Law in Popular Culture
Drake alleges Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl performance defamed him in amended suit against music company
Rapper and singer Drake, left, attends an NBA basketball game between the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Houston Rockets on March 16, 2024, in Houston. (Photo by David J. Phillip/The Associated Press)
Rapper and singer Drake has alleged that the Universal Music Group “has tripled and quadrupled down on its defamation-for-profit strategy” in part by arranging for fellow rapper Kendrick Lamar to perform his 2024 song “Not Like Us” at the 2025 Super Bowl, according to an amended lawsuit that he filed April 16.
The rap track falsely accuses Drake of being a pedophile “and calls for violent retribution,” according to the suit. Even though Lamar left out the word “pedophile” at the Super Bowl, the defamatory meaning was still conveyed, causing more people “to be duped into believing that Drake was a pedophile,” according to the amended complaint, filed in federal court in the Southern District of New York.
The 2025 Super Bowl had an audience of more than 133 million people, the suit says.
“It was the first, and will hopefully be the last, Super Bowl halftime show orchestrated to assassinate the character of another artist.”
Reuters, the New York Times, the Miami Times, CNN, the Associated Press and the Hollywood Reporter have coverage.
The Universal Music Group, which has a division that represents Drake, responded in a statement published by the Hollywood Reporter and other publications.
“Drake, unquestionably one of the world’s most accomplished artists and with whom we’ve enjoyed a 16-year successful relationship, is being misled by his legal representatives into taking one absurd legal step after another,” the statement said.
“We will demonstrate that all remaining claims are without merit,” the statement said. “It is shameful that these foolish and frivolous legal theatrics continue. They are reputationally and financially costly to Drake and have no chance of success.”
See also:
Drake sues Universal over Kendrick Lamar’s ‘Not Like Us’
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