Court Approves Drake’s Motion to Subpoena Kojo Menne Asamoah

Judge Jeannette A. Vargas has granted Drake’s legal team permission to subpoena Kojo Menne Asamoah after they named him as a witness in Drake’s defamation lawsuit against Universal Music Group (UMG). The lawsuit claims the major label inflated the success of Kendrick Lamar’s diss track against Drake, “Not Like Us,” which includes a line about Drake being a “certified pedophile.” 

The motion:

• According to the motion, Asamoah “possesses knowledge relating to UMG’s use of covert tactics to promote the Defamatory Material.”

• The material in question is “Not Like Us.”

Who Asamoah is:

• Asamoah's background is unclear, though speculation is that he may be linked to the music promotion & digital marketing sides of the industry.

• Drake’s legal team further claimed that Asamoah acted as a middleman between UMG and third parties who implemented artificial streaming counts through bot programs.

Background:

• Drake’s legal team presented Asamoah as a witness last month.

• There is no official tie between Asamoah and Lamar at this time.

• UMG CEO Sir Lucian Grainge and Republic Records co-founders Avery and Monte Lipman have been implicated in the lawsuit as well.