Here’s Why Drake Lost His Lawsuit Over Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us”

Why did a justice disregard Drake’s defamation suit against Universal Music Group (UMG) implicit Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us”? Because, ineligible experts say, it ne'er made overmuch sense.

Drake’s lawsuit claimed helium was defamed by the diss track, arguing that millions of radical believed Kendrick erstwhile the Compton MC called his rival a “certified pedophile.” But successful the aftermath of a judge’s ruling dismissing the case astatine the earliest stage, ineligible experts archer Billboard that Drake’s lawsuit was doomed from the start.

“Holding a rapper oregon their shaper liable for lyrics successful a diss way seemed contrary to basal defamation instrumentality from the beginning,” says Roy Gutterman, the manager of the Newhouse School’s Tully Center for Free Speech astatine Syracuse University.

When Drake first filed his case, it prompted ridicule successful satellite of hip-hop. The thought of hiring lawyers and going to tribunal implicit a diss way felt antithetical to rap music, a genre rooted truthful heavy successful authenticity, credibility and, astatine times, heated rivalries: “What portion of the crippled is that?” asked A$AP Rocky successful an interview past month. “What benignant of crap is that?”

But much quietly, ineligible experts had agelong been arguing that specified a suit was besides antithetical to the satellite of defamation instrumentality and constitutionally-protected escaped code — wherever courts are consenting to restrict outright lies, but springiness wide leeway to opinions and creator expression.

Way backmost successful May 2024, arsenic Kendrick and Drake exchanged disfigured accusations successful a bid of scathing songs, ineligible commentators began to wonderment if either rapper mightiness person the audacity to instrumentality the combat to court: “Has anyone ever filed a defamation suit implicit a diss way before?” joked Matt Ford, a ineligible newsman astatine the New Republic.

Months earlier specified a lawsuit was really filed, it felt downright unthinkable. No rapper would ever hazard their estimation to record a libel lawsuit implicit an insulting lyric, right? But Billboard decided to canvass the experts anyway, asking however specified a hypothetical lawsuit a mightiness go. The reply was beauteous clear-cut: It would beryllium precise hard to triumph a defamation lawsuit implicit a rap battle.

“The nationalist … has to judge that the talker is being serious, and not conscionable hurling insults successful a diss fight,” Dori Hanswirth, a seasoned media instrumentality litigator astatine the steadfast Arnold & Porter, told Billboard astatine the time. “The discourse of this song-by-song grudge lucifer tends to enactment the thought that this is rhetorical, and a originative mode to beef with a rival.”

That ineligible scenery didn’t scare disconnected Drake’s attorneys, who went up and filed specified a lawsuit successful January, accusing UMG (but not Kendrick himself) of defamation implicit “Not Like Us.” In aboriginal filings, they said galore fans had, connected the contrary, taken Lamar’s lyric rather literally: “Millions of people, each implicit the world, did recognize the [song] arsenic a factual assertion that plaintiff is simply a pedophile.”

As Drake battled successful court, much lawyers voiced skepticism. In a little filed May, a radical of ineligible scholars said the lawsuit was legally “faulty” and urged the justice to “consider rap music’s past and creator conventions.” Diss tracks are not seen arsenic “a bid of quality reports,” they said, but arsenic “hyperbole, bluster, and demonstrations of disrespect” that are “designed to entertain and impressment their audience.”

When Judge Jeannette Vargas yet ruled connected the lawsuit connected Thursday (Oct. 9), she followed precisely that enactment of logic that experts had been arguing from the start. The justice said that discourse was important — and that diss tracks were an creator mean successful which fans would expect “hyperbol...