Drake's legal petition against UMG over Kendrick Lamar's 'Not Like Us' moves forward

There's still a lot of discussion surrounding Drake filing a legal petition against Universal Music Group and Spotify. Now, it's being reported that an official hearing date of December 20, has been secured, so the rapper's complaint has moved to the next phase.

Drake alleges that Universal and Spotify used illegal tactics to boost the popularity of Kendrick Lamar's diss song "Not Like Us" by using bots, payola, and other methods. The OVO artist accuses Universal of defamation on top of that, saying they could've kept "Not Like Us" from being released. Kendrick accuses Drake of being a pedophile in the song, hence the defamation claim.

Ever since news of the petition surfaced, many said it's ridiculous for Drake to get lawyers involved in a rap battle. That's because historically, there's been no rules in rap battles and dissing someone, regardless if the line is true, false, or way below the belt, is fair game. But not everyone sees it that way, and Drake is one of those people.

In 2019 he spoke to Rap Radar about it, after Pusha T dissed him in the song "The Story of Adidon." The Virginia Beach rapper also made light of Drake's friend and longtime producer Noah Shebib having multiple sclerosis in the cut.

The "Push Ups" creator referenced another battle during that interview as well, concerning one rapper insulting another's deceased family member.

“Obviously, the part that hit me the most, which is like, you know, wishing like my friend that has an illness dies, that s--t to me is not really wavy," said Drake at the 108:25 mark of the interview. "I’m just not really with that, and when I did say there’s rules to this, I didn’t mean there’s rules that anyone has to follow. But like in battle rap, they just head-shotted that guy the other day because he was on stage, and he pulled out a picture of the guy’s dead aunt and started rapping."

At this point, it'll be interesting to see what comes out of Drake's December 20 hearing. His complaint could end there or it may head to trial.