![\"Composite](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/4KG0NPA_cnn_L19jb21wb25lbnRzL2ltYWdlL2luc3RhbmNlcy9jbTN4bjkwNmQwMDA4M2I2bXUzNTJveWho_L19jb21wb25lbnR.jpeg\")
<\/p>\nBy Marshall Cohen, CNN<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\nDrake and Kendrick Lamar have traded insulting lyrics during their much-publicised feud.
\nPhoto: CNN Newsource\n<\/p>\n
A federal judge has dismissed the defamation lawsuit Drake brought against his own record label, Universal Music Group, for publishing and promoting Kendrick Lamar’s diss track Not Like Us.<\/p>\n
District Judge Jeannette Vargas concluded that the Grammy-winning song – where Lamar infamously claimed Drake was a “certified pedophile” – was an expression of pure opinion and not an assertion of facts. Therefore, Drake, who denied the allegation, couldn’t sue for defamation.<\/p>\n
Drake did not sue Lamar, who was not accused of wrongdoing.<\/p>\n
The ruling means Drake’s case against UMG is now over, although he can appeal the decision.<\/p>\n
“We intend to appeal today’s ruling and we look forward to the Court of Appeals reviewing it,” a spokesperson for Drake told CNN.<\/p>\n
The ruling is a major victory for UMG, which insisted from the beginning that the case was “frivolous” and “illogical”.<\/p>\n
Drake sued UMG, because Lamar is an Interscope Records artist, which is a division of UMG. Drake’s current label is Republic Records, which is also part of UMG.<\/p>\n
“From the outset, this suit was an affront to all artists and their creative expression, and never should have seen the light of day,” a UMG spokesperson said. “We’re pleased with the court’s dismissal, and look forward to continuing our work successfully promoting Drake’s music and investing in his career.”<\/p>\n
The judge determined that Lamar’s “offensive” accusations against Drake were protected expression of opinion. Her 38-page ruling included a line-by-line breakdown of lyrics from the songs Drake and Lamar released last year at the height of their feud, when Drake and Lamar traded increasingly personal and unverified insults in a series of songs.<\/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,” Vargas wrote.<\/p>\n
The judge also said, “the broader context of a heated rap battle, with incendiary language and offensive accusations hurled by both participants, would not incline the reasonable listener to believe that Not Like Us imparts verifiable facts” about Drake.<\/p>\n
Drake filed the lawsuit in January and the case was in the evidence-gathering stage known as discovery, before the judge threw out the lawsuit.<\/p>\n
Not Like Us went on to win several Grammys this year and also featured as part of Lamar’s Super Bowl halftime performance in February.<\/p>\n
– CNN<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Marshall Cohen, CNN Drake and Kendrick Lamar have traded insulting lyrics during their much-publicised feud. Photo: CNN…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":69740,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[48,430,47,156,111,43,139,69,49,46,44,45],"class_list":["post-69739","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-audio","tag-celebrities","tag-current-affairs","tag-entertainment","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-podcasts","tag-public-radio","tag-radio-new-zealand","tag-rnz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69739","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69739"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69739\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69740"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69739"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69739"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69739"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}