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Common Music Group Chief Govt Lucian Grainge known as Drake’s lawsuit over Kendrick Lamar’s hit diss observe “Not Like Us” a “farcical” effort that’s “groundless and certainly ridiculous.”
In a declaration letter filed Thursday evening within the Southern District of New York, Grainge mentioned that Drake’s accusation that UMG (the guardian label agency to each Drake and Lamar) defamed him and broken his profession “is senseless because of the truth that the corporate that I run, Common Music Group N.V., has invested tons of of tens of millions of {dollars} in Drake, together with longstanding and significant monetary assist for his recording profession, the acquisition and possession of the majority of his recording catalog, and the acquisition of his music publishing rights.”
Drake signed a brand new take care of UMG label Republic in 2022 for a reported $400 million, and he’s one of many bestselling artists of the final 20 years. But Interscope artist Lamar’s scathing “Not Like Us” famously capped a venomous battle between the 2 artists, which resulted in a pair of Grammy wins for Lamar, who carried out the tune on the Tremendous Bowl halftime present.
Drake’s attorneys, in discovery, have not too long ago tried to acquire UMG’s contract with Lamar and details about his private life (Drake accused Lamar of beating his accomplice within the tune “Household Issues”). Drake has accused UMG of each defamation and operating a clandestine marketing campaign to spice up “Not Like Us” on the expense of his personal fame and profession.
A notably exasperated Grainge wrote to the courtroom that “Given my position, I’m accustomed (and sadly largely resigned) to non-public assaults, and I additional acknowledge {that a} frequent technique of UMG’s litigation opponents is to try to waste my and UMG’s time and assets with discovery of the type that Drake is looking for right here — both in an try to realize media consideration or in an effort to pressure some form of industrial renegotiation or monetary concessions.”
Grainge additionally denied having any private involvement within the rollout or advertising and marketing for “Not Like Us.”
“While, as a part of my position, I actually have monetary oversight of and accountability for UMG’s international companies,” he mentioned, “the proposition that I used to be concerned in, a lot much less answerable for, reviewing and approving the content material of ‘Not Like Us,’ its cowl artwork or music video, or for figuring out or directing the promotion of these supplies, is groundless and certainly ridiculous.”
In a separate letter to the courtroom, UMG mentioned that “The premise of Drake’s movement — that he couldn’t have misplaced a rap battle except it was the product of some imagined secret conspiracy going to the highest of UMG’s company construction — is absurd.”
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