‘Billboard Unfiltered’: Drake’s UMG Lawsuit & LiAngelo Ball’s Def Jam Deal

2025 is off to a fast start in the hip-hop world as Billboard Unfiltered returns with another brand new episode on Friday (Jan. 17).

The fellas swerve and bend that corner while discussing LiAngelo Ball’s reported $8 million deal with Def Jam, which is worth up to $13 million, Drake going ahead with his defamation lawsuit against Universal Music Group and more.

Gelo’s “Tweaker” hit debuted at No. 29 on this week’s Billboard Hot 100, but staffers Kyle Denis and Damien Scott aren’t too confident he’ll be able replicate this kind of success going forward. “He might get $2 [million] of that. The rest of it is going to be put toward actually making his music a success. And signing and producing music under his label,” Scott said. “I’m utterly shocked that they gave him a label deal. He’s shown no experience at making music. We have no idea how this song was made.”

Denis doesn’t think there’s any “singular song worth a deal like this. And if that song exists, it’s not ‘Tweaker.’”

He continued to say there’s a philosophical misjudment by the labels latching on to who makes the viral track rather than understanding why something is going viral. “[People] wanted to hear stuff like that. Maybe they didn’t want to hear more Gelo,” Denis added. “The label saw that and said, ‘Y’all want more LiAngelo.’”

Both Denis and Scott would’ve rather seen Def Jam spread out the millions of dollars to other emerging artists rather than betting big on Gelo.

The rap world thought Drake was backing down when he withdrew his legal petitions against UMG, but hours later, returned with an official lawsuit against his label filed in New York for defamation surrounding Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us” earlier this week.

“It’s gonna be a tough case for him,” Scott suggested. The debate went on to the lawsuit being a ploy in his contract renegotiation for his next deal. “Someone will give Drake the money he wants. He’s too big — it’s Drake, bro. This is craziness.”

Kyle Denis hasn’t taken the lawsuit seriously because the “suit hinges on the idea Drake’s reputation was pristine before ‘Not Like Us’ and that’s just a fantasy.”

He added: “Look at how people reacted to For All The Dogs, look at how people reacted to Her Loss when he came at Megan [Thee Stallion]… I can’t really sit here and act like ‘Not Like Us’ is the source of all this Drake hate.”

At one time, Drake could make this go away by dropping his next hit and that just hasn’t happened. “Your bread and butter used to just be drop a banger and you’d be back,” Denis stated. “And that hasn’t worked for you yet, and now you ran to the Southern District of New York.”

Watch the full episode below.