Universal Music Group (UMG) has issued a forceful rebuttal to Drake’s ongoing appeal in his defamation case tied to Kendrick Lamar’s viral diss track “Not Like Us”, arguing that the rapper’s legal stance could undermine the very foundations of hip-hop as a creative art form.
The dispute stems from Drake’s lawsuit filed in January 2025 against Universal Music Group following the release of Kendrick Lamar’s 2024 track “Not Like Us”, widely seen as a defining moment in the pair’s high-profile rap feud. The song included inflammatory lyrics that Drake’s legal team argued were damaging to his reputation.
However, a federal judge dismissed the case in October 2025, ruling that a reasonable listener would not interpret rap lyrics—particularly those in diss tracks—as literal statements of fact. Drake later appealed the decision in January 2026, maintaining that the song’s allegations were widely believed and caused measurable reputational harm.
In its latest court filing, UMG rejected that argument outright, insisting that Drake’s interpretation of rap lyrics strips the genre of its essential artistic context.
“That is not the law, and Drake’s view would critically undermine a highly creative art form built on exaggeration, insult, and wordplay,” UMG’s legal team stated in a brief cited by Billboard.
The company further argued that hip-hop has long operated through hyperbole and competitive lyrical confrontation, where artists routinely exchange provocative and often exaggerated claims as part of the culture’s expressive tradition.
The filing also pointed out that Drake himself has participated in similar lyrical exchanges during the same feud, underscoring that diss tracks rely on rhetorical escalation rather than literal factual assertions.
UMG’s lawyers described “Not Like Us” as belonging to a genre “typified by inflammatory putdowns, epithets, vulgarity, and hyperbole,” stressing that isolating lyrics from their artistic context would set a dangerous precedent for music and free expression.
Judge Jeannette Vargas previously dismissed the case on similar grounds, noting that reasonable audiences understand that rap battles are driven by metaphor, exaggeration, and performance rather than verifiable claims.
As the appeal continues, the case is being closely watched across the music industry, where it has sparked wider debate about the legal boundaries of artistic expression in hip-hop culture—and whether diss records can ever be treated as defamation in a courtroom.
Source: AllHipHop.com