Common Music Group has filed its first court docket response to Drake’s defamation lawsuit over Kendrick Lamar’s diss monitor “Not Like Us”—and it’s crammed with not delicate shade in the direction of Complain Papi.

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In a movement filed Monday, March 17, the corporate is searching for to dismiss the lawsuit, calling the case “not more than Drake’s try to save lots of face” after shedding a rap beef.

In line with reviews from Billboard, attorneys for the music firm insisted that Drake’s allegations towards UMG had been “meritless,” claiming that he took the difficulty to court docket as a result of he had been publicly embarrassed.

“Plaintiff, one of the profitable recording artists of all time, misplaced a rap battle that he provoked and wherein he willingly participated,” UMG’s legal professionals write within the submitting. “As a substitute of accepting the loss just like the unbothered rap artist he typically claims to be, he has sued his personal file label in a misguided try and salve his wounds.”

Common additionally famous within the submitting that the Canadian rapper leveled his personal “hyperbolic insults” and “vitriolic allegations” throughout the identical trade of songs, accusing Kendrick of home abuse and even questioning whether or not he was actually the daddy of his son.

“Drake has been happy to make use of UMG’s platform to advertise tracks leveling equally incendiary assaults at Lamar,” the corporate’s attorneys identified within the submitting. “However now, after shedding the rap battle, Drake claims that ‘Not Like Us’ is defamatory. It isn’t.”

Drake’s legal professional Michael J. Gottlieb issued a press release to Billboard on Monday, wherein he referred to as the corporate’s submitting an try and distract from the reality.

“UMG desires to fake that that is a few rap battle in an effort to distract its shareholders, artists and the general public from a easy fact: a grasping firm is lastly being held liable for benefiting from harmful misinformation that has already resulted in a number of acts of violence,” Gottlieb stated in his assertion. “This movement is a determined ploy by UMG to keep away from accountability, however we’ve got each confidence that this case will proceed and proceed to uncover UMG’s lengthy historical past of endangering, abusing and making the most of its artists.”

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In Might 2024, Lamar dropped his diss monitor “Not Like Us,” calling Drake as a “licensed pedophile,” amongst different claims. A lot to Drake’s dismay, the track turned a chart-topping hit, received a number of Grammy awards, and served as the primary occasion of Lamar’s Tremendous Bowl halftime present in February.

Earlier than that, although, Drake filed a lawsuit towards UMG over the track, claiming the label artificially boosted the monitor’s recognition. The lawsuit additionally alleges that the label “waged a marketing campaign” towards its Drake to unfold a “malicious narrative” about him that the corporate knew to be false.

In its response on Monday, UMG argues that the lyrics to the Compton rapper’s track are very clearly the type of free speech which are shielded from defamation lawsuits by the First Modification.

“Diss tracks are a preferred and celebrated artwork type centered round outrageous insults, and they’d be severely chilled if Drake’s swimsuit had been permitted to proceed,” the corporate wrote. “Hyperbolic and metaphorical language is par for the course in diss tracks—certainly, Drake’s personal diss tracks employed imagery at the least as violent.”

UMG cites Drake’s public help for a 2022 petition criticizing prosecutors for utilizing rap lyrics as proof in prison instances. That letter criticized prosecutors for treating lyrics as literal statements of truth, which is what Drake appears to be doing in his lawsuit towards the corporate.

“As Drake acknowledged, relating to rap, ‘the ultimate work is a product of the artist’s imaginative and prescient and creativeness’,” UMG’s legal professionals write. “Drake was proper then and is improper now. The criticism’s unjustified claims towards UMG are not more than Drake’s try to save lots of face for his unsuccessful rap battle with Lamar. The court docket ought to grant UMG’s movement and dismiss the criticism with prejudice.”