Judge tosses out Drake’s defamation lawsuit towards label over Kendrick Lamar’s ‘Not Like Us’

A defamation lawsuit that Drake introduced towards Universal Music Group was tossed out by a federal decide who stated the lyrics in Kendrick Lamar’s dis observe “Not Like Us” have been opinion.

The feud between two of hip-hop’s greatest stars erupted within the spring of 2024, with the pair buying and selling a collection of vitriolic tracks that culminated in Lamar touchdown the “metaphorical killing blow” together with his megahit that May, Judge Jeannette A Vargas stated in her written opinion on Thursday.

While the observe’s lyrics explicitly branded Drake as a pedophile, Ms. Vargas stated, an inexpensive listener couldn’t have concluded that “Not Like Us” was conveying goal details concerning the Canadian celebrity.

“Although the accusation that Plaintiff is a pedophile is actually a critical one, the broader context of a heated rap battle, with incendiary language and offensive accusations hurled by each members, wouldn’t incline the affordable listener to consider that ‘Not Like Us’ imparts verifiable details about Plaintiff,” Ms. Vargas wrote.

After the choice, Drake’s authorized staff stated in a press release: “We intend to attraction at this time’s ruling, and we sit up for the Court of Appeals reviewing it.” “Not Like Us” — described by Vargas as having a “catchy beat and propulsive bassline” — was certainly one of 2024’s greatest songs.

It received document of the yr and track of the yr on the Grammys and helped make this yr’s Super Bowl halftime present probably the most watched ever, as followers speculated on whether or not Lamar would really carry out it. (He did, however with altered lyrics.) The observe, which calls out Canadian-born Drake by title, assaults him as “a coloniser” of rap tradition, along with making insinuations about his intercourse life, together with, “I hear you want ’em younger” — implications that Drake rejects.

Filed in January, the lawsuit — which doesn’t title Lamar — alleged that Universal Music Group deliberately revealed and promoted the observe regardless of realizing that it contained false and defamatory allegations towards Drake and urged listeners ought to resort to vigilante justice. The observe tarnished his status and decreased the worth of his model, the swimsuit stated.

UMG, the father or mother document label for each artists, denied the allegations.

“From the outset, this swimsuit was an affront to all artists and their artistic expression and by no means ought to have seen the sunshine of day,” it stated in a press release. “We’re happy with the courtroom’s dismissal and sit up for persevering with our work efficiently selling Drake’s music and investing in his profession.”

In the swimsuit, Drake additionally blamed the tune for tried break-ins and the taking pictures of a safety guard at his Toronto house.

The mansion was depicted in an aerial photograph within the track’s cowl artwork, with what Vargas described as “an overlay of greater than a dozen intercourse offender markers” — which, she stated, was “clearly exaggerated and doctored.” “No affordable particular person would view the Image and consider that in actual fact regulation enforcement had designated 13 residents in Drake’s house as intercourse offenders,” she wrote.

Recapping “maybe probably the most notorious rap battle within the style’s historical past,” Ms. Vargas famous that previous to “Not Like Us”, Drake mocked Lamar’s top and shoe dimension and questioned his success in an April 2024 observe known as “Push Ups”, whereas Lamar insulted Drake’s trend sense that very same month in “Euphoria”.

From there, Vargas wrote, the insults escalated, turning into “vicious, private.” The decide stated she thought of the discussion board wherein the insults occurred and concluded that the typical listener doesn’t assume a dis observe “is the product of a considerate or disinterested investigation, conveying to the general public factchecked verifiable content material.”

Ms. Vargas wrote that “Not Like Us” was “replete with profanity, trash-talking, threats of violence, and figurative and hyperbolic language, all of that are indicia of opinion.”

An inexpensive listener, she added, “would conclude that Lamar is rapping hyperbolic vituperations.”