One L After Another!
Source: Kevin Winter/Getty Images
Social media is ABLAZE over Drake losing his defamation lawsuit against Universal Music Group in response to Kendrick Lamar‘s now-iconic diss track, ‘Not Like Us.’
The Hollywood Reporter reports that U.S. District Judge Jeannette Vargas ruled that the lyrics of “Not Like Us” are expressions of opinion rather than statements of fact.
“A reasonable listener could not have concluded that ‘Not Like Us’ was conveying objective facts about Drake,” she ruled.
As previously reported, Drake accused UMG of orchestrating a “financial conspiracy” by promoting Lamar’s music at the expense of his brand, making secret payments, and reducing licensing offers to third parties to suppress Drake’s value during contract talks.
His team also demanded UMG produce redacted versions of Lamar’s record contract (claiming it was unfairly censored) and documentation involving prior label censorship (citing Pusha T’s “Story of Adidon”) as precedent.
But in her ruling, Judge Vargas refused to treat rap battle lyrics as binding statements of fact.
The Hollywood Reporter notes that Vargas emphasized that diss tracks by nature use hyperbolic, provocative language:
“The average listener is not under the impression that a diss track is the product of a thoughtful or disinterested investigation,” she wrote. She added that the “rhetorical style, tone, and context, full of profanity and rhetorical flourish, clearly mark the song as expressive opinion rather than factual assertion.”
For those keeping score at home, this is all started back in November 2024 when Drake alleged that UMG and Spotify deployed bots to “artificially inflate” the success of Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us,” violating the RICO Act.
When that fizzled out, the Canadian rapper filed another lawsuit accusing the music giant of knowingly defaming him.
His complaint centered around “Not Like Us,” which famously referred to Drake as a “child predator,” prompting the hitmaking artist to allege that UMG not only distributed this song but promoted it through “illegal means.”
Naturally, UMG vehemently denied the claims, asserting that the notion they would “seek to harm the reputation of any artist—let alone Drake—is illogical.”
“Plaintiff, one of the most successful recording artists of all time, lost a rap battle that he provoked and in which he willingly participated,” UMG’s lawyers wrote in a filing asking for a dismissal. “Instead of accepting the loss like the unbothered rap artist he often claims to be, he has sued his own record label in a misguided attempt to salve his wounds.”
If you were advising Drake, what would you recommend he do next? Tell us down below and peep the social media hysteria over Drake’s latest L on the flip.
