Drake settles iHeartRadio dispute over Kendrick Lamar song
iHeartRadio has provided proof that it had nothing to do with Drake's payola claims...
Drake has withdrawn his legal petition against iHeartRadio over an alleged pay-to-play scheme.
The 'God's Plan' hitmaker accused radio company iHeartMedia of accepting illegal payments from Universal Music Group (UMG) to promote Kendrick Lamar's diss track, 'Not Like Us'.
According to Rolling Stone magazine, Drake and iHeartMedia “reached an amicable resolution of the dispute to the satisfaction of both sides”.
The company says it has cleared its name.
"In exchange for documents that showed iHeart did nothing wrong, Drake agreed to drop his petition. No payments were made – by either one of us."
Lamar recorded 'Not Like Us' in 2024 following a back-and-forth beef with the Canadian rapper. He accused Drake of liking young girls.
"Certified Lover Boy? Certified pedophiles," the song's lyrics read.
Lamar achieved major success with the track, which won five Grammys and surpassed one billion streams on Spotify.
Drake called the song defamatory.
He also filed legal action against UMG and Spotify, claiming they “engaged in conduct designed to artificially inflate the popularity of ‘Not Like Us’… including by licensing the song at drastically reduced rates to Spotify and using ‘bots’ to generate the false impression that the song was more popular than it was in reality.”
Both UMG and Spotify denied the claims. Drake dropped his petition against Spotify in January but filed a defamation lawsuit against UMG.
He accused the label of approving, publishing, and launching a campaign to "create a viral hit out of a rap track" that his lawyers say was "intended 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."
Drake scored a win in court this week after a judge denied UMG's request to pause discovery and a pretrial hearing while waiting for a motion to dismiss the lawsuit.
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