A federal judge is reflecting on the nature of rap battles and the word game in “Not Like Us” by Kendrick Lamar, the Diss Megahit track that stimulated a demand for defamation of his companion Superstar Drake.
Drake sued Universal Music Group, both his record label and Lamar, about “Not Like Us”, saying that the company published and promoted a song that considers defamed. Universal says that the letters are only hyperbole in the rap reinforcer tradition, and the label is trying to dismiss the case.
The United States District Judge, Jeannette Vargas, did not decide immediately after a lively audience in New York on Monday, when the raw creativity of hip-hop was repressed against the confines of the Federal Court.
“Who is the ordinary listener? Is someone who will catch all those references?” Vargas wondered aloud, addressing a legal standard that refers to how an average and reasonable person would understand a statement. “There is a lot of specialized and nuanced to these letters.”
None of the artists attended the audience.
The case derives from an epic dispute between two of the largest hip-hop stars on one of the 2024 biggest songs, which won the record of the year and the Grammys of the year, obtained most of Apple Music’s broadcasts worldwide and helped make the mid-time show of this winter, the most watched.
Run as the two artists exchanged a burst of insult songs, Lamar’s song calls Drake born in Canada by name and challenges its authenticity, marking “a colonizer of rap culture that is not Like Us” in the homeland of Lamar de Compton, California, and, more widely, widely, the rap of the west coast.
“No Like Us” also makes insinuations about Drake’s sexual life, including “I hear you like young people”, implications it rejects.
Drake’s demand says that the song is equivalent to “falsely accusing him of being a sexual offender, participating in pedophile acts” and more. When affirming that the track endangered the notions of vigilant justice, the suit blames “not like us” not only for damaging the image of Drake but for attempts to robbery and the shooting of a security guard in his home in Toronto. The mansion was represented in an aerial photo on the cover of the song.
“This song achieved a cultural ubiquity unlike any other rap song in history,” said Drake Michael Gottlieb’s lawyer. He argued that Universal had campaigned and devised to make it “a national de facto anthem” that not only approached hip-hop fans who knew the background history and were accustomed to the exaggerated lyrical battle.
The average listener could be “a 13 -year -old who dances with the song in a mitzvah bar,” Gottlieb suggested.
“That would be a very interesting mitzvah bar,” said the judge. (The song has reproduced in some celebrations).
Meanwhile, Universal has emphasized that “not like us” was part of an exchange of spikes between Drake and Lamar.
“The context is key,” argued the Rollin Ransom label lawyer on Monday, at a time apologizing for having to use blasphemies while reciting some of the lyrics Drake directed to Lamar in a song called “Taylor Made Freestyle.”
“What you hear in these rap battles is extreme garbage, and it is not, and should not be treated as de facto statements,” said the lawyer.
Demand seeks unspecified damage.
Drake was also after Iheartmedia, claiming in a legal request from Texas that the radio giant received illegal universal payments to boost the AirPlay for “not like us.” Iheartmedia has denied having acted. That dispute was resolved in March.
Drake has not sued Lamar himself.
