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"The ultimate contrarian" — Internet reacts to Kanye West speaking out in support of Drake amid his legal battle with UMG
Rapper Kanye West, known professionally as Ye, has publicly supported fellow rapper Drake amid his legal battle with Universal Music Group over Not Like Us. Ye's support came after the Canadian rapper amended his initial defamation lawsuit on April 16 to include Kendrick Lamar's live performance of the diss track during his Super Bowl halftime show. The amended filing claimed the performance was an attempt to "assassinate the character of another artist."
On April 17, Ye took to his social media platform to upload a video addressing the situation involving Drake, UMG, and Kendrick Lamar, calling it the "biggest victory in music history." He also vowed never to diss the Canadian rapper; however, he added that he was "Team Drake, Team Kendrick, and Team All Of Us," urging Lamar and other artists to take a stand against record labels.
"I'm so happy right now, you don't understand with this UMG, Drake, Kendrick situation, Super Bowl, Grammys. This sh*t was driving me, and you know where it should be driving me, but this is the biggest victory in music history, right here. I'm never finna call Drake out of his name," he said.
"I'm Team Drake, 100%. And Team Kendrick, and Team All of Us... Kendrick needs to be going at UMG at this point. This is what I said in my version of 'Like That.' I said, 'Lucian, your lifetime deal ...' Like, let's stop aiming all this at each other. You have no idea. Everything is worth everything for a moment like this. Where we stop going at each other and we go at the slave masters."
Ye's support for Drake surprised many netizens due to the two artists' tumultuous past. One X user referred to Ye as the "ultimate contrarian," writing:
"The ultimate contrarian smh."
Several netizens agreed with Ye's statement, supporting the rapper for challenging record labels that profit from artists.
"He actually right they busy goin at each other while the labels make all the money off it," one person tweeted.
"The goat has spoken hope Drake wins it free the artists from corruption," another person added.
"Ppl gonna talk s**t on this just because he is crazy but this is a w. showing love to rappers going against money hungry labels. w Ye," someone else commented.
However, some appeared skeptical, arguing that Ye inserted himself into any trending situation in hip-hop.
"Notice whenever there’s something big happening in Hip-Hop Ye tries to insert himself in the conversation," one person posted.
"Bro saying this when Kendrick was bigger than the Super Bowl," another person added.
"Who’s going to tell him nothing was won?" someone else questioned.
"Drake don't care about no slave masters homie he cares about his image, Kendrick been tryna collapse the hierarchy his whole career smh. Sleepwalking," another user wrote.
Exploring Drake's amended lawsuit against UMG
On April 16, Drizzy and his legal team amended their initial defamation lawsuit against UMG, which was filed in January 2025. The amended document claimed that Kendrick Lamar's Super Bowl performance was defamatory, stating that the Compton rapper omitted the word "p*dophile" while performing Not Like Us.
“On information and belief, Kendrick Lamar would not have been permitted to perform during the Super Bowl Performance unless the word “p*dophile” (in the phrase “certified p*dophiles”) was omitted from the lyrics—that is because nearly everyone understands that it is defamatory to falsely brand someone a “certified p*dophile.”
The document added that over 133 million people, including children, watched the performance after it was broadcast live worldwide. It further claimed that the livestream introduced the Grammy-winning diss track to “millions more who had never before heard the song or any of the songs that preceded it.”
The amended complaint also changed its earlier claims that UMG was directly involved in using bots and payola to artificially inflate the streaming numbers for Not Like Us. The new filing now claimed that UMG "was aware that third parties were using bots to stream the Recording and turned a blind eye, despite having the power to stop such behavior.”
Following this, UMG released a statement to Variety addressing the amended lawsuit, dubbing the Canadian rapper's new claims “frivolous and reckless." The statement added that the rapper's legal team changed their initial lawsuit because they were “fearful of being sanctioned for asserting false allegations.”
“Drake, unquestionably one of the world’s most accomplished artists and with whom we’ve enjoyed at 16-year successful relationship, is being misled by his legal representatives into taking one absurd legal step after another," the statement read.
"In New York in January, Drake’s counsel filed a defamation lawsuit. Fearful of being sanctioned by the court for asserting false allegations, tonight they amended the complaint to withdraw them only to add more baseless allegations."
The statement also addressed the court's decision to allow the Canadian rapper's team to continue with discovery, despite UMG filing a motion to dismiss the case in March. The record label stated that the rapper will also "personally be subject to discovery," adding the age-old adage, "be careful what you wish for."
In response to UMG's statement, Drake's lawyers stated that the amended complaint “makes an already strong case stronger” and vowed to "expose the evidence of UMG’s misconduct."
A verdict regarding the record label's motion to dismiss will be made during a hearing on June 30.
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