Lawyers for the rapper Drake (real name Aubrey Graham) secured a partial victory in court Wednesday when a judge allowed his defamation lawsuit against his record label, Universal Music Group, to proceed with discovery.
The suit stems from the song “Not Like Us,” a chart-topping hit by Kendrick Lamar (who is also under contract with UMG) that Drake claims was defamatory for characterizing him as a predator who has preyed on young girls. The song, which has remained in the Billboard Top 10 since it was released last year, came out in the course of a rap battle between the two men in which each lobbed eye-popping allegations against the other.
In one of his own songs, Drake encouraged Lamar to drop a diss track and “talk about him liking young girls” in what seemed an attempt to head off a potential line of attack, since Drake was filmed kissing a 17-year-old and talking about her breasts at a 2010 concert. After taking the feud from the recording studio to the courtroom, Drake has been widely criticized by some rap fans; some for his alleged softness and others for alleging in the suit that it was antisemitic for Lamar to call Drake, who is Jewish and Black, a “colonizer.”
Drake has also accused UMG and Spotify of inflating the streaming numbers for “Not Like Us,” a claim both companies have denied.
The judge’s ruling Wednesday opens the door for Drake and his lawyers to begin the process of discovery that they have sought for months, specifically deposing UMG executives and accessing documents, including potentially Lamar’s contracts, which Drake has mocked in song. As Variety reports: In a pre-trial conference earlier today in New York, Judge Jeanette Vargas ruled in favor of Drake’s legal team, stating that they can begin deposing executives and requesting documents. Last month, UMG asked the judge to stay all discovery in the case, which included demands for ‘all contracts’ between Kendrick Lamar and UMG as well as compensation and incentives like salaries and bonuses for Interscope CEO John Janick and other executives. A source close to the case noted to Variety that while the focus of today’s hearing was on Drake’s discovery, Universal will also be seeking its own discovery regarding the claims made in the initial suit.
Drake’s attorney, Michael Gottlieb, sounded eager to begin the expansive discovery process in a statement to Variety, saying, “Now it’s time to see what UMG was so desperately trying to hide.”
Ja’han Jones is an MS NOW opinion blogger. He previously wrote The ReidOut Blog.
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