Stephen A Smith Drags Drake For Threatening UMG Over Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us”

This week, Drake took legal action against Universal Music Group (UMG), accusing the label and Spotify of artificially boosting Kendrick Lamar‘s diss track “Not Like Us.” In a second pre-action filing in a Texas court, he also accused UMG of defamation. According to him, the label could have allegedly prevented the release of the song, in which Kendrick “falsely [accuses] him of being a sex offender.”

“UMG … could have refused to release or distribute the song or required the offending material to be edited and/or removed,” the lawsuit alleges, per Billboard. “But UMG chose to do the opposite. UMG designed, financed and then executed a plan to turn ‘Not Like Us’ into a viral mega-hit with the intent of using the spectacle of harm to Drake and his businesses to drive consumer hysteria and, of course, massive revenues. That plan succeeded, likely beyond UMG’s wildest expectations.” Unsurprisingly, this latest move has earned mixed reactions. While some are siding with Drake, others like Stephen A Smith are not on board.

“Let’s get this out of the way right now, it’s a bad look, and it’s all smeared on Drake. All of it. This is hip-hop, man, this is hip-hop. Somebody comes at you with lyrics, with a song, you supposed to come right back at them with the song, with lyrics,” he said during a recent episode of The Stephen A Smith Show. “I don’t care who pumped what up. If the song wasn’t straight fire, there’s no way it would have had that many hits.” He continued, arguing that this makes Drake look “weak and sensitive.”

Smith is far from the only person to criticize Drake lately, however. Joe Budden also recently slammed the Toronto rapper on his podcast. “This n****s been a sack of sh*t behind the scenes and because he got fans and had Lucian, everybody just gets to turn a blind eye,” he said. “The blind eye days are done.“