A US federal court docket has dismissed Drake’s defamation lawsuit towards Common Music Group, ruling that Kendrick Lamar’s diss observe Not Like Us constitutes protected opinion quite 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 music’s lyrics can not moderately 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 swimsuit was an affront to all artists and their artistic expression and by no means ought to have seen the sunshine of day.
“We’re happy with the court docket’s dismissal and sit up for persevering with our work efficiently selling Drake’s music and investing in his profession.”
Not Like Us, launched Could 4, 2024, was the penultimate observe in what the court docket referred to as “maybe probably 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 swimsuit was an affront to all artists and their artistic expression and by no means ought to have seen the sunshine of day.”
Common Music Group
The music achieved huge industrial success, with over 1.4 billion streams on Spotify, successful Document of the Yr 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 revealed and promoted” the music “whereas realizing that the music’s insinuations that he has sexual relations with minors have been false and defamatory.”
Each Drake and Lamar launch their information 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 affordable listener would interpret the lyrics.
The court docket rejected Drake’s arguments that the music 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 “have to be learn collectively to completely assess how the overall viewers would understand the statements.”
Drake additionally introduced claims for harassment and violations of New York Common Enterprise Regulation Part 349, alleging UMG engaged in misleading practices together with utilizing bots and payola to artificially inflate the music’s reputation.
The court docket dismissed these claims as properly, discovering no personal proper of motion for harassment and inadequate proof of client hurt.
A spokesperson for Drake mentioned: “We intend to enchantment at the moment’s ruling, and we sit up for the Courtroom of Appeals reviewing it.”
Music Enterprise Worldwide
