In the span of the last year, Aubrey “Drake” Graham has been dunked on more than anyone who has had the misfortune of playing against Dwight Howard. His musical feud against Kendrick Lamar started to get rough once the Compton rapper dropped “Euphoria,” a prophetic ode to a spiraling artist accused of grooming behaviors who also was an executive director for a show called Euphoria that just happened to have a lot of racy content with teenagers. Drake fired back with a song that was supposed to dead the feud then and there, called “Family Matters — a song that would be considered good in its own right if Kendrick didn’t step on the song’s release with another family-themed diss track called “Meet The Grahams.”
The psychoanalysis session pretending to be a musical track should have been when Drake threw in the towel, but he didn’t have much time considering that “Not Like Us” got dropped within a 24 hour period. That victory lap quickly turned in to everyone parading the corpse of Drake’s career: Kendrick won a Grammy for the diss track with roaring applause from a room of celebrities, Conan O’ Brien made a joke at Drake’s expense at the Oscars, Will Ferrell and Ana Gasteyer performed Not Like Us at SNL’s 50th anniversary, oh, and did I mention THE SUPER BOWL where Drake’s ex Serena Williams was crip walking celebratorily? Just dunk after dunk after dunk!
But as interesting as music spats can be, we here at Above The Law are a legal website. That said, it didn’t take long for the beat drops to get replaced with gavel smashing. Not Like Us’s roll out was so devastating that by May 7th, one astute observer wrote a joke article suggesting that the only chance Drake had of salvaging his reputation was to sue somebody over how hard he lost.
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Drake then tried to parlay his rap loss in to a legal battle. Fitting considering that Kendrick accuses him of having a gambling problems on Meet the Grahams, but that’s an aside. He sued Universal Music Group, Spotify, at one point he even pointed blame at YouTube streamers for broadcasting the song and helping to run the views up. But the cream of the crop? After all the dud musical responses and finger pointing and cringe smoking bullet riddled hoodie attempts at aura farming, the the facts remained. He lost a rap battle so hard that a judge had to weigh in. And the judge did not rule in his favor. ABC has coverage:
A federal judge in New York has dismissed Drake’s defamation case against his record label, Universal Music Group, stemming from a rap battle with Kendrick Lamar.
Judge Jeannette Vargas determined the allegedly defamatory statements at issue in the lawsuit are “nonactionable opinion” and dismissed Drake’s lawsuit against UMG.
And while the opinions may be nonactionable in the court of law, they’re getting a lot of action in the court of public opinion:
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Drake’s response to this dismissal is about as childish as you’d expect from a 38 year old man who regularly refers to himself as “The Boy”:
A spokesperson for Drake said in a statement obtained by ABC News that his team intends to appeal the decision.
For the love of God, throw in the towel Jimmy! And this isn’t just advice for your bruised ego, it’s also for your pockets. Because I’ll tell you the main party most situated to benefit from your hard hardheadedness. Your lawyers:
It’s time to leave the court room and get back in the studio. Even Kendrick likes Drake with the melodies.
Drake’s Defamation Case Against Record Label UMG Dismissed By Federal Judge [ABC]
Earlier: Drake Really Has One Option Left Against Kendrick If He Wants To Win
Universal Music Group Pushes To Dismiss Drake’s Desperate Attempt To Save Face From Lyrical Beatdown
Drake Adds Kendrick’s Superbowl Performance To List Of Allegedly Defamatory Acts
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 is learning to swim, is interested in critical race theory, philosophy, and humor, and has a love for cycling that occasionally annoys his peers. You can reach him by email at [email protected] and by tweet at @WritesForRent.