Universal Music Group has filed a motion to dismiss their artist Drake's lawsuit against the company, which was initiated in the wake of Kendrick Lamar's chart-topping smash hit diss "Not Like Us".

In the lawsuit, Drake alleged that UMG used payola, bot streams, and illegal business practices to artificially inflate the diss-track in order to harm the Canadian rapper's career before contract negotiations. The label "approved, published, and launched a campaign to create a viral hit out of a rap track," which was believed to "convey the specific, unmistakable, and false factual allegation that Drake is a criminal pedophile, and to suggest that the public should resort to vigilante justice in response." By doing so, the label would then have the upper hand in further agreements with the rapper due to his damaged career and inhibited marketability. Kendrick recently fired a few shots at Drake over this lawsuit on "GOOD CREDIT", a new collaboration with Playboi Carti.

In the dismissal, UMG stated that Drake:

...lost a rap battle that he provoked and in which he willingly participated. Instead of accepting the loss like the unbothered rap artist he often claims to be, he has sued his own record label in a misguided attempt to salve his wounds. Plaintiff’s Complaint is utterly without merit and should be dismissed with prejudice.

They also cite a public petition that Drake signed a few years back, which sought to fight against "the trend of prosecutors using artists’ creative expression against them," which is commonly seen when lyrics are used in court. They then went on to state:

Drake was right then and is wrong now. Complaint’s unjustified claims against UMG are no more than Drake’s attempt to save face for his unsuccessful rap battle with Lamar.

In UMG's eyes, Drake failed to make a clear claim for defamation, and is expecting the label to promote his own diss-tracks while not doing the same for Kendrick. The lyrical content of the song "conveys non-actionable opinion and rhetorical hyperbole, not fact," which excludes it from being seen as harassment or an action based in malice.

Drake's lawyer, Michael J. Gottlieb, stated the following:

UMG wants to pretend that this is about a rap battle in order to distract its shareholders, artists and the public from a simple truth: a greedy company is finally being held responsible for profiting from dangerous misinformation that has already resulted in multiple acts of violence. This motion is a desperate ploy by UMG to avoid accountability, but we have every confidence that this case will proceed and continue to uncover UMG’s long history of endangering, abusing and taking advantage of its artists.