Analytic Dreamz: Notorious Mass Effect - "DRAKE CELEBRATES DISCOVERY WIN THAT ALLOWS HIM TO REQUEST KENDRICK LAMAR'S CONTRACTS AND MORE IN 'NOT LIKE US' LAWSUIT"

Episode Date: April 3, 2025

Linktree: ⁠https://linktr.ee/Analytic⁠In this segment of Notorious Mass Effect, Analytic Dreamz dives into Drake’s legal win against Universal Music Group (UMG) in his 'Not Like Us' lawsuit. Judge Jeanette Vargas denied UMG’s delay request, greenlighting discovery into Kendrick Lamar’s contracts and UMG exec pay. Drake alleges defamation and streaming manipulation, while UMG defends diss tracks as hip-hop culture. With discovery underway and a motion to dismiss set for June 2025, Analytic Dreamz explores the case’s impact on artist safety and industry precedents. Current Billboard rankings included.Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

This man just said the tenderness of them, mistaken in some Wagyu. And the lines that preceded this line basically was talking about Drake. So that brings me back to the ultimate title of this live stream. Ladies and gentlemen, is Kendrick comparing Drake's meat to Wagyu? Food for thought, man. Food for thought. Now, of course, with those sentiments from a while ago, as when it comes to the podcast, I have a lot of different insights on the music industry, but that was just one of them. I had to let y'all know because I was thinking to myself, hold on now, we all know that on the track with Kendrick Lamar and Siza, more specifically, 30 for 30.

Kendrick was throwing undeniable shots at Drake calling himself, calling, uh, so telling Sizza that he thinks that Drake looks cuter than Sizzer, basically saying you mess with people that thinking they're cuter than you, the tenderness of them, mistaken them for. some waggoo now i don't know about y'all but as far as diddy type beat that is in line with those sentiments because hey yo like what are you trying to say you think you compare drake's meat to waggoo anyway so obviously you heard the tidby right there but with that being said in more serious news we have to talk about how the goat the mascot of hip-hop of course abrid drake graham has another win in the courtroom when a lot of people thought that because of the potential being taken away from iHeart and from Spotify that he wasn't still going at UMG just to put in in lamest terms all of those petitions was ultimately to get more

people involved as far as looking at the actual documents when it comes to payola and things of that nature which is why the even though the petition was removed specifically going at I heart the latest lawsuit involving UMG still names I heart multiple times throughout the entire thing. Now, I will see, I will say, as far as him taking the petition away from Spotify, Spotify is no longer in the lawsuit as far as them being specifically named, but I-heart is still being named in the lawsuit even after the petition was taken away. So what am I talking about Drake earning another W in the courtroom? Well, ladies and gentlemen, I'm glad you asked. As

Drake had a legal victory over UMG in a not like us lawsuit, if you don't know, he's suing for payola and defamation and essentially why i'm saying he got a w is because judge janet vargas hopefully i'm pronouncing her name right ruled against universal music group's motion to delay discovery and drake's defamation a defamation lawsuit now what does this mean umg was trying to postpone certain things so that they could get their ducks in a row and guess what the judge was not having it as if you don't know umg was actually founded um g was actually founded uh well they wasn't technically they wasn't found it guilty but they settled for paula in the past if i can find that right quick so in the past this has been a problem before as umg settled on a paola

case which technically means they're not guilty but you know in in the courtroom and a lot of things that happens in the midst of it as far as the terminology makes you understand that sometimes if you you think you're going to lose, it's best to just settle and not deal with the headlines of guilty, right? So anyways, UMG settled a payola case back in May 11, 2006, where they agreed to pay $12 million to resolve allegations that the company provided, bribes such as vacations and electronics, to radio stations, to increase airplay for their artists. Hmm Fast forward to April 2nd, 2025. I wonder what Drake is suing about.

Anyways, so Drake's legal team led by attorney Michael, I don't even know how to say that last name. It's Gottlieb can, well, now Drake's legal team can obtain sensitive UMG documents including side seven,

I mean, Kendrick Lamar's, I forget his name, my fault, Kendrick Lamar's record contracts and executive of compensation details. As when it comes to the background of the lawsuit, when UMG was talking about how

they was promoting Kendrick Lamar's track was like artistic expression and how Drake's team came back and said that it was defamatory. Basically, when UMG allegedly conspired with Spotify, they're saying that they artificially inflated, not like a, streaming numbers, right?

