A US federal courtroom has dismissed Drake’s defamation lawsuit towards Common Music Group, ruling that Kendrick Lamar’s diss monitor Not Like Us constitutes protected opinion reasonably than actionable defamation.
Decide Jeannette Vargas of the Southern District of New York granted UMG’s movement to dismiss all claims on Thursday (October 9), discovering that accusations made about Drake within the track’s lyrics can’t fairly be interpreted as statements of truth, given the context of the artists’ heated rap battle.
A spokesperson for Common Music Group instructed MBW: “From the outset, this go well with was an affront to all artists and their inventive expression and by no means ought to have seen the sunshine of day.
“We’re happy with the courtroom’s dismissal and stay up for persevering with our work efficiently selling Drake’s music and investing in his profession.”
Not Like Us, launched Might 4, 2024, was the penultimate monitor in what the courtroom known as “maybe essentially the most notorious rap battle within the style’s historical past.” Over 16 days, Drake and Lamar launched eight diss tracks with more and more inflammatory rhetoric.
“From the outset, this go well with was an affront to all artists and their inventive expression and by no means ought to have seen the sunshine of day.”
Common Music Group
The track achieved huge industrial success, with over 1.4 billion streams on Spotify, profitable File of the 12 months on the Grammys, and being carried out in the course of the 2025 Tremendous Bowl Halftime Present to 133.5 million viewers.
Drake’s lawsuit, filed in January 2025, alleged that UMG “deliberately printed and promoted” the track “whereas figuring out that the track’s insinuations that he has sexual relations with minors had been false and defamatory.”
Each Drake and Lamar launch their data by way of UMG and its Republic Data and Interscope, respectively.
In her 38-page opinion, which you’ll be able to learn in full right here, Decide Vargas emphasised that the broader context of the rap battle was important to understanding how an inexpensive listener would interpret the lyrics.
The courtroom rejected Drake’s arguments that the track must be assessed in isolation from the opposite diss tracks, discovering that “the songs launched throughout this rap battle are in dialogue with each other” and “should be learn collectively to totally assess how the final viewers would understand the statements.”
Drake additionally introduced claims for harassment and violations of New York Basic Enterprise Regulation Part 349, alleging UMG engaged in misleading practices together with utilizing bots and payola to artificially inflate the track’s recognition.
The courtroom dismissed these claims as effectively, discovering no personal proper of motion for harassment and inadequate proof of shopper hurt.
A spokesperson for Drake mentioned: “We intend to enchantment in the present day’s ruling, and we stay up for the Court docket of Appeals reviewing it.”
Music Enterprise Worldwide
