<\/p>\n
As expected, Drake has filed a notice of appeal<\/a> in his defamation case against Universal Music Group over the promotion of Kendrick Lamar\u2019s \u201cNot Like Us.\u201d<\/p>\n In a filing on Wednesday morning, representatives for Drake wrote that the rapper was providing notice of appeal to the District Court\u2019s opinion and order from earlier this month. His legal team\u2019s arguments over the basis of the appeal are expected to be made in a filing that will come at a later date.<\/p>\n More from Variety<\/strong><\/p>\n A rep for Drake shared in a statement to Variety, \u201cThis confirms our intent to appeal, and we look forward to the Court of Appeals reviewing that filing in the coming weeks.\u201d UMG did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n Drake\u2019s high-profile lawsuit against UMG was dismissed on Oct. 9 after District Judge Jeannette Vargas cited \u201cNot Like Us\u201d as a \u201cnonactionable opinion\u201d that was not considered defamatory. \u201cThe fact that the Recording was made in the midst of a rap battle is essential to assessing its impact on a reasonable listener,\u201d wrote Judge Vargas in the ruling. \u201cEven apparent statements of fact may assume the character of statements of opinion\u2026 when made in public debate, heated labor dispute, or other circumstances in which an audience may anticipate the use of epithets, fiery rhetoric or hyperbole.\u201d<\/p>\n Attorneys for Drake immediately signaled that they intended to appeal the dismissal, stating that they \u201clook forward to the Court of Appeals reviewing it.\u201d<\/p>\n Drake initially filed the lawsuit against UMG in January over \u201cNot Like Us,\u201d the biggest hit from his battle with Lamar, claiming that the label intentionally engaged in defamation by promoting the song. In March, UMG filed its motion to dismiss, prompting Drake\u2019s legal team to refile an amended complaint that focused on events that occurred since the initial filing, including Lamar\u2019s performance of \u201cNot Like Us\u201d at the Super Bowl and the track being played at the 2025 Grammy Awards.<\/p>\n Best of Variety<\/strong><\/p>\n Sign up for Variety’s Newsletter<\/a>. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook<\/a>, Twitter<\/a>, and Instagram<\/a>.<\/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 ca.news.yahoo.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As expected, Drake has filed a notice of appeal in his defamation case against Universal Music Group over the promotion of Kendrick Lamar\u2019s \u201cNot Like Us.\u201d In a filing on Wednesday morning, representatives for Drake wrote that the rapper was providing notice of appeal to the District Court\u2019s opinion and order from earlier this month. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2123682,"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":[25173],"tags":[403307,380167,25844,37703,403306,46171],"class_list":["post-2123681","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artists","tag-court-of-appeals","tag-defamation-case","tag-drake","tag-kendrick-lamar","tag-notice-of-appeal","tag-universal-music-group"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Drake-Files-Notice-of-Appeal-in-Defamation-Case-Over-Kendrick.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2123681","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=2123681"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2123681\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2123683,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2123681\/revisions\/2123683"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2123682"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2123681"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2123681"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2123681"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}