Overview
- Two friend‑of‑the‑court filings support Universal Music Group in Drake’s Second Circuit appeal of his dismissed defamation suit tied to Kendrick Lamar’s Not Like Us.
- One brief from Yale Law’s Floyd Abrams Institute argues a consent defense, saying Drake invited a diss when he urged Kendrick in Taylor Made Freestyle to “talk about him likin’ young girls.”
- A separate filing by legal scholars and social scientists says diss tracks are artistic performances, not factual reports, and warns that reading rap lyrics literally fuels racial bias and chills speech.
- Drake’s January appeal says millions took the lyric as a factual claim that labeled him a pedophile, while UMG’s March response argues he is stripping words of their context.
- Judge Jeannette Vargas dismissed the case in October 2025 on the view that reasonable listeners hear diss lyrics as hyperbole, leaving the appeals court to decide whether to keep that ruling.