{"id":64209,"date":"2025-03-21T10:17:34","date_gmt":"2025-03-21T14:17:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/?p=64209"},"modified":"2025-03-31T10:19:44","modified_gmt":"2025-03-31T14:19:44","slug":"universal-music-group-has-asked-a-federal-judge-to-stop-drakes-attorneys-from-accessing-contracts-between-the-label-and-kendrick-lamar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/universal-music-group-has-asked-a-federal-judge-to-stop-drakes-attorneys-from-accessing-contracts-between-the-label-and-kendrick-lamar\/64209\/","title":{"rendered":"Universal Music Group has asked a federal judge to stop Drake\u2019s attorneys from accessing contracts between the label and Kendrick Lamar"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Drake\u2019s legal battle over Kendrick Lamar\u2019s diss track <em>Not Like Us<\/em> just took another turn, with Universal Music Group (UMG) asking a federal judge to shut down all discovery requests in the case.<\/p>\n<p>Drake\u2019s lawsuit accuses UMG of playing a key role in pushing the song, which he claims caused him real-world harm. As part of the case, his legal team has requested extensive records, including contracts between UMG and Kendrick Lamar, as well as financial details about Interscope CEO John Janick\u2019s compensation. However, UMG argues that these demands are excessive, irrelevant, and place an unnecessary burden on the company, according to <em>Variety<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Drake\u2019s attorney, Michael Gottlieb of Willkie Farr and Gallagher, fired back, calling UMG\u2019s attempt to block discovery a strategic move to hide crucial information. \u201cIt\u2019s no surprise that UMG is desperate to avoid discovery,\u201d Gottlieb said. \u201cThis is just a delay tactic to keep documents and communications buried. If UMG has nothing to hide, it shouldn\u2019t have a problem handing them over.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This latest legal maneuver comes after UMG previously tried to get the case dismissed altogether. The label argues that Drake is essentially suing because he lost a rap battle and is trying to nurse his wounds in court. UMG maintains that it did nothing wrong by distributing <em>Not Like Us<\/em>, stating that the track is full of opinion-based jabs and rhetorical flair, not actual defamatory claims.<\/p>\n<p>Adding another layer of irony, UMG pointed out that Drake has historically been a champion of free speech in music, even signing a petition against using rap lyrics as legal evidence. The company argues that while Drake was right to defend artistic expression before, he\u2019s wrong to claim defamation now just because he\u2019s on the receiving end of a diss track.<\/p>\n<p>At its core, UMG believes Drake\u2019s case is weak. The company insists it was simply following standard industry practices in promoting Lamar\u2019s song and that Drake is looking for someone to blame for the backlash he faced after the rap battle. Whether the court agrees remains to be seen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Drake\u2019s legal battle over Kendrick Lamar\u2019s diss track Not Like Us just took another turn, with Universal Music Group (UMG)\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":294,"featured_media":64210,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[393],"class_list":["post-64209","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-celebrity-news","tag-drake"],"reading_time":"2 min read","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64209","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/294"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64209"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64209\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64210"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}