Drake was awarded a ruling version of Kendrick Lamar’s recording contract with UMG, part of his lawsuit against the music giant.
Drake has always wanted to see Kendrick’s contract in a legal battle with his record label, and the motion was approved by Judge Jeanette Vargas.
“The plaintiff and UMG’s request … to allow a contract between UMG Recordings, Inc. and Kendrick Lamar Duckworth, which is only awarded by UMG in editorial form with the eyes of the name lawyer,” Vargas said.
Vargas added: “UMG has fully demonstrated that the information he seeks to seal is consistent with confidential, ‘sensitive business information.””
However, the judge ultimately ruled: “In this case, the interest in protecting confidential business information is greater than the qualified First Amendment presumptive public access rights”.
She added: “In addition, since the Lamar contract reflects the “ongoing contractual relationship” between UMG’s business partners and Lamar, the court agreed that the sealed contract would best protect UMG’s “business relationship and interests, as well as the privacy interests of non-party members.” ””
Drake has recently been slammed by UMG boss Lucian Grainge for his demand for his hatred against Kendrick Lamar.
In response to Drake’s request, Grainge filed a statement in court saying he “had never heard a recording ‘not like us’ and never watched the corresponding cover art or music videos until they were released by Interscope Records.”
Grainge also said: “While as part of my role, I certainly have financial oversight and responsibility for UMG’s global business, I have less of my involvement in the claims, and it’s pointless to be about “not like us” content, covering art or music videos, or identifying or guiding the enhancement of these materials, meaningless responsibility, reviewing and approving content that “not like us”.”
The long-time music director also slammed Drake’s allegations behind conspiracy to hurt Canadian rappers.
“It doesn’t make sense because the company I run, NVENVE MUSIC GROUP NV, has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in Drake, including long-term and critical financial support for his recording career, purchases and ownership of most of its recording catalogs, and purchases of his music publishing rights,” he said.
Grainge added: “I’m used to (unfortunately, largely resigning) in personal attacks and I further realized that the regular strategy of UMG’s litigation rivals was to try to waste my time and resources and discover the kind of strategy and resources Drake was looking for here, either to try to get the attention of the media or to get commercial recurrency and to force some kind of commercial competition.”
