Drake: Canadian rapper settles lawsuit against iHeartRadio over Kendrick Lamar payola claims

• Canadian rapper Drake has settled one of his lawsuits regarding Not Like Us.
• The suit alleging payola against iHeartRadio over Kendrick Lamar’s song has reached an ‘amicable resolution.’
• However Drake’s case against Universal Music Group has yet to be resolved.

A lawsuit lodged by Drake against iHeartRadio over claims that Kendrick Lamar’s smash hit diss track Not Like Us was boosted airplay through the use of payola has been settled.

According to a Texas court filing obtained by Rolling Stone, both parties have “reached an amicable resolution of the dispute to the satisfaction of both sides.”

A representative for iHeartMedia stated that Drake agreed to drop his petition after being shown documents proving the company had done nothing wrong, and no payments were made by either side. Drake’s team also confirmed the settlement but declined to provide further comment.

The dispute originally stemmed from a legal filing in November 2024, in which Drake accused UMG of engaging in a “pay-to-play scheme” by funnelling money to iHeartRadio and its stations to manipulate the success of Not Like Us.

However, rather than seeking financial damages, Drake had requested oral depositions from iHeartMedia and UMG representatives to investigate potential violations of payola laws.

In addition to this case, Drake had also filed a separate lawsuit against UMG and Spotify, accusing them of artificially inflating streaming numbers for Not Like Us, but that lawsuit has since been dropped.

Meanwhile, Drake’s defamation lawsuit against UMG—filed in January—remains unresolved. The lawsuit claims UMG knowingly released and approved Lamar’s track, which includes inflammatory lyrics accusing Drake and his associates of being “certified paedophiles” who should “be registered and placed on neighbourhood watch.”

Although Drake has dropped some key allegations from that case, UMG has until March 17 to respond and potentially seek dismissal.

Last week, Drake cancelled the remaining shows of his Australia and New Zealand tour due to what his team called scheduling conflicts - that did not, however, prevent him from attending the WWE’s Elimination Chamber show in Toronto, Ontario, Canada over the weekend.

Drake is set to perform three headline shows at Wireless 2025 in London this year - for more information on the festival do’s and do not’s, check out our Wireless Festival 2025 guide.