So that's the main thing when it comes to the payola side of things. And then the defamation is a whole other side of the equation. So both of them is very prevalent throughout this entire lawsuit. And when the UMG responded, which I, you know, shameless plug, I broke down the entire lawsuit. So this is not going to be as in detail as far as that breakdown because, of course, there wasn't another 60-page lawsuit to go over. It was really just announcement.

it was just an announcement that Drake won a victory in the case to get to get the ball rolling instead of it being postponed. So what was I looking up? Okay, so March 18th, 2025, I covered the entire response as far as the lawsuit when it comes to UMG firing back at Drake. But interestingly enough, they was focusing on the defamatory part for the majority of the lawsuit. They didn't really go into detail with the payola things. And it was very interesting as now, nowadays, when you look at it and the key development is Drake's team being legally allowed to access 18 sets of internal UMG documents. You're probably wondering what is that? Well, I'm going to tell you right now.

I'm glad you asked. So anyways, Kendrick Lamar's contracts. They get to look at that. Their agreements with UMG. They get to legally look at that. Executive compensation records for Interscope CEO John Jenick for the past five years. The courtroom basically said, hey, Drake, I know he said, we heard you like him young, but we heard you like to look into contracts too.

So here you go. You know, we heard you like to be the hip-hop caring. We heard you like to be the blue collar snitch. We heard you like to be a lot of things. So guess what? You get to snitch away and we'll give you all the access to do it. So as far as discovery requests, it was granted, and that includes Kendrick Lamar's contracts and agreements with the UMG, executive compensation records for interscope.

CEO John Janick for the past five years, marketing and promotional plans for not like us, UMG's communications with the Grammys and the Super Bowl regarding the track. Drake's team said, if we're going to snitch, we're going to snitch to the fullest extent of the law. And the judge granted it. And the judge granted it, more specifically, Judge Janet Vargas, which is probably going to get a track named after her, even after this whole thing, et cetera, if it goes Drake's way similar to how Drake had Brian Still on some sexy songs for you album as you know he had a whole

entire track titled right after him so anyways that's all the discovery right well the last part was details on UMG's enforcement of copyright restrictions so as far as them being legally granted access for all of this discovery it's a huge W because it's basically the court saying if you have nothing hide then let him look at the documents and more importantly let him actually deep dive into contracts and more specifically your communication with the Super Bowl and the Grammys it's almost like Drake's not coming for half he's coming for everything all right my phone that'd be dramatic with that so as far as the time frame for discovery both sides have one week to agree on a timeline if not they must notify the courts man this sounds like a uh sounds like baby mama drama anyways

discovery is expected to take months due to negotiations over document access so even though they're legally granted by the judge there's still a lot of things they have to go into effect and they're saying it will take months due to negotiations over document access also when it comes to artist safety concerns drake has claimed a UMG prioritized profits over artist security and if you don't agree with that just know i covered this back in may 7th 2020 There was a whole entire shooting at Drake Man, uh, Drake's Mansion. Why did people forget about that? Because they love to call them a certified love boy certified PDF instead of actually realizing

that all of these falsified claims, all of these exaggerated, uh, exaggerated verbiage coming from, um, white tank top. I mean, um, side seven, I mean, Kendrick, my fault. All those lyrical vitriol attempts, uh, vitriolic. attempts to take away Drake's public perception led to his mansion being shot at. Now, of course, when it comes to Drake's mansion being shot at, you can't directly tie it to not like us. But what you can say is a rap battle happened. And in the midst of that rap battle, really in the, in the cusp of the battle, Drake's mansion got shot at. I wonder why that

happened at that specific time, rather than months or he hears that. or even before or after, right? So with that being said, that's basically what Drake is claiming that UMG prioritized profits over artist security. Also, when it comes to citing the May 2024 incident where a security guard was shot outside of his home shortly after not like us gained popularity,

that's exactly what I was just talking about. Also, when it comes to UMG's counter argument, because of course, you know, when they counter with their lawsuit that I already covered as far as back, again, March 18, 2025 when I covered them firing back at Drake via their own like 60 page lawsuit. Like at this point, I didn't read like a whole Harry Potter book full of court document details. And it's like at some point, we got to get the ball rolling.

Like I don't know how many 60 page lawsuits I could fully just digest. Pause. So that being said, UMG came back and said that the disc tracks are a core part of hip hop culture. And legal action against them could impact artistic expression. now I'm just going to leave it like that and let you understand that UMG is basically telling Drake, hey, we've never seen this in hip hop. Why are you snitching? Like it was one of those very key moments where UMG had the pulse of the culture and their entire lawsuit as far as the rebuttal. They was like, hold up now. You're a hip hop artist engaged in a rap battle publicly lost, right? And now I was saying, guess what? You got to deal with that because ain't that what hip hop is all about. So they're very confused, which is why they say that this legal action could impact artistic expression. So as far as people wondering what are the future development going to be, there's going to be discovery.

