Drake sues UMG & Spotify over Kendrick Lamar

[Rep2000]

12 hours ago, Jimmy. said:

Who lied to Drake and told him filing these lawsuits was a smart decision?

His lawyers with a very healthy hourly rates 

[Wicked]

Joe Budden just kicked his ******* back in, oh my god.

 

 

"Your back catalog we gon run that up, Go make your mid"  @Seeyuh @Virgos Groove @Gorjesspazze9

Edited November 27 by Wicked

[anastaciabby]

Another embarrassing lawsuit?

 

[Capris Groove]

Omg, as if he wasn't the face on every single Spotify genre at one point. "Dark Ambient" and it's a picture of Aubrey.

 

[Kern]

5 minutes ago, Capris Groove said:

Omg, as if he wasn't the face on every single Spotify genre at one point. "Dark Ambient" and it's a picture of Aubrey.

 

This is so embarassing 

 

[C_Colstead]

43 minutes ago, Capris Groove said:

Omg, as if he wasn't the face on every single Spotify genre at one point. "Dark Ambient" and it's a picture of Aubrey.

 

This. Spotify have always had a stronger relationship with Drake than they've ever had with Kendrick.

[Cbreezy]

In utter shock about the second filing, but I'm somehow not at the same time.

 

Joe Budden (can't believe I'm saying this) has probably hit the nail on the head most and with the most applicable nuance. 

 

For someone who had a difficult but feasible path back to "business as usual" with his career, Drake has elected to effectively Samson his ish (tear himself down while trying to bring down the establishment with him). 

 

We all joked that he must have been rattled by NLU, but this is next level and really gives a window-peek into fragility/unsettledness of his mind/mental. It's very much giving: had it "his" way and dominated for so long that he literally can't get his head around the tide turning.

 

The fact he is effectively taking down his own career makes it clear that he knows the tactics used to uphold his career (ironically the very tactics he's saying were used to help Kendrick) were going away along with organic public interest. Possibly because of his stalled contract renegotiations with UMG, p*ssing off the higher-ups, and maybe not selling "as" much "as" easily as he once did. 

 

Rather than bow out gracefully, which would see him still snatching hits and having the option of making it "seem" like it's on his terms (our pop girl faves do this ALL THE TIME), he's going the explosive route. But like Joe said, it doesn't work because he is not writing the story in isolation. He's making moves that are being judged and dissected by the GP, and dealing irreparable damage to his brand and legacy in real time.

 

Labels are ruthless too. So, I'm so intrigued to see his edit moving forward. 

 

I just don't see him bouncing back. The machine is way too powerful and the fact is that no single act is bigger than the machine. Not even the biggest act. 

 

The thing is, they won't even do it abruptly (as that would be too obvious and look retaliatory). It will manifest as diminishing streaming support, smaller radio play, fewer festival bookings, which paired with genuine public disinterest sees him start to underperform. This dummy isn't just going at the label (which would make it easy for him to go to another label), he's coming for Spotify, iHeart, etc. The literal next pillars of the industry after the labels themselves. He's effectively blacklisting himself across the board.

 

As said above, he seems to know this and is effectively doing what is done in traditional business: he's essentially actioning a business exit. He's just doing it a) preemptively/abruptly, b) the entirely wrong way, and c) in a manner that there is no backtracking on.

 

It's going to backfire spectacularly. Either in the immediate or the longterm. I predict he'll present himself as a martyr of sorts and his loyalists will eat that on up and probably be all the more rabid because of it. But it won't amount to much (of significance) as the plug of the machine will have been pulled permanently. 

 

I'm not even a Hip-Hop head like that-that (R&B lover here). But I have literally never ever seen anything like this. Not from the 90s rappers, not even the Ja Rules/50 Cents, or any of the ladies etc. It's unprecedented in the worst way.

 

[Parachutes]

Does anyone know if there's precedent for song lyrics being ruled as being defamatory before? If not maybe that could be interesting legally. Like even though in this case it's obvious who NLU is about, a song could in theory still be about something else, or be inspired by a blend of things, or be made up. So insisting that it's defamatory seems to insist that the song (or art, generally) must have a specific meaning, which feels like if could be limiting for artists in the future.  Reminds me of how in some cases prosecutors are starting to use rap lyrics as evidence for a rapper's wrongdoing, which could be a slippery slope.

 

(That's assuming the case gets anywhere…..as if Drake himself didn't say inflammatory and unsubstantiated things about Kendrick on songs also under UMG) 

Edited November 27 by Parachutes

[Seeyuh]

4 hours ago, Wicked said:

Joe Budden just kicked his ******* back in, oh my god.

