Drake Faces Pushback From UMG in Kendrick Lamar ‘Not Like Us’ Defamation Appeal

Drake’s bid to revive his defamation lawsuit against Kendrick Lamar’s diss track "Not Like Us" has drawn a fierce rebuttal from Universal Music Group.

Per Rolling Stone, the Canadian rapper - real name Aubrey Drake Graham - filed an appeal earlier this year after a federal judge in New York dismissed his lawsuit against UMG, the parent company that distributes music for both him and Lamar. Drake had argued that the label’s release and promotion of "Not Like Us" - which includes a line accusing him of being a “certified pedophile” - harmed his reputation and amounted to defamation under US law.

In a new appellate brief, UMG lawyers took aim at that argument, saying Drake’s case misunderstands both the legal standard and the culture of hip-hop itself. In filings obtained by Rolling Stone this week, UMG described his arguments as flawed and "nonsensical".

The label said Drake clearly felt free to use UMG’s platform to attack Lamar “in equally incendiary terms” when it suited him, but now he’s seeking a different standard for the “words he now dislikes” that were directed at him.

“[Drake] seeks to strip words from their context and deem them actionable defamation if anyone, anywhere, might treat them as factual. That is not the law, and Drake’s view would critically undermine a highly creative art form built on exaggeration, insult, and wordplay,” the new filing argued.

“Drake’s argument is also astoundingly hypocritical,” the filing continued. It cited the petition’s claim that “more than any other art form, rap lyrics are essentially being used as confessions in an attempt to criminalise Black creativity and artistry”, and that such use “is un-American and simply wrong”. The filing suggested Drake is now taking the opposite position to serve his interests.

Drake originally sued UMG in January 2025, accusing the label of promoting Lamar’s hit song in a way that “intended to convey the specific, unmistakable, and false factual allegation that Drake is a criminal pedophile". He notably sued only the record label he shares with Lamar, not Lamar himself.

UMG responded with a pair of scathing motions to dismiss that ultimately prevailed. “Plaintiff, one of the most successful recording artists of all time, lost a rap battle that he provoked and in which he willingly participated,” lawyers for UMG wrote. “Instead of accepting the loss like the unbothered rap artist he often claims to be, he has sued his own record label in a misguided attempt to salve his wounds.”

“Not Like Us” went on to win Grammy Awards for Record and Song of the Year, becoming only the third hip-hop song to win Record of the Year after Childish Gambino’s “This Is America,” and Lizzo’s “About Damn Time.” Lamar also performed the song during the widely viewed 2025 Super Bowl halftime show.

Drake is expected to respond to UMG’s new appellate filing with a reply brief by April 17th.