Universal Music Group is firing back at Drake again, arguing in a new appellate brief that the rapper’s attempt to revive his failed defamation lawsuit over Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us” is illogical and “astoundingly hypocritical.”
In its new 83-page filing obtained by Rolling Stone, UMG says the Canadian rapper born Aubrey Drake Graham is making arguments so flawed and “nonsensical” that he’s attempting to “turn the law upside down.” The new brief, filed in the Second Circuit, argues U.S. District Judge Jeannette A. Vargas ruled correctly last October when she concluded that Lamar’s lyrics calling Drake a pedophile were “non-actionable opinion,” meaning not statements of fact.
The label says Drake clearly felt free to use UMG’s platform to attack Lamar “in equally incendiary terms” when it suited him, but now he’s seeking a different standard for the “words he now dislikes” that were directed at him. “[Drake] seeks to strip words from their context and deem them actionable defamation if anyone, anywhere, might treat them as factual. That is not the law, and Drake’s view would critically undermine a highly creative art form built on exaggeration, insult, and wordplay,” the new filing argues.
In her ruling dismissing Drake’s lawsuit last fall, Judge Vargas found that Lamar’s lyrics were delivered as a “direct callback to Drake’s lyrics” amid “a heated rap battle with incendiary language and offensive accusations hurled by both participants.” She determined a reasonable listener would conclude Lamar was “rapping hyperbolic vituperations,” not “verifiable facts.”
“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,” Vargas wrote. “In light of the overall context in which the statements in the recording were made, the court holds that it cannot.”
The nine-track rap battle at the centre of the legal war started making headlines in April 2024. It exploded when Drake released “Family Matters” on May 3, 2024, accusing Lamar of domestic abuse and not being the father of one of his kids. Lamar responded with the back-to-back drops of “Meet the Grahams” and “Not Like Us,” with the latter’s hook of “certified lover boy, certified pedophile” becoming an instant and viral sensation.
UMG says the court was correct to emphasise that the nine songs were “in dialogue with one another.” It notes that Lamar’s line, “Say, Drake, I hear you like ’em young,” was an obvious response to Drake’s lyrics in “Taylor Made Freestyle,” which taunted Lamar to repeat rumours that Drake had dated someone underage. “Talk about him likin’ young girls,” Drake says in the track.
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“As much as Drake may dislike that context after the fact, it is fair game and critical to consider under New York law,” UMG and its lawyers argue in the new filing.
The label also calls it “nonsensical” for Drake to argue that Lamar’s lyrics could be defamatory because rap lyrics are sometimes admitted as evidence in criminal cases. UMG says that context, in which a jury is asked to make factual determinations under different legal standards, is distinct. In any event, the label notes, Drake signed a November 2022 petition criticising prosecutors for treating artists’ creative expression as fact.
“Drake’s argument is also astoundingly hypocritical,” the filing states. It cites the petition’s claim that “more than any other art form, rap lyrics are essentially being used as confessions in an attempt to criminalise Black creativity and artistry,” and that such use “is un-American and simply wrong.” The filing suggests Drake is now taking the opposite position to serve his interests.
In his 60-page appeal brief in January, Drake renewed his argument that Lamar’s track states, as a “precise” and “unambiguous matter of fact,” that Drake is a “certified pedophile.” He claimed UMG “relentlessly” marketed “Not Like Us” in a way that misled consumers and caused him serious harm. He said Lamar’s lyrics are “capable of being proven true or false,” so his lawsuit belongs in front of a jury.
Drake and his lawyers further claimed the dismissal of his lawsuit could have far-reaching negative consequences by creating a “dangerous categorical rule” that would shield artists and labels from liability no matter how extreme or damaging their accusations might be. UMG responded Friday by claiming that the argument “blatantly mischaracterises” Judge Vargas’ ruling.
“It nowhere indicated that a diss track could never be defamatory; it simply recognised that the ‘average listener’ in this forum and ‘common expectation’ for statements in this forum were significant,” UMG’s filing says. “It held, including in light of those considerations, that this diss track could not be understood by a reasonable listener as conveying fact.”
Drake originally sued UMG in January 2025, accusing the label of promoting Lamar’s hit song in a way that “intended to convey the specific, unmistakable, and false factual allegation that Drake is a criminal pedophile.” He notably sued only the record label he shares with Lamar, not Lamar himself.
UMG responded with a pair of scathing motions to dismiss that ultimately prevailed. “Plaintiff, one of the most successful recording artists of all time, lost a rap battle that he provoked and in which he willingly participated,” lawyers for UMG wrote. “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.”
“Not Like Us” went on to win Grammy Awards for Record and Song of the Year, becoming only the third hip-hop song to win Record of the Year after Childish Gambino’s “This Is America,” and Lizzo’s “About Damn Time.” Lamar also performed the song during the widely viewed 2025 Super Bowl halftime show.
Drake is expected to respond to UMG’s new appellate filing with a reply brief due April 17.
From Rolling Stone US
