Drake Sues Record Label Over Kendrick Lamar Diss Track, Alleging ‘The 2024 Equivalent of Pizzagate’

Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press via AP

Drake on Wednesday filed a lawsuit against Universal Music Group over Kendrick Lamar’s hit song “Not Like Us,” accusing the record label of promoting it despite its controversial lyrics.

Throughout much of 2024, the two rappers were engaged in a rap battle that saw both of them release a flurry of scathing diss tracks. Arguably the most impactful one was “Not Like Us,” a chart-topping single in which Lamar accused Drake and his associates of being pedophiles and trafficking minors.

The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York and obtained by The New York Times, claims the label “approved, published, and launched a campaign to create a viral hit out of a rap track” that was “intended to convey the specific, unmistakable, and false factual allegation that Drake is a criminal pedophile, and to suggest that the public should resort to vigilante justice in response.”

The lawsuit also references the cover art for “Not Like Us,” which shows an aerial view of Drake’s home near Toronto with several markers over it — meant to imply that multiple sex offenders are registered to the house. It even calls the campaign to promote the song “the 2024 equivalent of Pizzagate,” a reference to the conspiracy theory that there was a pedophilia ring operating within the Democratic Party. According to the theory, the ring was linked to the Washington, D.C. pizza restaurant Comet Ping Pong.

As for a potential motive for the promotion of the song, the lawsuit claims UMG did so to “devalue Drake’s music and brand” so that “UMG would gain leverage to force Drake to sign a new deal on terms more favorable to UMG.”

Drake previously initiated pre-ligitation action in New York and Texas back in November 2024. At the time, the label denied any wrongdoing and called the legal action “absurd.”