{"id":19667,"date":"2025-08-17T06:54:28","date_gmt":"2025-08-17T06:54:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nanamedia.org\/en\/2025\/08\/17\/lucian-grainge-fires-drakes-farcical-and-nonsensical-claims-that-universal-wanted-to-devalue-the-rapper-brand\/"},"modified":"2025-08-17T06:54:30","modified_gmt":"2025-08-17T06:54:30","slug":"lucian-grainge-fires-drakes-farcical-and-nonsensical-claims-that-universal-wanted-to-devalue-the-rapper-brand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nanamedia.org\/en\/2025\/08\/17\/lucian-grainge-fires-drakes-farcical-and-nonsensical-claims-that-universal-wanted-to-devalue-the-rapper-brand\/","title":{"rendered":"Lucian Grainge fires drakes &#8220;Farcical&#8221; and &#8220;nonsensical&#8221; claims that Universal wanted to devalue the rapper brand"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1>Universal Music Group CEO Fires Back at Drake<\/h1>\n<p>The legal dispute between Universal Music Group (UMG) and rapper Drake continues to rumble on. In a recent letter submitted to the southern district of New York, UMG CEO Lucian Grainge fired back at Drake&#8217;s claims, describing them as &quot;farcical&quot;, &quot;nonsensical&quot;, and &quot;unfounded&quot;.<\/p>\n<h2>Background of the Dispute<\/h2>\n<p>At the beginning of this week, Drake&#8217;s legal team made a move to secure more documents in connection with UMG&#8217;s relationship with Kendrick Lamar. Drake&#8217;s team asked the court to force UMG and Grainge to hand over the label&#8217;s contract with Lamar, as well as information about allegations of domestic violence and other suspected crimes committed by the California rapper.<\/p>\n<h2>Grainge&#8217;s Response<\/h2>\n<p>In his declaration letter, Grainge made it clear that he was not involved in the release and promotion of Kendrick Lamar&#8217;s song &quot;Not Like Us&quot;. He also wanted to emphasize that UMG did not try to devalue Drake&#8217;s brand. Grainge pointed out that UMG has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in Drake, including long-standing financial support for his recording, the purchase and ownership of the majority of his records, and the promotion of his music.<\/p>\n<h3>UMG&#8217;s Investment in Drake<\/h3>\n<p>Grainge highlighted the significant investment UMG has made in Drake&#8217;s career, stating that it would not make sense for him to be involved in a scheme to devalue Drake&#8217;s brand. He noted that UMG is a global company with operations in over 60 countries, and its strategy is focused on supporting its artists, not undermining them.<\/p>\n<h2>Absurd Claims<\/h2>\n<p>Grainge ended his letter with a strong statement, saying that he had nothing to do with &quot;Not Like Us&quot;. He emphasized that he had not even heard the song or seen its cover art or music video before they were released by Interscope Records. UMG&#8217;s lawyers submitted a separate letter, calling Drake&#8217;s application a &quot;transparent attempt&quot; to use discovery to harass and waste UMG&#8217;s time and resources.<\/p>\n<h3>UMG&#8217;s Lawyers Respond<\/h3>\n<p>The letter from UMG&#8217;s lawyers added that the premise of Drake&#8217;s application is &quot;absurd&quot;, suggesting that he could not have lost a rap fight unless there was a secret conspiracy involving UMG&#8217;s top executives. The lawyers pointed out that Grainge is the CEO of a multinational enterprise, and his days are spent implementing global strategy, not individual tracks or recordings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Universal Music Group CEO Fires Back at Drake The legal dispute between Universal Music Group (UMG) and rapper Drake continues to rumble on. In a recent letter submitted to the southern district of New York, UMG CEO Lucian Grainge fired back at Drake&#8217;s claims, describing them as &quot;farcical&quot;, &quot;nonsensical&quot;, and &quot;unfounded&quot;. Background of the Dispute<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19668,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-19667","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nanamedia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19667","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nanamedia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nanamedia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nanamedia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nanamedia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19667"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nanamedia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19667\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19669,"href":"https:\/\/nanamedia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19667\/revisions\/19669"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nanamedia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19668"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nanamedia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19667"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nanamedia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19667"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nanamedia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19667"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}