Drake Gets Ahold of Kendrick Lamar’s UMG Contract As Ugly ‘Not Like Us’ Battle Intensifies — Will the Details Become Publicly Available?

Drake has officially gotten ahold of Kendrick Lamar’s Universal Music recording contract amid the high-stakes “Not Like Us” lawsuit. But will an unredacted version of the document – or at least key sections thereof – ever become publicly available?

While we’ll have to wait for an answer to the latter question, we definitely aren’t lacking details about the contract sub-dispute or the wider legal battle. DMN has covered the contentious case from the outset – including Drake’s growing list of discovery demands.

Chief among said demands are UMG head Lucian Grainge’s emails and texts. (Unsurprisingly, Grainge has opposed the request in clear-cut terms.)

However, Team Drake has been eager to obtain Lamar’s Universal Music contract, with an eye on clauses concerning the major’s creative-direction sway and ability to block releases, since March or earlier.

Closer to the present, Drake has now secured that contract – albeit with a seemingly significant number of redactions.

In light of the allegedly all-encompassing removals, he and his legal team are currently seeking the complete text. Like with Grainge’s emails, the push isn’t sitting right with Universal Music.

“Here, UMG seeks sealing of negotiated contract terms relating to whether and to what extent UMG exercises control over the content and publication of Kendrick Lamar’s creative output,” the major relayed when asking the court to leave even the redacted contract under seal.

“This is clearly commercially sensitive information. If these terms were disclosed, then other artists could use them in their own negotiations with UMG (such as by demanding either similar or different treatment) and other record labels could use them when competing with UMG to sign or re-sign artists, including potentially Lamar himself,” UMG proceeded.

The presiding judge just recently agreed with the major’s contention that the info in question “qualifies as confidential.”

Unfortunately for us, this means the contract will remain sealed. But it’s certainly possible that worthwhile particulars will emerge as the courtroom confrontation unfolds.

And for obvious reasons, the odds of interesting public disclosures would increase if Lamar’s entire contract was on the record – which is exactly the outcome that Drake and his legal team are seeking. Furthermore, while Drake himself also asked the court to allow the contract to be filed under seal, the request was one piece of a plan to score the whole document.

“Plaintiff intends to file the Lamar Contract as an exhibit to a motion to compel UMG to, among other things, produce the Lamar Contract without redactions,” Drake spelled out.

With that, it’ll be worth continuing to monitor this component of the involved suit.

Needless to say, elements like Lamar’s contract and Grainge’s emails are especially interesting. But they’re only a couple components of the increasingly convoluted case.

A closing example: The massive filing that Drake and his counsel submitted last week about parties “likely to have discoverable information.” The expected persons and companies (with the conspicuous absence of Lamar) are featured here – referring to Drake, UMG, and several Interscope execs.

But so are the Recording Academy, Apple, Qobuz, Napster, the NFL, Roc Nation, Spotify VP of music and audiobooks businesses David Kaefer, and a multitude of others yet.