Drake has filed an opening appellate brief seeking to overturn the ruling in his original lawsuit against Universal Music Group (UMG), Rolling Stone reports. In October, a federal judge dismissed the rapper’s defamation suit, which sought damages from the label for promoting Kendrick Lamar’s incendiary diss track “Not Like Us.” Pitchfork has reached out to attorneys for both UMG and Drake for comment.
In the 60-page filing obtained by Pitchfork, Drake’s attorneys call the original dismissal “erroneous” and again allege that UMG “promoted ‘Not Like Us’ while knowing that the song’s insinuations that he has sexual relations with minors were false and defamatory.”
Drake filed his initial lawsuit against UMG in January 2025, claiming the music corporation “waged an unrelenting campaign” to promote “Not Like Us,” Kendrick Lamar’s famous diss song that he believed to be defamatory. UMG had asked for the complaint’s dismissal, arguing that Drake “lost a rap battle that he provoked and in which he willingly participated.”
Judge Jeannette A. Vargas ostensibly agreed with UMG, ruling that “the broader context of a heated rap battle, with incendiary language and offensive accusations hurled by both participants, would not incline the reasonable listener to believe that ‘Not Like Us’ imparts verifiable facts.”
