Drake fights Not Like Us ruling to prove rap beef is illegal

Drake is not done fighting Not Like Us, pushing back on a judge’s ruling and daring an appeals court to rethink how rap lyrics get treated in defamation law.

The case is back from the dead

• Three months after losing in court, Drake is officially appealing the dismissal of his defamation lawsuit.
• The target remains Universal Music Group, not Kendrick Lamar directly.

Where the appeal landed

• A 117-page appellate brief hit the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit on January 21.
• The filing asks the court to undo an October ruling from Judge Jeannette Vargas.

What the original lawsuit claimed

• Drake sued in January 2025, months after Not Like Us dropped in May 2024.
• The accusation was that UMG knowingly pushed lyrics he says were false and defamatory.
• The song sat at the center of a highly publicized feud with Kendrick Lamar.

Why the judge threw it out

• Judge Vargas framed the track as a protected opinion, not defamation.
• She treated the song as part of a broader rap battle context, not a standalone statement of fact.

Drake’s core argument on appeal

• His lawyers say the court went too far by implying that diss tracks can never be actionable.
• The brief insists millions of listeners took the lyrics as factual, not metaphorical or insulting.
• The claim is that real-world belief followed, not just online trash talk.

The cultural reach problem

• Not Like Us exploded beyond rap circles, according to the filing.
• It logged over 1.8 billion streams on Spotify alone.
• The track won Record of the Year at the Grammy Awards.
• It was also performed at the Super Bowl Halftime Show for an audience of 133.5 million.

Why context is the fight

• Drake argues the judge wrongly bundled the song into the entire feud.
• His filing says Not Like Us was the only track that truly broke through.
• The brief contrasts it with Euphoria, which it says drew just 4.1 percent of the attention.

The republishing angle

• Lawyers argue the song kept reaching fresh audiences with no clue about the rap beef.
• Examples cited include political and award show settings.
• The claim is that many listeners never heard any diss tracks before this one.

Business practices back in play

• The appeal also revives claims of deceptive promotion.
• Drake alleges UMG aggressively spread the track despite knowing the allegations were false.
• Safety concerns for Drake and his family are folded into that argument.

UMG’s last word, for now

• After the dismissal, UMG called the lawsuit an attack on creative expression.
• The company previously labeled Drake’s claims as wild conspiracies.
• As of this filing, UMG has not responded publicly to the appeal.