Last year, Drake and Kendrick Lamar’s years-long simmering beef came to a boil. First it was Kendrick’s verse on Future & Metro’s “Like That.” Then Drake spent weeks trying to goad Kendrick into a rap battle. Kendrick finally responded, dropping four songs in less than a week. The last two songs, “Meet the Grahams” and “Not Like Us” came out within 24 hours, and they were perfectly executed disses. “Not Like Us” became the song of the year (literally, it won the Grammy for SOTY) and Kendrick even performed “Not Like Us” and “Euphoria” during the Super Bowl Halftime. Drake has not been the same since. Instead of just licking his wounds, taking the L like a man and going away for a year, Drake decided to make a horse’s ass out of himself in like twenty different ways. Notably, Drake sued UMG – his label, and the label which has a licensing deal with Kendrick’s pgLang. In his lawsuit, Drake claimed that UMG *wanted* Kendrick to beat him in the rap battle, and UMG helped Kendrick in some way which Drake could never prove. Well, long story short, a judge just threw out Drake’s lawsuit. Hahahaha LOSER.
A federal judge on Thursday (Oct. 9) dismissed Drake’s defamation lawsuit against Universal Music Group over Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us,” ruling that a “war of words” during a “heated rap battle” did not violate the law.
Drake’s case, filed earlier this year, claimed that UMG defamed him by releasing Lamar’s scathing diss track, which tarred his arch-rival as a “certified pedophile.” He believed that millions of people took that lyric literally, severely harming his reputation. But just ten months later, Judge Jeannette Vargas granted UMG’s motion to dismiss the case at the outset – ruling that Kendrick’s insulting lyrics were the kind of “hyperbole” that cannot be defamatory because listeners would not think they were statements of fact.
“The artists’ seven-track rap battle was a ‘war of words’ that was the subject of substantial media scrutiny and online discourse,” the judge wrote. “Although the accusation that plaintiff is a pedophile is certainly a serious one, the broader context of a heated rap battle, with incendiary language and offensive accusations hurled by both participants, would not incline the reasonable listener to believe that ‘Not Like Us’ imparts verifiable facts about plaintiff.”
The ruling marks an abrupt end to a legal battle that stunned the music industry. Few expected a rapper to respond to a diss track with a lawsuit – a move that drew ridicule in the hip hop world and condemnation from legal scholars. Fewer still expected him to file it against UMG, his longtime record label and the biggest music company in the world.
Drake’s attorneys can appeal the ruling to a federal appeals court. His attorneys did not immediately return a request for comment. A spokesman for UMG also did not immediately return a request for comment.
While I didn’t follow the minute details of this lawsuit, I saw enough to say that UMG actually took the right position at the start of the beef. UMG’s management basically chose to sit on the sidelines and let the rap battle play out. They didn’t choose sides – they just didn’t “help” Drake, which is why he sued them. He’s spent the past decade getting high from his own supply, and he thought his label would tip the scale in his favor. All of the things he accused UMG of – without evidence, mind you – was projection, I believe. Drake thought UMG was doing all of that against him, because he was used to UMG propping him up.
Here’s the “Not Like Us” video again. It has over 403 million views. The YT video of just the song (with Megan’s Law markers over Drake’s house) has over 258 million views.
Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Avalon Red, Drake’s IG. Screencaps courtesy of the “NLU” video and the NFL/Super Bowl.
