TORONTO — A defamation lawsuit filed by Drake in opposition to Common Music Group over Kendrick Lamar’s diss monitor “Not Like Us” contains new particulars a few high-profile capturing that severely injured a safety guard outdoors the Canadian rapper’s Toronto house final 12 months.
The lawsuit filed Wednesday in a New York court docket, which doesn’t identify Lamar himself, additionally contains new info associated to an alleged trespassing incident that adopted the Could 7, 2024 capturing.
The assertion of declare says a bunch of armed assailants drove as much as Drake’s house within the prosperous Bridle Path neighbourhood in the course of the evening and somebody shouted an expletive earlier than a minimum of one particular person opened hearth.
The doc alleges one bullet hit the entrance door and one other hit a safety guard who can be Drake’s pal, leaving the rapper and his buddies scrambling to maintain the person alive within the almost half an hour they waited for an ambulance.
It says the group utilized strain to the wound with towels and there was “blood all over the place.”
Police on the time launched few particulars in regards to the incident and couldn’t initially affirm whether or not Drake was house through the capturing.
The declare additionally particulars one other incident by which somebody allegedly tried to interrupt into his house on Could 8, and mentions a 3rd alleged incident on Could 9.
Within the first incident, a person allegedly used his naked fingers to dig a gap beneath the safety fence surrounding the house and managed to “squeeze via” onto the property, the declare says.
Safety guards caught him earlier than he brought about any hurt, however the man allegedly yelled “racist slurs and threats in opposition to Drake” earlier than he was escorted off the property, the doc says.
The incidents happened in opposition to the backdrop of a rap feud between Drake and rival Lamar, by which each artists traded more and more private assaults and unsubstantiated allegations.
The lawsuit alleges UMG’s actions in publishing and selling “Not Like Us” — which it says contains false allegations of pedophilia and requires “violent retribution” in opposition to Drake — led to the incidents at his house, and broken his repute and his model’s worth earlier than his contract renegotiation with the corporate this 12 months.
It additional alleges UMG — the mother or father report label for Drake and Lamar — selected income over the protection of its artists. Lamar shouldn’t be named within the go well with.
“The lawsuit is not about the artist who created ‘Not Like Us,’” the lawsuit says, referring to Lamar. “It is, instead, entirely about UMG, the music company that decided to publish, promote, exploit, and monetize allegations that it understood were not only false, but dangerous.”
Not one of the allegations have been examined in court docket and an announcement of defence has not but been filed.
UMG denied the allegations in an announcement Wednesday afternoon.
“Not solely are these claims unfaithful, however the notion that we might search to hurt the repute of any artist — not to mention Drake — is illogical,” the corporate stated.
“We’ve invested massively in his music and our staff world wide have labored tirelessly for a few years to assist him obtain historic industrial and private monetary success.”
-with recordsdata from The Related Press
This report by The Canadian Press was first printed Jan. 15, 2025.
The Canadian Press
