Drake Says UMG’s Motion To Dismiss His Defamation Lawsuit Is Nothing More Than ‘A Desperate Ploy’ To ‘Avoid Accountability’

Things between Drake and UMG are heating up. Today (March 17), UMG clapped back at the “Gimme A Hug” rapper’s defamation lawsuit with a filing of its own–a dismissal motion. In court documents asking for Drake’s case against them to be tossed out, the label accused Drake of misusing the justice system because he’s upset that his rap battle with Kendrick Lamar didn’t pan out in his favor.

Well, Drake has issued a response to UMG’s claims and its newly filed motion. In a statement provided to TMZ, Drake’s lead attorney Mike Gottlieb slammed UMG.

“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,” he wrote. “A greedy company [UMG] is finally being held responsible for profiting from dangerous misinformation that has already resulted in multiple acts of violence.”

He continued: “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.”

When Kendrick Lamar dropped his chart-topping (now multiple Grammy Award-winning) record “Not Like Us,” hip-hop fans could not have predicted it resulting in this intense legal dispute.