 

 

"Your back catalog we gon run that up, Go make your mid"  @Seeyuh @Virgos Groove @Gorjesspazze9

thats exactly what i said. kanye is top 10 most streamed now cuz of Graduation. not Carnival

catalog is king 

[Cbreezy]

48 minutes ago, Parachutes said:

Does anyone know if there's precedent for song lyrics being ruled as being defamatory before? If not maybe that could be interesting legally. Like even though in this case it's obvious who NLU is about, a song could in theory still be about something else, or be inspired by a blend of things, or be made up. So insisting that it's defamatory seems to insist that the song (or art, generally) must have a specific meaning, which feels like if could be limiting for artists in the future.  Reminds me of how in some cases prosecutors are starting to use rap lyrics as evidence for a rapper's wrongdoing, which could be a slippery slope.

 

(That's assuming the case gets anywhere…..as if Drake himself didn't say inflammatory and unsubstantiated things about Kendrick on songs also under UMG) 

I'm interested in this too. Drake really is potentially about to open up a can of worms that ironically can come and bite him in the butt almost instantaneously. 

 

If the obvious line he takes offense to in NLU is so bothersome to him, the easy rebuttal for UMG / Kendrick is to put HIS lyrics - also released by UMG - claiming Kendrick's domestic abuse on the table. Any good legal team would abandon this line of pursuit. It's a dead end. 

 

I'm floored at what kind of advice he could be getting. He has limitless resources and yet all of this feels so messy, so unthought-out, and so imploding to what's left of his reputation. It really is startling and would never have been on my bingo card about how he would (if at all) fall.

[Virgos Groove]

2 hours ago, Cbreezy said:

I'm interested in this too. Drake really is potentially about to open up a can of worms that ironically can come and bite him in the butt almost instantaneously.

Drake when the UMG execs pull out his Millie Bobbie texts in court:

 

 

[MonsterJohn]

Omg he's such a loser can't believe I had a crush on him during the take care era

[PoisonPill]

2 hours ago, Cbreezy said:

I'm interested in this too. Drake really is potentially about to open up a can of worms that ironically can come and bite him in the butt almost instantaneously. 

 

If the obvious line he takes offense to in NLU is so bothersome to him, the easy rebuttal for UMG / Kendrick is to put HIS lyrics - also released by UMG - claiming Kendrick's domestic abuse on the table. Any good legal team would abandon this line of pursuit. It's a dead end. 

 

I'm floored at what kind of advice he could be getting. He has limitless resources and yet all of this feels so messy, so unthought-out, and so imploding to what's left of his reputation. It really is startling and would never have been on my bingo card about how he would (if at all) fall.

I have a little experience with civil litigation - when you're being sued for defamation, "but the other party lied on me too!" isn't a valid defense. The case only concerns the allegations made in the complaint.

 

But yes, this case is going nowhere as Drake clearly knows. They're doing this as a warning shot to scare the NFL and Fox to not allow NLU to be performed at the Super Bowl, that's it. 

[Cbreezy]

1 minute ago, PoisonPill said:

I have a little experience with civil litigation - when you're being sued for defamation, "but the other party lied on me too!" isn't a valid defense. The case only concerns the allegations made in the complaint.

 

But yes, this case is going nowhere as Drake clearly knows. They're doing this as a warning shot to scare the NFL and Fox to not allow NLU to be performed at the Super Bowl, that's it. 

Interesting!

 

All the other parties involved absolutely want NLU performed at Halftime and I'd bet they'd sooner let it happen and deal with the aftermath than bow to any of Aubrey's antics lol.

[Gorjesspazze9]

7 hours ago, Capris Groove said:

Omg, as if he wasn't the face on every single Spotify genre at one point. "Dark Ambient" and it's a picture of Aubrey.

 

I remember this day. They even had Drake as the face of a Heavy Metal rock playlist 

[Braz]

Mess this is a SYG drag...

 

 

[Wicked]

1 hour ago, Braz said:

Mess this is a SYG drag...

 

 

Hip Hop media has always been messy like this,I'm hollering. I'm glad it's Drakes turn to get his back kicked in ruthlessly. He deserves it Drake is a notorious ******* and he's gonna pay the price for it. 

Edited November 27 by Wicked

[Matchatea]

On 11/26/2024 at 11:19 AM, Virgos Groove said:

"What I want to do is this. I just want to find, uh, 914,975,617 streams, which is one more than he has, because we won the beef"

 

You making sure to include "uh"?!?!  

[ozlovezashlee]

I'm glad he's getting dragged, ever since he came for Megan for no good reason.

[Gorjesspazze9]

I legit don't know how much more of an L drake can take  

his legacy is on the line. Kendrick did diabolical damage this year

[Reverie]

I was never a hater and liked his hits but all throughout school I never pressed play on him because I knew everyone would be playing that **** everywhere anyways, in the car, in the shower waking me up at 8am, outside, and at parties it felt like people were waiting for the songs they knew to finally come on. Seeing that from him is certainly something  

Edited November 27 by Reverie

[Samson]

So this is how it ends?
 

This story got me feeling second-hand embarrassment Maybe I'm too empathetic, but I can't stop remembering that there were several outs given to Drake throughout this saga to prevent him from embarrassing himself. We could go all the way back to 2013 to the "Control" verse that Drake took personally, because one could say that that verse per se was an out because it was just sparring.

