Deposition Drake Settles His Pay-For-Play Lawsuit Against iHeartMedia
Written by djfrosty on March 5, 2025
Source: Christopher Polk / Getty
2025 hasn’t been too kind to Drake (neither was much of 2024 thanks to Kendrick Lamar), but it seems like at least one of his legal issues is resolved; his lawsuit against iHeartMedia has apparently been settled.
According to Pitchfork, Drake and iHeartMedia have reached an agreement in the lawsuit that Drake slapped them with in which he claimed a pay-to-play plot to help boost Kedrick Lamar’s scathing diss record “Not Like Us” in 2024. With the record becoming a tremendous hit right out of the gate, rumors began to spread that the Drake was in the crosshairs of an industry wide conspiracy to take him down by helping boost spins of K. Dot’s classic diss record, to which Drake responded by suing everyone and they mama for allegedly helping the record break all kinds of records and even defamation.
Naturally, everyone accused Drake of being a sore loser and clowned him to no end, but that didn’t deter him from continuing with the lawsuits. Now, it seems like this one has come to an end, as iHeartMedia announced that “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.”
Per Pitchfork:
Drake had accused iHeartMedia of illegally accepting the payments from Universal Music Group (UMG)—the label of both Drake and Lamar and the target of a separate Drake lawsuit—in violation of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act. Drake’s petition, filed in Bexar County, Texas, also claimed that UMG should have blocked the release of “Not Like Us,” on the basis that it “falsely [accused] him of being a sex offender, engaging in pedophilic acts, harboring sex offenders, and committing other criminal sexual acts.” Drake is continuing to pursue his federal lawsuit against UMG, claiming the label’s release of “Not Like Us” constitutes harassment and defamation.
In the court document announcing the settlement, Drake’s attorneys said he and iHeartMedia had “reached an amicable resolution of the dispute,” according to The Associated Press.
The news comes weeks after Drake dropped his latest R&B heavy album, $ome $exy $ongs 4 U, which many fans felt was “meh.”
While we’re glad Drake and iHeartMedia were able to put this legal back-and-forth behind them, we’re just wondering if the world will ever embrace Drake like they once did, or if Kendrick Lamar ruined his reputation for all eternity going forward.
At least the man is still rich, right?
What do y’all think about Drake and iHeartMedia finally coming to terms with the pay-for-play lawsuit? Let us know in the comments section below.