Drake Lawsuit Complains About Super Bowl Performance

Drake is complaining about rival rapper Kendrick Lamar's performance of "Not Like Us" at this year's Super Bowl, adding it to his defamation lawsuit against Universal Music Group over the diss track and its allegations of pedophilia against Drake.

• "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," says the amended lawsuit filed Wednesday in federal court in Manhattan. It adds, "It was the first, and will hopefully be the last, Super Bowl halftime show orchestrated to assassinate the character of another artist."

• Although Lamar removed the word "pedophile" from the lyrics during the halftime show, the fact that it was omitted showed that "nearly everyone understands that it is defamatory," the suit says. It also alleges Universal Music used financial benefits and leveraged business relationships to secure the headliner spot for Lamar at the Super Bowl, and promoted the performance, the AP reports.
• "Drake's amended complaint makes an already strong case stronger," his lawyer, Michael Gottlieb, said in a statement. "Drake will expose the evidence of UMG's misconduct, and UMG will be held accountable for the consequences of its ill-conceived decisions."
• In a statement responding to the court filing, Universal Music, the parent record label of both artists, continued to deny Drake's allegations. "Drake, unquestionably one of the world's most accomplished artists and with whom we've enjoyed a 16-year successful relationship, is being misled by his legal representatives into taking one absurd legal step after another," the company said. "It is shameful that these foolish and frivolous legal theatrics continue."
• Drake sued Universal Music, but not Lamar, for undisclosed damages in January, saying the company published and promoted "Not Like Us" despite its false pedophilia allegations and suggestions that listeners should resort to vigilante justice. The result, the suit says, was intruders shooting a security guard at Drake's Toronto home and two attempted break-ins there, online hate and harassment, a hit to his reputation, and a decrease in his brand's value before his contract renegotiation with UMG this year.

(More Drake stories.)