 

I don't think I have much to say about the filings that people in this thread haven't already said. Kind of crazy that Drake is upset that Spotify's algorithm promoted a hit single chosen by the people when he was on gospel and techno playlists the week Scorpion came out.

 

But in terms of his brand… People talk about this as "the beginning of the end", but I would say that that started after 2020 with Drake dropping single after single and almost nothing sticking. People want his melodic stuff back—"Wait for U" is his biggest song since Scorpion and that's an R&B-rap hybrid song. It's still getting airplay on R&B, hip-hop, and rhythmic stations and is still charting on Spotify and Apple Music in the US. Instead he wants to go all in on this macho sh*t that only his suburban male fans want.

 

I'm sure he's noticed that his new music lacks the same cultural capital that everything pre-2019 did. He didn't scramble over it because he was still posting big first-week numbers. But because this year has been the biggest threat to his legacy (and it's been effective), he's scrambling and operating out of pure spite. Drake knows that "Not Like Us" was an organic smash—we heard it at clubs, pubs, house parties, proms, quinceañeras, weddings, restaurants, and from people's cars driving past our homes The song has four Grammy noms, and the music video is also nominated  Nothing is gonna happen, but if something did happen, it would not be able to take back the effect that that song has had on Drake and hip-hop as a whole.

[Just a Gay on ATRL]

14 minutes ago, Samson said:

So this is how it ends?
 

This story got me feeling second-hand embarrassment Maybe I'm too empathetic, but I can't stop remembering that there were several outs given to Drake throughout this saga to prevent him from embarrassing himself. We could go all the way back to 2013 to the "Control" verse that Drake took personally, because one could say that that verse per se was an out because it was just sparring.

 

I don't think I have much to say about the filings that people in this thread haven't already said. Kind of crazy that Drake is upset that Spotify's algorithm promoted a hit single chosen by the people when he was on gospel and techno playlists the week Scorpion came out.

 

But in terms of his brand… People talk about this as "the beginning of the end", but I would say that that started after 2020 with Drake dropping single after single and almost nothing sticking. People want his melodic stuff back—"Wait for U" is his biggest song since Scorpion and that's an R&B-rap hybrid song. It's still getting airplay on R&B, hip-hop, and rhythmic stations and is still charting on Spotify and Apple Music in the US. Instead he wants to go all in on this macho sh*t that only his suburban male fans want.

 

I'm sure he's noticed that his new music lacks the same cultural capital that everything pre-2019 did. He didn't scramble over it because he was still posting big first-week numbers. But because this year has been the biggest threat to his legacy (and it's been effective), he's scrambling and operating out of pure spite. Drake knows that "Not Like Us" was an organic smash—we heard it at clubs, pubs, house parties, proms, quinceañeras, weddings, restaurants, and from people's cars driving past our homes The song has four Grammy noms, and the music video is also nominated  Nothing is gonna happen, but if something did happen, it would not be able to take back the effect that that song has had on Drake and hip-hop as a whole.

He was already on the decline after Scorpion because you could hear in his musical output that he'd gotten exceedingly lazy and cocky. But he completely fell off a cliff this year after Kendrick pushed him. Then Kendrick kept jumping on top of corpse. This move is like a dead corpse waking up momentarily to push the murder weapon in even farther one last time.

[HarleyWin]

Drake destroyed his own career as soon as he started leaning into incel culture, misogyny, and started mocking black culture. He went from associating with the biggest A listers, to now Z listers and racist streamers like Adin Ross. His IG page is 90% gambling promo and 10% music. He has become the poster boy of degeneracy.

 

After CLB, he became a caricature of himself and the gp stopped taking him seriously. It almost feels like he conducted an experiment to determine just how much stupid **** he could do before his image and sales took a hit. He thought he was God and people would just blindly be loyal to him. When you look back at the course of events that led to the back and forth... he literally asked for it!

 

I have 0 sympathy for this loser and he deserves everything he will get from UMG as I'm sure they will NOT entertain his bs for even a minute. Oh, and NLU will still get played at the Super Bowl despite him obviously grasping at any straws to stop Kendrick from destroying his OVO brand for good. Good riddance, Aubrey.

 

 

[dumbsparce]

14 hours ago, Cbreezy said:

I'm interested in this too. Drake really is potentially about to open up a can of worms that ironically can come and bite him in the butt almost instantaneously. 

 

If the obvious line he takes offense to in NLU is so bothersome to him, the easy rebuttal for UMG / Kendrick is to put HIS lyrics - also released by UMG - claiming Kendrick's domestic abuse on the table. Any good legal team would abandon this line of pursuit. It's a dead end. 

 

I'm floored at what kind of advice he could be getting. He has limitless resources and yet all of this feels so messy, so unthought-out, and so imploding to what's left of his reputation. It really is startling and would never have been on my bingo card about how he would (if at all) fall.

Aren't diss tracks "defamatory" by definition? How can he pursue legal action against a staple in hip-hop culture? Something he has engaged in multiple times nonetheless. It makes no sense at all.