In an interesting turn of events, the judge presiding over the legal battle between Drake and Kendrick Lamar has officially allowed the discovery of documents pertaining to Kendrick’s deal with the Universal Media Group.
Initially, the UMG team had argued that demands made by Drake’s legal team were “overboard” and “premature,” as reported by Billboard. Now, however, Drake’s camp will have significant access to peruse through documents that would typically be unavailable to a third party. Judge Jeannette Vargas’ decision on this comes as part of a pre-trial conference this morning, which was being opposed by UMG, who wanted to continue with the motion for dismissal with discovery on pause.
It is important to note that while no significant update has come out of ongoing discovery, Michael Gottlieb, the lead attorney on Drake’s side is happy about the win at this stage. “Now it’s time to see what UMG was so desperately trying to hide,” he said. In total, the team has requested to peruse through 18 sets of different documents in relation to the ‘Not Like Us’ fiasco. These include “all contracts and agreements between” UMG and Kendrick Lamar, all documents and communications concerning UMG’s “Not Like Us” release approval, all “Not Like Us” communications from Interscope marketing exec Ramon Alvarez-Smikle, and more.
One interesting request among these is the request for the ‘detailed accounts of “Not Like Us” streams and views “on all platforms,” including social services,’ which would reveal the true nature of what fans call the ‘Bot Like Us’ allegations.
Drake’s Willkie lawyer: They have sent us a Rule 11 letter about only five paragraphs of our lengthy complaint – about the use of streaming farms. We have exchanged letters – we intend to withdraw those, but it’s tiny portion of our complaint
— Inner City Press (@innercitypress) April 2, 2025
According to some reports by the Inner City Press, apparently Drake’s team also intends on removing 5 paragraphs of their complaint claims after UMG cited a Rule 11 provision, but this is something that’s currently unverified/ underreported. Whatever be the case, it sure seems like a win some-lose some situation for Drake. Perhaps the only way he can come out of public humiliation in suing over a rap battle is if indeed, UMG did bot streams leading to the song’s success. Stay tuned to find out!
