Drake amends defamation lawsuit against UMG to include Super Bowl LIX performance

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Rapper Drake has amended his lawsuit against Universal Music Group this week, adding details that involve Super Bowl LIX and the most-watched halftime show in history.

In the amended defamation suit filed Wednesday, Drake says rapper Kendrick Lamar’s halftime performance of “Not Like Us” at February’s Super Bowl revitalized attention to false and defamatory allegations against him. Drake first sued UMG in January over the diss track, alleging the record company “approved, published, and launched a campaign to create a viral hit out of a rap track that falsely accuses Drake of being a pedophile and calls for violent retribution against him” and cited a shooting at Drake’s Toronto residence in May 2024 in which a security guard was wounded.

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The amended lawsuit says threats against Drake and his family re-intensified after the Super Bowl performance and lists multiple examples of social media discourse that followed.

“The Recording was performed during the 2025 Super Bowl and broadcast to the largest audience for a Super Bowl halftime show ever, over 133 million people, including millions of children, and millions more who had never before heard the song or any of the songs that preceded it,” the lawsuit states.

“It was the first, and will hopefully be the last, Super Bowl halftime show orchestrated to assassinate the character of another artist,” the lawsuit adds.

UMG did not respond to a request for comment in time for publication. In March, representatives for UMG called the original version of the lawsuit “misguided” and sought to dismiss the suit, The New York Times reported.

The lawsuit acknowledges the version of the song performed at the Super Bowl was modified to exclude the word “pedophile,” but says the censoring “failed to cure the Super Bowl Performance of conveying the Recording’s defamatory meaning.”

The lawsuit lists UMG, not Lamar, as the defendant, alleging that the record label is at fault for approving the work to be published. UMG represents both Drake and Lamar.

The lawsuit accuses UMG of negotiating and promoting the Super Bowl performance after Drake’s initial complaint was filed on Jan. 15.

“Drake’s amended complaint makes an already strong case stronger,” Drake’s lead attorney, Michael Gottlieb, said in a statement. “UMG’s PR ‘spin’ and failed efforts to avoid discovery cannot suppress the facts and the truth. With discovery now moving forward, Drake will expose the evidence of UMG’s misconduct, and UMG will be held accountable for the consequences of its ill-conceived decisions.”

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According to the amended lawsuit, “Not Like Us” reached No. 1 on Billboard’s top 100 the week following the Super Bowl, and Spotify streams increased by 430 percent after the performance. The amended suit also says Lamar’s 2025 Grammy performance similarly re-intensified the defamatory claims made in “Not Like Us.”

(Photo: Stephen Lew / Imagn Images)

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