Drake’s requesting entry to Kendrick Lamar’s confidential contract has Common Music Group warning a federal choose that exposing the deal might destabilize its enterprise mannequin and provides opponents a strategic edge.
UMG is urging Decide Jeannette A. Vargas to maintain Kendrick Lamar’s contract below seal, arguing that even redacted sections reveal delicate phrases that might be weaponized by rival labels or artists throughout negotiations.
The doc was submitted as a part of Drake’s ongoing defamation lawsuit in opposition to UMG, which stems from Lamar’s 2024 diss observe “Not Like Us.”
“If these phrases had been disclosed, then different artists might use them in their very own negotiations with UMG and different document labels might use them when competing with UMG to signal or re-sign artists, together with doubtlessly Lamar himself,” UMG’s authorized crew wrote.
UMG maintained that the contract outlines present enterprise dealings with Lamar and consists of proprietary particulars in regards to the firm’s authority over his music and movies.
The label mentioned releasing these phrases would hurt its capability to barter future offers and will injury its relationship with Lamar.
The courtroom submitting emphasised that UMG’s contract with Lamar stays energetic and that each events anticipated confidentiality. The corporate cited authorized precedent to assist its request, pointing to prior rulings the place judges protected enterprise contracts from public disclosure to keep away from aggressive hurt.
Drake’s lawsuit, filed in January 2025, accuses UMG of defamation and alleges the label promoted “Not Like Us” to wreck his status and strain him right into a much less favorable recording deal.
The swimsuit claims the tune falsely portrays him as a pedophile and that its launch led to 3 tried house invasions at his Toronto property, one among which resulted in his safety guard being shot.
Drake additionally accuses UMG of coordinating a pay-to-play scheme with Spotify, iHeartRadio and social media influencers to artificially enhance the tune’s publicity.
UMG CEO Lucian Grainge dismissed the lawsuit as “farcical” and mentioned the label had no intention of sabotaging Drake’s profession.
“Drake claims that I used to be behind a scheme to ‘devalue’ his model by way of the discharge and promotion of the Kendrick Lamar recording ‘Not Like
Us’ —an allegation that is mindless because of the truth that the corporate that I run, Common Music Group N.V., has invested a whole bunch of tens of millions of {dollars} in Drake, together with longstanding and significant monetary assist for his recording profession, the acquisition and possession of the majority of
his recording catalog, and the acquisition of his music publishing rights,” Lucian Grainge mentioned in reply to the lawsuit.
“My focus is on creating and implementing the worldwide technique that may form UMG for generations to return. In gentle of this accountability, the proposition that I’m within the weeds as to the discharge and promotion of any explicit sound recording, from the hundreds of UMG releases all through the world, is farcical,” Grainge added.
UMG has requested the courtroom to dismiss the case, stating that the lyrics in query are inventive opinions, not factual claims.
The courtroom has not but dominated on whether or not Kendrick Lamar’s contract will stay sealed.
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