{"id":6511,"date":"2025-08-18T06:20:36","date_gmt":"2025-08-18T06:20:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/6511\/"},"modified":"2025-08-18T06:20:36","modified_gmt":"2025-08-18T06:20:36","slug":"universal-music-chief-hits-back-at-drakes-farcical","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/6511\/","title":{"rendered":"Universal Music chief hits back at Drake\u2019s \u2018farcical\u2019\u2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

Universal Music<\/a> Group CEO and chairman Lucian Grainge has slammed Drake<\/a>\u2019s defamation lawsuit, labeling it \u201cfarcical\u201d and \u201cnonsensical.\u201d<\/p>\n

Released in 2024 as part of the two artists\u2019 bitter feud<\/a>, the song includes the lyrics: \u201cSay, Drake, I hear you like em\u2019 young,\u201d which Drake has alleged spreads the \u201cfalse and malicious narrative\u201d that he is a pedophile. <\/p>\n

In a recently filed declaration letter, obtained by Variety<\/a>, Grainge formally weighed in on Drake\u2019s accusations that he was involved in the planning and release of Lamar\u2019s chart-topper. <\/p>\n

Calling Drake\u2019s claims \u201cfarcical,\u201d \u201cnonsensical,\u201d \u201cgroundless and indeed ridiculous,\u201d he noted that the company had spent \u201chundreds of millions\u201d in furthering the \u201cPassionfruit\u201d rapper\u2019s music career, since he signed with the company\u2019s Republic imprint in 2009.<\/p>\n

The \u201cclaims that I was behind a scheme to \u2018devalue\u2019 [Drake\u2019s] brand through the release and promotion of the Kendrick Lamar recording \u2018Not Like Us\u2019 \u2014 an allegation that makes no sense due to the fact that the company that I run, Universal Music Group N.V., has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in Drake,\u201d Grainge said in the filing, \u201cincluding longstanding and critical financial support for his recording career, the purchase and ownership of the bulk of his recording catalog, and the purchase of his music publishing rights.\u201d <\/p>\n

His remarks come shortly after Drake\u2019s legal team sought to compel Grainge and UMG to turn over an unredacted version of Lamar\u2019s contract with its imprint Interscope, as well as Grainge\u2019s emails and text messages related to the song.<\/p>\n

He further added that Drake\u2019s lawsuit \u201cmakes no sense whatsoever,\u201d insisting he was \u201cin the weeds as to the release and promotion of any particular sound recording, from the thousands of UMG releases throughout the world\u201d as his job is to lead a \u201cpublicly traded, multi-billion dollar, multi-national corporation whose operations in over sixty countries covering nearly 200 markets.\u201d <\/p>\n

Continuing, he chalked up Drake\u2019s latest motion of discovery as \u201can attempt to waste my and UMG\u2019s time and resources\u201d \u2014 \u201ceither in an attempt to gain media attention or in an effort to force some kind of commercial renegotiation or financial concessions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lucian Grainge, 65, has been the CEO of UMG since 2010 (Getty Images)<\/p>\n

\u201cI had never heard the recording \u2018Not Like Us,\u2019 nor ever saw the corresponding cover art or music video, until after they were released by Interscope Records,\u201d he concluded. \u201cWhilst, as part of my role, I certainly have financial oversight of and responsibility for UMG\u2019s global businesses, the proposition that I was involved in, much less responsible for, reviewing and approving the content of \u2018Not Like Us,\u2019 its cover art or music video, or for determining or directing the promotion of those materials, is groundless and indeed ridiculous.\u201d<\/p>\n

UMG filed a separate letter, similarly ridiculing Drake\u2019s claims as \u201cabsurd.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cThe premise of Drake\u2019s motion \u2014 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\u2019s corporate structure \u2014 is absurd,\u201d the filing read. \u201cSir Lucian is the CEO of a multinational enterprise; his days are spent determining and implementing global strategy, not vetting individual tracks or album covers or driving the release and promotional plans for any one recording.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Independent has contacted Drake\u2019s legal team for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Universal Music Group CEO and chairman Lucian Grainge has slammed Drake\u2019s defamation lawsuit, labeling it \u201cfarcical\u201d and \u201cnonsensical.\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6512,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[264],"tags":[9,1063,18,117,1831,19,1826,17,337,5,1828,1827,1829,1830,66],"class_list":{"0":"post-6511","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-daily-news","10":"tag-eire","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-global-news","13":"tag-ie","14":"tag-inkl","15":"tag-ireland","16":"tag-music","17":"tag-news","18":"tag-news-app","19":"tag-news-headlines","20":"tag-news-today","21":"tag-today-news","22":"tag-world-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6511","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6511"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6511\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6512"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}