UMG Responds To Drake Appeal, Says He’s Trying To ‘Critically Undermine’ Rap Because He Lost Battle Against Kendrick Lamar

UMG Responds To Drake Appeal, Says He’s Trying To ‘Critically Undermine’ Rap Because He Lost Battle Against Kendrick Lamar

Universal Music Group isn’t buying it.

The music company has fired back at #Drake in the ongoing legal battle over his attempt to revive a dismissed lawsuit tied to #KendrickLamar’s diss track “Not Like Us.” Drake’s original defamation suit against the label, which centers on lyrics accusing him of being a “certified pedophile,” was thrown out by a federal judge in October 2025 on the grounds that in the context of a rap beef, such lines are understood as exaggerated battle rhetoric that fans wouldn’t interpret as literal fact.

In a new appellate brief filed March 27, #UMG’s attorneys argue that Drake’s appeal is legally unsound and would do harm to hip-hop as a whole. They say Drake seeks to “strip words from their context” and that his view “would critically undermine a highly creative art form built on exaggeration, insult, and wordplay.” UMG also asserts that the appeal is “astoundingly hypocritical” and insists that the lower court was correct to treat Lamar’s lyrics as opinion rather than actionable defamation.

Drake’s legal team counters that many listeners took “Not Like Us” literally. The appeals process is now underway.

#TJBCrew, do you think Drake is overreacting or is the suit justified?