Drake’s Lawsuit claims Super Bowl Halftime Show assassinated his character

Canadian rapper Drake has expanded his defamation lawsuit against Universal Music Group, claiming that Kendrick Lamar’s performance during the Super Bowl LIX Halftime Show directly worsened the harm to his reputation. The updated legal filing focuses on Lamar’s performance of Not Like Us, a diss track that supposedly portrays Drake in a negative light.

Drake argues that leaving out the word “pedophile” from the Super Bowl performance, even though it was in the original song, was done on purpose to make the song’s defamatory effect stronger (per TMZ). He claims that this omission and the enormous audience of over 133.5 million viewers led to widespread misunderstanding and serious damage to his reputation.

The main part of Drake’s argument is that the Super Bowl performance, which was seen by people all over the world, introduced the song to millions who might not have heard it otherwise. By removing the word “pedophile,” a word Drake says was important in showing that the lyric was just exaggerated rap battle talk, Lamar and UMG, according to Drake, basically presented a misleadingly edited version of the song.

Drake’s lawsuit is expanding

Hot New Hiphop reported that Drake claims this made viewers think the accusations against him were true. He says this intentional editing proves that UMG and Lamar knew the original lyrics were defamatory but still used the Super Bowl’s huge audience to cause even more damage to his reputation. The lawsuit argues that this was a planned move by UMG to make more money by turning Drake into an outcast in the music industry.

This updated lawsuit follows an earlier defamation case filed in January. The first lawsuit also targeted UMG, accusing the label of knowingly making money from spreading defamatory material. The new version of the lawsuit makes the original case much stronger by adding the Super Bowl performance as a major piece of evidence.

Drake also brings up the Grammy Awards performance of Not Like Us, suggesting that the song’s success at the ceremony, where it won Record of the Year and Song of the Year, made the false accusations seem more believable and spread them even further. Drake points out that the Grammy’s official YouTube videos cut out parts where the crowd sang the controversial lyrics, which he says supports his claim that there was a deliberate effort to shape public opinion against him.

UMG has strongly denied Drake’s claims, calling the lawsuit pointless and an attack on artistic expression. They say Drake’s legal actions are ridiculous and driven by bad legal advice, mentioning a previous lawsuit in Texas that was dropped. The label also insists that the lawsuit has no real legal basis and will not succeed, adding that these legal battles are expensive and are only hurting Drake’s reputation further.

UMG argues that Drake is being misled by his lawyers and that these legal fights are harmful to creative expression in general. We’ll have to wait and see where this goes.