{"id":162739,"date":"2025-04-17T15:05:08","date_gmt":"2025-04-17T15:05:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/17\/drake-accuses-kendrick-lamar-of-having-assassinated-his-character-at-super-bowl\/"},"modified":"2025-04-17T15:05:08","modified_gmt":"2025-04-17T15:05:08","slug":"drake-accuses-kendrick-lamar-of-having-assassinated-his-character-at-super-bowl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/17\/drake-accuses-kendrick-lamar-of-having-assassinated-his-character-at-super-bowl\/","title":{"rendered":"Drake accuses Kendrick Lamar of having &#8216;assassinated his character&#8217; at Super Bowl"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"byline\">\n<p>        <time itemprop=\"datePublished\" content=\"2025-04-17\" datetime=\"1744902308\" pubdate=\"\">17 April 2025<\/time>\n    <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.femalefirst.co.uk\/drake\/\" class=\"exposure-link \" data-linktrack=\"LinkTracker,articleExposure,drake\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Drake<\/a> has accused Kendrick Lamar of having &#8220;assassinated his character&#8221; during his Super Bowl halftime show.<\/p>\n<p>                            <\/p>\n<p class=\"image-caption landscape\">Drake filed a lawsuit against UMG in January<\/p>\n<p>The Canadian rapper is suing his own record label, Universal Music Group (UMG) for releasing and promoting Kendrick&#8217;s diss track &#8216;Not Like Us&#8217;, and in an amended defamation claim filed on Wednesday (16.04.25), he argued the performance in February, as well as his rival&#8217;s Grammy Award wins for the song, \u201cintroduced new listeners to the Recording, causing even more people to be duped into believing that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.femalefirst.co.uk\/drake\/\" class=\"exposure-link \" data-linktrack=\"LinkTracker,articleExposure,drake\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Drake<\/a> was a paedophile.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The amendment claimed UMG made significant financial envestments and used professional connections to arrange for the amplification of the allegations in the track to be heard by a wider audience.<\/p>\n<p>It highlighted figures that branded the performance the most-viewed halftime show of all time, stating as a result it introduced &#8216;Not Like Us&#8217; to \u201cmillions more who had never before heard the song or any of the songs that preceded it.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>The suit stated: \u201cIt was the first, and will hopefully be the last, Super Bowl halftime show orchestrated to assassinate the character of another artist.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>\nAccording to the Hollywood Reporter, the &#8216;Hotline Bling&#8217; hitmaker argued that Kendrick omitting the phrase &#8220;certified paedophile&#8221; during his performance of the track at the NFL showpiece game affirmed his belief the song&#8217;s lyrics are defamatory.<\/p>\n<p>\nThe suit stated: \u201cNo other modifications were made.<\/p>\n<p>\n&#8220;On information and belief, Kendrick Lamar would not have been permitted to perform during the Super Bowl Performance unless the word &#8216;paedophile&#8217; (in the phrase &#8216;certified paedophiles&#8217;) was omitted from the lyrics\u2014that is because nearly everyone understands that it is defamatory to falsely brand someone a &#8216;certified pedophile&#8217;.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\nDrake\u2019s lead attorney, Michael Gottlieb, insisted the amendment made his &#8220;already strong case stronger&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>\nHe added in a statement: &#8220;UMG\u2019s PR &#8216;spin&#8217; and failed efforts to avoid discovery cannot suppress the facts and the truth. <\/p>\n<p>\n&#8220;With discovery now moving forward, Drake will expose the evidence of UMG\u2019s misconduct, and UMG will be held accountable for the consequences of its ill-conceived decisions.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\nHowever, UMG has denied allegations that it &#8220;intentionally sought to turn Drake into a pariah, a target for harassment, or worse\u201d and \u201cdid so not because it believes any of these false claims to be true, but instead because it would profit from damaging Drake\u2019s reputation&#8221;, and branded the lawsuit &#8220;foolish and frivolous&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>\nThey added in a statement: &#8220;Drake, unquestionably one of the world\u2019s most accomplished artists and with whom we\u2019ve enjoyed a 16-year successful relationship, is being misled by his legal representatives into taking one absurd legal step after another.<\/p>\n<p>\n&#8220;Both the Texas and New York proceedings are an affront to all artists and creative expression. <\/p>\n<p>\n&#8220;Should his legal representatives senselessly keep the New York lawsuit alive, we will demonstrate that all remaining claims are without merit.<\/p>\n<p>\n\u201cIt is shameful that these foolish and frivolous legal theatrics continue. <\/p>\n<p>\n&#8220;They are reputationally and financially costly to Drake and have no chance of success.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><!-- Pagination --><\/p>\n<p><!-- playbuzz --><br \/>\n<!-- end playbuzz--><\/p>\n<p><!-- \n\n<div data-cn-project=\"femalefirst\">\n    \n<\/div>\n\n --><\/p>\n<p><!-- Outbrain { date: 2018\/06\/08 } --><br \/>\n<!-- Outbrain { date: 2018\/06\/08 } --><\/p>\n<p>    <!-- Outbrain { date: 2018\/06\/08 } --><br \/>\n    <!-- Outbrain { date: 2018\/06\/08 } --><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.femalefirst.co.uk\/celebrity\/drake-accuses-kendrick-lamar-assassinated-character-super-bowl-1417100.html?f=rss\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>17 April 2025 Drake has accused Kendrick Lamar of having &#8220;assassinated his character&#8221; during his Super Bowl halftime show. Drake filed a lawsuit against UMG in January The Canadian rapper is suing his own record label, Universal Music Group (UMG) for releasing and promoting Kendrick&#8217;s diss track &#8216;Not Like Us&#8217;, and in an amended defamation [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":162740,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[227,1169,11252],"class_list":{"0":"post-162739","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-make-up","8":"tag-drake","9":"tag-kendrick-lamar","10":"tag-michael-gottlieb"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162739","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=162739"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162739\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/162740"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=162739"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=162739"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=162739"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}