In an interesting twist of the incident, the judge who presided over the legal battle between Drake and Kendrick Lamar formally found documents related to Kendrick’s deal with Universal Media Group.
Initially, the UMG team believed that the Drake legal team’s demands were “over-excessive” and “premature birth”, as reported by Billboard. However, now, Drake’s camp will not be able to access files through files that are not available to third parties. Judge Jeannette Vargas’ decision on this is part of a pre-trial meeting held this morning, opposed by UMG, who hopes to continue the motion to dismissal under a pause.
It is important to note that while the ongoing discovery has not been significantly updated, Michael Gottlieb, the chief attorney around Drake, is pleased with the victory at this stage. “It’s time to see UMG so desperately trying to hide something,” he said. Overall, the team has asked for a careful reading of 18 different sets of documents related to the “Don’t Like Us” fiasco. These include all contracts and agreements between UMG and Kendrick Lamar, all documents and communications about UMG “Don’t Like Us”, all documents and communications from InterScope Marketing Exect Ramon Alvarez-Smikle, etc.
One of the interesting requirements is the “detailed description” of “not like us” streams and views “on all platforms” (including social services), which will reveal the true nature of what fans call “Bot Like Us” allegations.
Willkie Lawyer of Drake: They have sent us a 11th letter with five paragraphs of our lengthy complaint – about the use of streaming farms. We have exchanged letters – we intend to withdraw these letters, but this is a small part of our complaint
– Innercity Press (@innercitypress) April 2, 2025
According to some reports from Inner City Press, it is obvious that Drake’s team also intends to delete the 5-paragraph complaint claim after UMG cites Article 11, but this is currently unproven/insufficient information. Anyway, for Drake, it seems like a victory to win some kind of situation. Perhaps the only way he could sue the rap war from public humiliation is that, if indeed, UMG did lead to the song’s success. Stay tuned for finding the answer!
