{"id":4819,"date":"2025-03-21T02:38:44","date_gmt":"2025-03-21T02:38:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/rappers-lawyers-say-people-took-kendrick-literally\/"},"modified":"2025-03-21T02:38:44","modified_gmt":"2025-03-21T02:38:44","slug":"rappers-lawyers-say-people-took-kendrick-literally","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/rappers-lawyers-say-people-took-kendrick-literally\/","title":{"rendered":"Rapper’s Lawyers Say People Took Kendrick Literally"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n

\n\tDrake\u2019s lawyers are quickly firing back after Universal Music Group\u2019s recent attacks on the rapper\u2019s defamation lawsuit over Kendrick Lamar\u2019s diss track \u201cNot Like Us,\u201d arguing that \u201cmillions of people\u201d around the world think the song was literally claiming Drake is a pedophile.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn a motion filed in federal court Thursday (March 20), Drake\u2019s team hit back at UMG\u2019s core defense against the star\u2019s libel lawsuit: That scathing lyrics are par for the course in diss tracks and that most listeners wouldn\u2019t take such \u201coutrageous insults\u201d as statements of fact.<\/p>\n

\n\tThat argument is \u201cdoomed to fail,\u201d Drake\u2019s lawyers say in the new filing, because many people really did come away from Lamar\u2019s song believing that he was \u2014 as a matter of fact \u2014 calling Drake a pedophile.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cUMG completely ignores the complaint\u2019s allegations that millions of people, all over the world, did understand the defamatory material as a factual assertion that plaintiff is a pedophile,\u201d Drake\u2019s attorneys write. \u201cUMG also ignores [the lawsuit\u2019s claim] that the statements in question (and surrounding context) implied that the allegations were based on undisclosed evidence and the audience understood as much.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThursday\u2019s filing came in response to a motion from UMG, filed earlier this week, that seeks to halt all discovery in the case. In it, the music giant argued that Drake\u2019s case was almost certain to be dismissed, meaning that handing over evidence would be a waste of time \u2014 particularly since his lawyers are allegedly demanding a vast swath of sensitive materials, including Lamar\u2019s record deal.<\/p>\n

\n\tBut in the new response, Drake\u2019s lawyers say that motion \u201cdoes not come close\u201d to showing that the discovery in the case is the kind of \u201cundue burden\u201d that must be halted: \u201cUMG has not stated how long it expects discovery to take, the costs associated with discovery, or any other indicator that might demonstrate why discovery will be overly burdensome.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tLamar released \u201cNot Like Us\u201d last May amid a high-profile beef with Drake that saw the two stars release a series of bruising diss tracks. The song, a knockout punch that blasted Drake as a \u201ccertified pedophile\u201d over an infectious beat, eventually became a chart-topping hit in its own right and was the centerpiece of Lamar\u2019s Super Bowl halftime show.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn January, Drake took the unusual step of suing UMG over the song, claiming his label had defamed him by boosting the track\u2019s popularity. The lawsuit, which doesn\u2019t name Lamar himself as a defendant, alleges that UMG \u201cwaged a campaign\u201d against its own artist to spread a \u201cmalicious narrative\u201d about pedophilia that it knew to be false.<\/p>\n

\n\tThis week has seen UMG mount its first formal counterattack \u2014 first by filing a motion to dismiss the case on Monday (March 17), then seeking the halt discovery on Tuesday (March 18). In the strongly-worded request to toss the case out, UMG argued not only that the lawsuit was \u201cmeritless,\u201d but that the star filed it simply because he was embarrassed: \u201cInstead of accepting the loss like the unbothered rap artist he often claims to be, he has sued his own record label in a misguided attempt to salve his wounds.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tDrake\u2019s attorneys have said in public statements that the label\u2019s motion to dismiss the case is a \u201cdesperate ploy by UMG to avoid accountability\u201d and that it will be denied. They will file a formal response in opposition to that motion in the weeks ahead.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Drake\u2019s lawyers are quickly firing back after Universal Music Group\u2019s recent attacks on the rapper\u2019s defamation lawsuit over Kendrick Lamar\u2019s diss track \u201cNot Like Us,\u201d arguing that \u201cmillions […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4820,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[402,7,5179,2246,5164],"class_list":["post-4819","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lawyers","tag-kendrick","tag-lawyers","tag-literally","tag-people","tag-rappers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4819","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4819"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4819\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4820"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4819"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4819"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4819"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}