Universal Music CEO Lucian Grainge Responds to Drake's Legal Motions, Calls His Requests "Absurd"

Summary

• Drake, in his lawsuit against UMG, is demanding Kendrick Lamar’s contract and sensitive information
• He alleges UMG supported defamatory claims in “Not Like Us” to boost profits
• Drake also seeks details on Lamar’s alleged crimes and catalog value from the label

Update: UMG CEO Lucian Grainge has legally responded to Drake’s motions, with the record label’s legal team writing two letters to the judge and Grainge making a formal declaration.

According to the documents provided to Hypebeast, the letters addressed to Judge Vargas call Drake’s request for information on Lamar “nothing but an obvious attempt to misuse the discovery process to pursue irrelevant and overbroad requests principally calculated to harass, embarrass or annoy Drake’s perceived adversaries.” They that Drizzy’s request for Dot’s full, unredacted contract is unnecessary because the relevant sections have already been provided, adding that the rest of the contract contains sensitive commercial information that is not pertinent to the case.

UMG further argued that Drake’s motion to name Grainge as a document custodian is a “transparent attempt to use discovery to harass UMG” and is based on a “groundless and indeed ridiculous” premise. They assert that as a high-level executive of a multi-billion dollar corporation, Grainge is not involved in the day-to-day decisions about specific songs or their promotion, and he has sworn in the declaration that he had no involvement in the release of “Not Like Us” before its public release.

The label concluded by asking the court to deny Drake’s requests for these documents, or at the very least, to review the requested documents in private to determine their relevance before compelling their production.

Original Story: Drake continues his legal battle against Universal Music Group (UMG) over the Kendrick Lamar diss track “Not Like Us.” He is now asking for sensitive information on the Compton rapper, ranging from his contract to allegations of crime and more.

The Hollywood Reporter states that Drizzy is attempting to persuade the court to force the record label and its chairman and CEO, Lucian Grainge, to hand over Dot’s contract. He’s also asking for any details and communications from Grainge regarding “allegations of domestic violence and other crimes” supposedly committed by the pgLang head.

A copy of UMG’s contract with Lamar was previously given to Drake. The redactions, however, made it “virtually unreadable and incomprehensible.” In addition, the OVO founder is also requesting for information about Interscope’s finances and the value of Dot’s catalog in the last five-and-a-half years.

As per Drake, these documents are related to his accusations that UMG supported the defamatory statements made against him on “Not Like Us” in order to increase profits. He also claims that Grainge had a “major role” in how UMG promoted “Not Like Us” as the exec allegedly coaxed competition between the labels.

While Drake and Lamar are both under UMG, Lamar’s contract is with Interscope Records while the former’s is with Republic Records.