DJ Akademiks Breaks Down Drake’s Amended Defamation Lawsuit Against UMG

As Drake and his lawyers continue to go back and forth with UMG over his defamation lawsuit against them for the Kendrick Lamar diss track “Not Like Us,” the hip-hop world has to parse through the pages on pages of legal documents. In this new amended filing, DJ Akademiks found some curious details.

During his livestream, he read through the lawsuit once more, and found particular interest in the label politics. Ak noted how the Toronto superstar not only held UMG’s Interscope division (which houses Kendrick) accountable for the allegedly defamatory publication of the “NLU” music video, but also took aim at his own UMG-offshot label Republic for failing to prevent its publication.

Then, Akademiks went through the ways in which Drake’s legal team detailed UMG and Interscope’s promotion of Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us,” such as pushes from other publications and licensing the song. However, he characterized this as just standard promotion, however risky it may be.

In addition, DJ Akademiks questioned whether or not the OVO mogul has a mole in UMG. This is due to the allegation accusing UMG of pushing for “Not Like Us” at the Super Bowl despite Drake’s ongoing legal action. The Boy’s lawyers also levied similar accusations concerning this year’s Grammys.

Finally, the commentator and reporter wanted to get to the botting accusations against Kendrick Lamar, which continue to land on the UMG defamation lawsuit as additional alleged context. It’s a bit unclear how legally liable this is at press time, as both sides have retracted multiple motions and claims concerning alleged fake streams. For now, it seems like alleged defamation is the new center, not alleged commercial manipulation.

“UMG’s latest statement is a desperate attempt to spin the narrative and deflect from the truth: Drake is holding the largest music conglomerate in the world accountable for its actions and doing so without fear,” Drake’s lawyers reportedly responded to UMG after they blasted the amended lawsuit. 

“We dismissed the Texas discovery action because discovery will now proceed in New York,” the attorneys continued. “That’s not retreat, that’s victory. UMG dismissed its first amendment petition in Texas because it has no claim, that’s losing. And UMG knows the case against it is only getting stronger.”