By Jonathan Stempel
NEW YORK (Reuters) -Drake expanded his defamation lawsuit against Universal Music Group, saying more people were duped into believing he was a pedophile after rapper Kendrick Lamar performed “Not Like Us” during the Super Bowl halftime show and the Grammy Awards.
In an amended complaint filed late Wednesday night against his record label, Drake said the performances introduced millions of new listeners to Lamar’s smash hit, and have led to more threats against the Canadian rapper and his family.
Drake said this occurred though Lamar omitted the word “pedophile” from his Super Bowl performance, seen by more than 133.5 million people, ostensibly because “nearly everyone understands” it was defamatory.
“It was the first, and will hopefully be the last, Super Bowl halftime show orchestrated to assassinate the character of another artist,” Drake said.
“Not Like Us” also includes the lyric “Drake, I hear you like ’em young,” which Lamar sang at the Super Bowl.
In a statement on Thursday, UMG called Drake’s accusations baseless and his lawsuit an affront to creative expression.
“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,” UMG said.
UMG had sought to dismiss Drake’s original lawsuit, which was filed on January 15 in Manhattan federal court, and will have a chance to dismiss the amended lawsuit.
Drake is seeking unspecified damages, saying UMG tried to boost profit and make him a pariah by promoting Lamar.
“UMG will be held accountable for the consequences of its ill-conceived decisions,” Drake’s lawyer Michael Gottlieb said in a statement.
Drake and Lamar have feuded for about a decade, including through a series of competing diss tracks.
“Not Like Us” was released last May 4, one day after Drake’s “Family Matters” appeared to accuse Lamar of physical abuse and infidelity and questioned the parentage of one of his children.
Lamar’s song won Grammy Awards for record and song of the year, and topped Billboard’s Hot 100 for three weeks.
Drake’s given name is Aubrey Drake Graham. Lamar, an American, won the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Music.
The case is Graham v UMG Recordings Inc, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 25-00399.
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New Yor;, Editing by Franklin Paul and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)
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