UMG fired again at Drake’s enchantment, arguing his lawsuit would destroy Hip-Hop’s inventive basis constructed on wordplay.
Drake simply acquired completely demolished in courtroom paperwork filed by Common Music Group over his enchantment within the “Not Like Us” defamation lawsuit.
UMG’s authorized crew got here out swinging on Friday, arguing that the Toronto rapper is attempting to strip context from Hip-Hop’s most basic inventive parts to win a case that ought to’ve stayed useless.
The music big’s response temporary makes it crystal clear: Drake’s try to deal with Kendrick Lamar’s diss monitor like a factual assertion is legally baseless and would destroy the whole lot that makes rap music work.
Drake sued UMG again in January 2025 after Kendrick Lamar dropped “Not Like Us” in Might 2024, the knockout punch of their brutal rap battle that known as him a “licensed pedophile.”
A federal choose dismissed the whole case in October, ruling that affordable listeners perceive rap insults aren’t statements of reality.
Drake appealed that dismissal in January, claiming thousands and thousands of individuals really believed the lyric and suffered actual reputational harm. UMG’s legal professionals principally stated that the argument is nonsense.
“That’s not the legislation, and Drake’s view would critically undermine a extremely inventive artwork kind constructed on exaggeration, insult, and wordplay,” UMG wrote of their response temporary in accordance with Billboard.
The label identified that Drake himself had thrown equally vicious accusations at Kendrick, claiming he beat his fiancée and didn’t father one among his children.
That’s the whole style. That’s how rap works. You don’t get to immediately fake it’s literal if you’re the one dropping the battle.
The authorized crew emphasised that “‘Not Like Us’ falls inside a style typified by inflammatory putdowns, epithets, vulgarity, and hyperbole.”
Ripping phrases out of context and pretending they’re defamatory statements has zero authorized basis. Decide Jeannette Vargas already established that hyperbolic opinions in rap can’t be defamatory as a result of no affordable individual would take them as provable info.
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