{"id":487992,"date":"2025-10-10T09:36:21","date_gmt":"2025-10-10T09:36:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/487992\/"},"modified":"2025-10-10T09:36:21","modified_gmt":"2025-10-10T09:36:21","slug":"drake-suffers-major-defeat-in-lawsuit-over-kendrick-lamars-diss-track-hit-not-like-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/487992\/","title":{"rendered":"Drake suffers major defeat in lawsuit over Kendrick Lamar’s diss-track hit Not Like Us"},"content":{"rendered":"

Drake<\/a> suffered a major loss in his legal battle over Kendrick Lamar<\/a>‘s diss track Not Like Us after a judge dismissed his federal lawsuit on Thursday.<\/p>\n

The 38-year-old child actor\u2013turned\u2013rapper had been suing Universal Music Group<\/a> (UMG) \u2014 the parent company of his label Republic Records \u2014 for defamation in response to Lamar’s chart topper, in which he described Drake as a ‘pedophile.’<\/p>\n

However, Judge Jeannette A. Vargas determined in dismissing the lawsuit that the diss track’s most inflammatory statements about Drake (full name: Aubrey Drake Graham) could not be considered objective facts, according to court documents obtained by the Daily Mail.<\/p>\n

Representatives for Drake and Kendrick Lamar \u2014 who was not named in the lawsuit \u2014 have not yet responded to the Daily Mail’s request for comment.<\/p>\n

In a statement to the Daily Mail, a spokesperson for UMG said: ‘From the outset, this suit was an affront to all artists and their creative expression and never should have seen the light of day. We\u2019re pleased with the court\u2019s dismissal and look forward to continuing our work successfully promoting Drake\u2019s music and investing in his career.’<\/p>\n

Notably, both Drake \u2014 who recently spoke out about plastic surgery rumors<\/a> that have dogged him \u2014 and Lamar are UMG recording artists.<\/p>\n

\"Drake, <\/p>\n

Drake, 38, suffered a major loss in his legal battle over Kendrick Lamar ‘s diss track Not Like Us after a judge dismissed his federal lawsuit on Thursday; pictured in London on July 11<\/p>\n

\"Drake <\/p>\n

Drake had been suing Universal Music Group (UMG) \u2014 the parent company of his label Republic Records \u2014 for defamation in response to Lamar’s chart topper, in which he described Drake as a ‘pedophile’; Lamar is pictured June 9 in LA<\/p>\n

In Vargas’ ruling, she honed in on whether Lamar’s lyrics calling Drake a pedophile could be considered statements of fact.<\/p>\n

‘The issue in this case is whether Not Like Us can reasonably be understood to convey as a factual matter that Drake is a pedophile or that he has engaged in sexual relations with minors. In light of the overall context in which the statements in the Recording were made, the Court holds that it cannot,’ she wrote.<\/p>\n

She noted that the statements in Not Like Us, including Lamar’s line, ‘Say, Drake, I hear you like \u2018em young,’ had to be considered in the context of the earlier diss tracks, ‘in which both participants exchanged progressively caustic, inflammatory insults and accusations,’ even though Drake’s legal team had urged her to consider Not Like Us without that added context.<\/p>\n

Vargas cited a preceding song released by Drake, the diss track Taylor Made Freestyle, in which he rapped via an AI-generated voice mimicking the late rapper 2Pac, ‘Talk about him likin\u2019 young girls, that\u2019s a gift from me.’<\/p>\n

The judge cited the line, which appeared to goad Lamar into making the accusation about Drake liking young girls.<\/p>\n

She wrote that ‘The similarity in the wording suggests strongly that this line is a direct callback to Drake\u2019s lyrics in the prior song.’<\/p>\n

Vargas also wrote that Not Like Us had more in common with posts on social media platforms that hard journalism.<\/p>\n

‘The average listener is not under the impression that a diss track is the product of a thoughtful or disinterested investigation, conveying to the public fact-checked verifiable content,’ she wrote.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"In <\/p>\n

In a statement to the Daily Mail, a spokesperson for UMG said: ‘From the outset, this suit was an affront to all artists and their creative expression and never should have seen the light of day’<\/p>\n

\"Drake's <\/p>\n

Drake’s lawsuit accused UMG of defamation for releasing Not Like Us, in which Lamar called him a ‘pedophile’ and sex offender; pictured July 11 in London<\/p>\n

\"Judge <\/p>\n

Judge Jeannette A. Vargas determined that a reasonable listener could not concluded that Lamar’s lyrics were statements of objective fact<\/p>\n

Vargas added that Lamar’s hit song was ‘replete with profanity, trash-talking, threats of violence, and figurative and hyperbolic language, all of which are indicia of opinion.’\u00a0<\/p>\n

Because of those factors, she said that reasonable listeners ‘would conclude that Lamar is rapping hyperbolic vituperations.’<\/p>\n

In his lawsuit, Drake had claimed that UMG attempted to artificially boost Not Like Us’ popularity with fake streams, but Vargas found the argument unconvincing.<\/p>\n

She described the evidence his legal team offered as ‘Tweets by individual users and reporting from fans,’ while determining that his lawyers’ ‘reliance on online comments and reporting’ was ‘insufficient to meet the plausibility standard.’<\/p>\n

Drake filed his lawsuit in January of this year, claiming that UMG had released Not Like Us despite allegedly knowing that it contained defamatory statements alleging that he was a pedophile and sex offender.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The hitmaker also blamed Not Like Us for break-in attempts at his Toronto mansion, as well as the May 2024 shooting of one of his home’s security guards.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Drake’s mansion had been featured in the single’s artwork, an aerial Google Maps screenshot.<\/p>\n

The image was dotted with red markers that were intended to indicate the presence of registered sex offenders.<\/p>\n

\"She <\/p>\n

She also said Not Like Us’ lyrics had to be considered in the context of earlier diss tracks, including Drake’s lines on Taylor Made Freestyle, in which he appeared to goad Lamar into accusing him of liking young girls; seen July 12 in London<\/p>\n

Vargas heard oral arguments in the case in June.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Drake initially cut back on his public profile in the wake of Not Like Us’ release in May 2024, particularly in the US.<\/p>\n

However, he continued to tour throughout 2025, including a run of shows in February in Australia and a collaborative European tour with PartyNextDoor from July 11 through September 23.<\/p>\n

Drake is set to expected to release Iceman \u2014 his ninth studio album and first since Not Like Us’ release \u2014 later in 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Drake suffered a major loss in his legal battle over Kendrick Lamar‘s diss track Not Like Us after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":487993,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3940],"tags":[4080,92,25144,77,25153,813,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-487992","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-celebrities","9":"tag-dailymail","10":"tag-drake","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-kendrick-lamar","13":"tag-tvshowbiz","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115349198907383137","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487992","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=487992"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487992\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/487993"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=487992"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=487992"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=487992"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}