{"id":2082656,"date":"2025-10-10T21:26:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-10T21:26:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2082656"},"modified":"2025-10-10T21:26:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-10T21:26:10","slug":"judge-tosses-drakes-defamation-lawsuit-over-kendrick-lamar-diss-track","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/judge-tosses-drakes-defamation-lawsuit-over-kendrick-lamar-diss-track\/","title":{"rendered":"Judge Tosses Drake\u2019s Defamation Lawsuit Over Kendrick Lamar Diss Track"},"content":{"rendered":"

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A federal judge has dismissed Drake\u2019s defamation lawsuit against Universal Music Group (UMG) over Kendrick Lamar\u2019s diss track \u201cNot Like Us,\u201d ruling that the song\u2019s lyrics are protected as nonactionable opinion.<\/span><\/p>\n

Judge Jeannette A. Vargas <\/span>issued<\/span><\/a> the decision on Thursday, stating that the allegedly defamatory statements in the track are \u201cnonactionable opinion\u201d and not subject to defamation laws.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u201c\u2018Not Like Us\u2019 is replete with profanity, trash-talking, threats of violence, and figurative and hyperbolic language, all of which are indicia of opinion,\u201d stated Vargas, per ABC News.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cA rap diss track would not create more of an expectation in the average listener that the lyrics state sober facts instead of opinion than the statements at issue in those cases.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Vargas also stated that the back-and-forth between the two rappers created even more drama associated with the song, adding that Lamar\u2019s song \u201cdealt the metaphorical killing blow\u201d and the various pieces <\/span>released<\/span><\/a> by the artists were \u201cin dialogue with one another,\u201d according to USA Today.<\/span><\/p>\n

A spokesperson for UMG released a <\/span>statement<\/span><\/a> following the dismissal, writing that \u201cthis suit was an affront to all artists and their creative expression and never should have seen the light of day.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u201cWe\u2019re pleased with the court\u2019s dismissal and look forward to continuing our work successfully promoting Drake\u2019s music and investing in his career,\u201d continued the corporation, per celebrity.land.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Meanwhile, a spokesperson for Drake stated that the rapper intends to file an appeal on this decision, though it remains unclear when that appeal will be filed.<\/span><\/p>\n

This lawsuit comes following a feud between Drake and Kendrick Lamar that began in 2024 with a series of diss tracks exchanged between the two artists.<\/span><\/p>\n

Lamar\u2019s \u201cNot Like Us\u201d was released in May 2024 and quickly became a commercial success, topping charts and garnering significant attention, with the artist even singing the hit song during the Super Bowl LIX Halftime Show.<\/span><\/p>\n

In his lawsuit, Drake alleged that Kendrick Lamar\u2019s diss track \u201cNot Like Us\u201d falsely accused him of being a pedophile, claiming the song\u2019s lyrics were defamatory and damaged his reputation.<\/span><\/p>\n

Drake further <\/span>claimed<\/span><\/a> that UMG, which represents both artists, improperly promoted the track, thereby amplifying the harm and undermining his public image during a contentious period in his career, per NBC News.<\/span><\/p>\n

Notably, Lamar was not named as a defendant in the trial, with Drake specifically filing the lawsuit against UMG.<\/span><\/p>\n

Although Judge Vargas dismissed the case, Drake\u2019s team indicated an appeal may follow.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.yahoo.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A federal judge has dismissed Drake\u2019s defamation lawsuit against Universal Music Group (UMG) over Kendrick Lamar\u2019s diss track \u201cNot Like Us,\u201d ruling that the song\u2019s lyrics are protected as nonactionable opinion. Judge Jeannette A. Vargas issued the decision on Thursday, stating that the allegedly defamatory statements in the track are \u201cnonactionable opinion\u201d and not subject […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2082657,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[321648,351437,391045,37703,46171],"class_list":["post-2082656","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-defamation-lawsuit","tag-diss-track","tag-jeannette-a-vargas","tag-kendrick-lamar","tag-universal-music-group"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Judge-Tosses-Drakes-Defamation-Lawsuit-Over-Kendrick-Lamar-Diss-Track.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2082656","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2082656"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2082656\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2082658,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2082656\/revisions\/2082658"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2082657"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2082656"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2082656"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2082656"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}