooting and at time of writing no arrests have been made.

Man used his ‘bare hands’ to dig hole under Drake’s security fence

A day after the shooting, the lawsuit alleged, a man dug a hole under Drake’s security fence with his “bare hands” to enter the property.

The lawsuit said that the trespasser yelled racist slurs and threats at Drake before he was apprehended by security guards.

Police said at the time that the man was taken into custody under the Mental Health Act.

Back in 2019, The City of Toronto granted Drake special permission to build fences around his property twice as high as would otherwise be permitted, due to security concerns.

A third break-in attempt at the property occurred the very next day. In that case, the man, who is believed to be in his 20s, was taken to hospital with serious, but non-life-threatening injuries, after an altercation with Drake’s security guards

Drake pulled his son out of Toronto elementary school following shooting

In the wake of the shooting and two separate break-in attempts, the lawsuit said that Drake pulled his son, Adonis, out of a Toronto elementary school.

When school ended for the year, Drake made arrangements for Adonis and his mother to leave Toronto “entirely,” his lawyers wrote in the court filing.

“Day to day, Drake continues to take steps to address persistent threats to his security,” the lawsuit read.

Adonis was mentioned by name in Lamar’s diss track, “Meet the Grahams.”

UMG knew allegations made in ‘Not Like Us’ were a ‘gold mine’

The suit alleged that even though UMG knew that the allegations made against Drake in “Not Like Us” were fabricated, the record label “waged an unrelenting campaign” to spread what they described as the “defamatory material.”

That material includes the song itself, the accompanying music video, and the cover art, which features an image of Drake’s home covered in the icons used by law enforcement to identify the residences of child sex offenders online.

“UMG did so because it understood that the Recording’s inflammatory and shocking allegations were a gold mine,” the suit read, adding that lyrics in the song encouraged members of the public to resort to “vigilante justice.”

The suit also noted that UMG’s promotion of the song would benefit Lamar’s sales through the label and devalue Drake’s image as his reported $400-million contract neared fulfilment.

Suit says UMG used ‘sophisticated and highly-organized campaigns’ to arrange for ‘Not Like Us’ to be played at the Super Bowl

On the strength of “Not Like Us,” which debuted at No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot 100 and has amassed more than one billion streams since its release, Lamar was announced as the half-time performer at the Super Bowl next month.

While it’s unclear exactly which songs Lamar will perform at the biggest sporting event of the year, the suit alleged that UMG has used its influence to make sure “Not Like Us” is part of the setlist.

“Billions of plays and ubiquity were not enough for UMG. Over the course of the last several months, UMG has made significant financial investments and leveraged its professional connections, via sophisticated and highly-organized publicity campaigns, to arrange for the Recording to be performed at one of the most significant (and viewed) cultural events of the year—the Super Bowl,” the suit read.

Lamar previously performed at the Super Bowl in 2022, alongside California music mogul and mentor Dr. Dre.

UMG warned Drake that a lawsuit would result in ‘Humiliation’

Months before the lawsuit was filed, Drake tried to address the claims against UMG privately and was told that he would “face humiliation” if he sought legal action against the company, the lawsuit alleges.

“UMG’s posture, as the ‘world’s largest music company,’ was that it is untouchable,” the lawsuit read.

Lawsuit alleges that UMG falsely inflated popularity of “Not Like Us”

The lawsuit made reference to a UMG memo which reflected on the highlights of 2021.In it, UMG CEO Lucian Grainge is reported to have said that it was “harder than ever for artists to break through the noise” of digital music streaming, and noted that 60,000 songs are added to Spotify ever single day.

“UMG made sure that ‘Not Like Us’ broke through that noise,” the lawsuit read.

“For one, UMG took the unprecedented step—contrary to its internal practices—to remove the Recording’s copyright restrictions on YouTube and Twitch, thereby ‘whitelisting’ the Recording to ensure content creators would republish it broadly.”

Drake’s legal team previously made similar allegations in a court filing in November.