Courts

Drake Really Has One Option Left Against Kendrick If He Wants To Win

The Canadian needs to get out of the booth and run to the courthouse.

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Silhouette of gavelDrake is no stranger to rap beef. Most notably his victory against Meek Mill that added Charged Up and Back To Back to the hip hop lexicon and his loss against Pusha-T that made him be a better father. Prior beef had high stakes, but the competition that sprang from First Person Shooter originally seemed to be a gentlemanly spar between three of the biggest names in the game: Drake, J. Cole and Kendrick Lamar. Things shifted quickly. Cole apologized so he could get some shut eye while Kendrick and Drake prepared to do battle.

Drake’s Push Ups and Taylor Made were cute, but things quickly got bloody with Kendrick’s Meet The Grahams:

MTG was not a mere diss track — it was a psychological evaluation of Drake’s family tree that should have ended with Kendrick asking Drake for his insurance information to make sure that the payment went through. The coup de grace following that curb stop was a Bay area steeped club bop that paints Drake as an exploiter that preys on underage girls and cultures that don’t belong to him:

Kendrick’s decision to switch the vibe from catching lyrics to catching a predator deflated a lot of the energy Drake had on songs like Push Ups & Taylor Made where he goaded Kendrick to respond. Drake responded to Not Like Us with The Heart Pt. 6. It is pretty clearly Drake’s apology, not in the “I’m sorry” sense but in the Platonic “This is where I make arguments against accusations of impiety and having corrupted the youth” way. He failed on that front. Calling for Kendrick to prove what he said didn’t stop Not Like Us from topping Spotify and Apple Music, nor did it prevent avid listeners from searching out compilations of all the times Drake seems to have exhibited groomerly behavior.

Drake may have lost the court of public opinion, but he may fare differently in court. He could launch a defamation claim against Kendrick. Sure, that would be the wackest way for an MC to drop out of a rap battle in the history of… ever, but the option is there.

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Drake would need to establish actual malice as a public figure and while Kendrick frames himself as the biggest hater, the standard actually requires him to show his rival knew or was recklessly indifferent to the falsity of the claims. During The Heart Pt. 6, Drake spends most of his time dissappointed that Kendrick didn’t do his research on the false leads that Drake fed him. Spreading a rumor that you’re a deadbeat dad in order to prove that no one should believe you makes it seem like Drake was been advised by Wimp Lo, but if Kendrick didn’t do his due diligence it may just be crazy enough to work.

Drake’s ass doesn’t stop getting kicked here. In Push-Ups, Drake suffered a major victory by telling a producer named Metro Boomin to shut up and get back to making beats instead of fighting against him. To Drake’s great dismay, Metro listened and made one of the funniest diss instruments that has ever been spawned from a rap beef:

And the responses FLEW IN. There were the expected diss tracks, some even in Japanese, but people also responded with jokes:

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and traditional Indian dance:

The legal problem is that the underlying music is based off an AI program used by X user @KingWillonius

This isn’t the first use of AI in this beef; in Taylor Made, Drake used an AI approximation of 2Pac’s voice to goad a response out of Kendrick. That didn’t just lead to Kendrick giving Drake more than he asked for — it also lead to 2Pac’s estate making Drake take the record down. The bigger problem here would be for Drake or his lawyers to find a party with some intellectual property in the underlying track that is also willing to send out cease and desist paperwork.

Tough times for The Boy. Could be a great opportunity for whoever is willing to represent him.

Chris Williams became a social media manager and assistant editor for Above the Law in June 2021. Prior to joining the staff, he moonlighted as a minor Memelord™ in the Facebook group Law School Memes for Edgy T14s.  He endured Missouri long enough to graduate from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. He is a former boatbuilder who cannot swim, a published author on critical race theory, philosophy, and humor, and has a love for cycling that occasionally annoys his peers. You can reach him by email at cwilliams@abovethelaw.com and by tweet at @WritesForRent.

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