A US federal court docket has dismissed Drake’s defamation lawsuit in opposition to Common Music Group, ruling that Kendrick Lamar’s diss monitor Not Like Us constitutes protected opinion reasonably than actionable defamation.
Choose 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 court docket’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 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 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 realizing that the track’s insinuations that he has sexual relations with minors have been false and defamatory.”
Each Drake and Lamar launch their information through UMG and its Republic Data and Interscope, respectively.
In her 38-page opinion, which you’ll learn in full right here, Choose Vargas emphasised that the broader context of the rap battle was important to understanding how an inexpensive listener would interpret the lyrics.
The court docket 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 “have to be learn collectively to totally assess how the overall viewers would understand the statements.”
Drake additionally introduced claims for harassment and violations of New York Common Enterprise Legislation Part 349, alleging UMG engaged in misleading practices together with utilizing bots and payola to artificially inflate the track’s reputation.
The court docket dismissed these claims as properly, discovering no non-public proper of motion for harassment and inadequate proof of shopper hurt.
MBW has reached out to UMG for remark and can replace this story once we obtain a press release.Music Enterprise Worldwide