UMG is expected to limit the scope of Drake's document requests, even though the judge granted it. When it comes to the courtroom, there's a reason why. lawyers and doctors hold a certain status in society. There's a lot of loopholes you have to go through, a lot of educational routines that you have to go through to be able to fully understand what's entirely happening. So when it comes to a judge granting Drake's team access and then you hear, oh, UMG is expected to limit the scope,

best believe that is when the lawyer talk comes in and that is out of my realm. So I don't know how they're going to spend it to limit to limit the scope of Drake's team's request because once again, they were granted access to 18 sets of internal internal UMG documents including Kendrick's contracts in agreements with UMG, executive compensation records for endoscope CEO John Janick for the past five years, marketing and promotional plans for not like us, UMG's communications with the Grammys and the Super Bowl regarding the track

and also details on UMG's enforcement of copyright restrictions. Ladies and gentlemen, UMG's not going for that. But then, you know what I'm saying? I was like, damn, look at the state of hip hop. Like, what's going to? So they're basically going to go

to the fullest extent of the law to try to limit Drake's team's document requests. Because now, even though there was granted access, they're going to try to find some loophole to stop basically the limit. I've already said that.

So continuing that, future developments are also going to include oral arguments for UMG's motion to dismiss our schedule and that is scheduled for June 30th, 2025. Like I said, when they say it's going to take months for all of these negotiations to go down, it's literally going to

take months. When it comes to the lawsuit outcome, it could set a precedent because like I kept saying, when Drake refers to the red button, they ended up putting it out on for all the dogs as far as the deluxe edition. Drake is inherently pressing the red button, because if you don't know, if Drake ends up winning this lawsuit, it's going to change the landscape of how we view rap battles. Because now people are going to always use the caveat.

Well, the biggest artist in our genre ever sued after he lost the rap battle. Why can't I? And that's going to open up a whole can of worms, uh, worms that I don't think we really want to look at as far as the history of hip hop. Like imagine, just imagine if Jay-Z knew that these type of legal tactics could have been taken after losing the rap battle. The things that Nas made me in prison to this day, I ain't a lot to you. Like the power that Jay-Z has, if Jay-Z had the, basically, if he did not care about public

perception when it came to a hip hop artist and he went to the fullest extent of the law to have a defamation claim on gnaz all i'm saying is rock nation is very powerful and it's not because j z was smart in just a couple areas right that man is cerebral to the point where naws would have definitely been behind bars if j z was able to have this type of these type of lawyers to go at naz when it comes to defamation. So that is why I say when it comes to hip hop, I'm not a proponent of defamation lawsuits. If you lose a rap battle, I don't enjoy how Drake is going about suing side seven. I mean, Kendrick. Like, in all intents of purposes, it seems very petty and it's reacting to something that could have been prevented by you. So the payola part, that is the part where I'm like, that is something I could

get behind if if if it wasn't still meant to take down kentrick because if you realize drake's paola argument could work towards any artists under UMG especially Drake which is why UMG always say or always says that Drake benefited from the same thing that he's suing them from as far as them promoting artists and things of that nature because they basically say it's it's the way that they do business. Drake is claiming that they're going to an illegal route of marketing, which is payola. If you don't know payola is illegal, I don't know if anybody told you. I mean, if you're a content creator like me and take money to play a song, it's not illegal.

But if you're on the radio, FCC airwaves, I believe, and you take money and you play a track on those airwaves because those federally owned, our heart does not own those radio airwaves, right? if you take money to play on those airwaves and if you're caught you will be punished i mean just like UMG was punished back in 2006 when they had to come out of 12 million dollars for their payola case right so anyway this is a big deal if draken's are winning i'm i'm pretty sure that jakes gonna win a little bit more than 12 million especially for the damages that not like us caused i mean it's irreversible at this point but as long as he can be compensated i guess that's what him him and

his team is trying to get. And as far as them continuing that effort of getting compensated from being completely mutilated by Kendrick in the battle, it seems as if the judge on the case is really agreeing with them as they have agreed to give sensitive documents to Drake's team involving Kendrick's contract and executive compensation details, which is a huge W for Drake's camp. So that being said, click my link tree in my bio. Let me know in one of my social media. So what do you think about Drake winning the legal battle over UMG?

And at the end of the day, what do you think is going to be the outcome of this Drake versus UMG lawsuit? And ultimately, do you think Kendrick will ever put out another disc track if Drake ends up winning this lawsuit?