The legal war between Drake and UMG is still heating up, and now, UMG CEO Sir Lucian Grainge is responding to the Canadian superstar’s latest legal missive. In a sworn declaration, Sir Lucian Grainge called Drake’s recent legal attempt to frame Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us” as an inside job to defame him “groundless and indeed ridiculous.”
As reported by Music Business Worldwide, Sir Lucian Grainge responded to Drake’s amended defamation lawsuit, claiming the executive was aware of the contents of Kendrick Lamar’s scathing and brand-damaging “Not Like Us” diss track.
Grainge’s sworn declaration was filed on August 14 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, where he claims to have not heard “Not Like Us,” seen its artwork, or anything involved in the track before Interscope Records released the song in May of last year.
“Whilst, as part of my role, I certainly have financial oversight of and responsibility for UMG’s global businesses, the proposition that I was involved in, much less responsible for, reviewing and approving the content of “Not Like Us,” its cover art or music video, or for determining or directing the promotion of those materials, is groundless and indeed ridiculous,” Grainge wrote in the declaration.
Adding insult to injury, UMG’s lawyers added in their August 14 filing, “The premise of Drake’s motion — that he could not have lost a rap battle unless it was the product of some imagined secret conspiracy going to the top of UMG’s corporate structure — is absurd.”
Drake has yet to respond to the latest move from UMG.
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