Drake files appeal to revive defamation lawsuit against Universal Music Group for Kendrick Lamar’s ‘Not Like Us’

Drake has filed an appeal to revive his defamation lawsuit against Universal Music Group over Kendrick Lamar’s ‘Not Like Us’.

• READ MORE: Drake and Kendrick Lamar’s feud: the full timeline

On October 9, a federal judge ruled that the allegedly defamatory statements made in the hit song – among them that Drake was a “certified paedophile” (Drake has continually denied any wrongdoing) – qualified as “nonactionable opinion” and dismissed the suit.

That same day, a spokesperson for Drake told NME: “We intend to appeal today’s ruling, and we look forward to the Court of Appeals reviewing it.”

Now, Drake has made good on his promise, filing his formal notice of appeal in Manhattan federal court on Wednesday (October 29).

NME has contacted Universal Music Group for comment. At time of writing, they have not responded to the new appeal but said in a statement on October 9: “From the outset, this suit was an affront to all artists and their creative expression and never should have seen the light of day,” per Rolling Stone. “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.”

Judge Vargas wrote in her original opinion earlier this month: “The issue in this case is whether ‘Not Like Us’ can reasonably be understood to convey as a factual matter that Drake is a pedophile or that he has engaged in sexual relations with minors. In light of the overall context in which the statements in the recording were made, the court holds that it cannot.

“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,” Judge Vargas continued.

Shortly after the ruling was thrown out, stats emerged showing that ‘Not Like Us’ had re-entered the iTunes and Apple Music Top 100 song charts. In the latter streamers’ case, this was across multiple countries. Similarly, the day of the ruling, the track was said to have received upwards of 1 million streams on Spotify.

The legal battle kicked off last year, when the ‘Hotline Bling’ hitmaker filed a dispute against Universal Music Group (UMG) in New York, alleging that the publisher and label had “artificially inflated” streams for ‘Not Like Us’, among other allegations.

In the filing – which can be viewed here – Drake’s Frozen Moments LLC accused UMG and Spotify of “illegally” aiding and boosting ‘Not Like Us’ streams in favour of Lamar – who entered a viral rap feud with Drake last year.

The, back in March, UMG filed a motion to dismiss the Canadian rapper’s suit, stating that he had sued the corporation because he “lost a rap battle”. They went on to say that “instead of accepting the loss like the unbothered rap artist he often claims to be”, Drake had “sued his own record label in a misguided attempt to salve his wounds”.

Drake’s team later hit back at UMG’s central argument: that most listeners wouldn’t take “outrageous insults”, which are naturally par for the course in diss tracks, as fact.

Per Billboard, the ‘Legend’ rapper’s lawyers said that line of argument was “doomed to fail” because people had taken Lamar’s words seriously.

“UMG completely ignores the complaint’s allegations that millions of people, all over the world, did understand the defamatory material as a factual assertion that plaintiff is a pedophile,” his attorneys wrote.

Indeed, Lamar played the biggest 13-minute gig in music when he headlined the Super Bowl LIX Halftime Show back in February. Boasting guest appearances from SZA, Serena Williams and Samuel L. Jackson, it was later named the most-watched Super Bowl performance in history, and saw a performance of the contentious track.

You can check out NME’s full run down of Kendrick and Drake’s longstanding beef here.

In other news, Drake and influencer Adin Ross are being sued over allegedly “deceptive” gambling streams.

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