Drake revives legal fight over Kendrick Lamar’s ‘Not Like Us’ with new appeal

Drake has revived his legal fight against Universal Music Group by filing an appeal after a federal judge dismissed his defamation lawsuit tied to Kendrick Lamar’s diss track Not Like Us.

Court documents filed on Wednesday argue that the earlier ruling set a “dangerous” precedent that rap can’t be defamatory.

The Canadian rapper’s legal team maintains that the decision wrongly suggests diss tracks can never convey factual statements, regardless of how damaging the allegations may be.

“The court effectively created an unprecedented and overbroad categorical rule that statements in rap diss tracks can never constitute statements of fact,” the court documents state.

Drake’s attorney Michael J. Gottlieb continued, “If rap diss tracks cannot contain statements of fact, then they are inoculated from any liability for defamation—no matter how direct and damaging the defamatory statements they contain. This case illustrates that.”

He further added that such accusations can provoke intense public hostility and even violence.

The lawsuit, originally dismissed in October 2025 by U.S. District Judge Jeannette Vargas in New York, stemmed from lyrics in Lamar’s song that refer to Drake as a “certified pedophile” and suggest he should be placed on a neighborhood watch list. The track was released in May 2024 amid a highly publicized feud between the two artists.

Jeannette stated in the ruling that the “vitriolic war of words” used in Lamar’s diss track during a “heated rap battle” was not defamatory.

Soon after, Drake’s attorneys said they planned to appeal the ruling.

ss track “Family Matters,” in which he “heavily [implies] that Lamar is a domestic abuser” and that “one of Lamar’s sons may not be biologically his.”

“The recording was published as part of a heated public feud, in which both participants exchanged progressively caustic, inflammatory insults and accusations,” Vargas said. “This is precisely the type of context in which an audience may anticipate the use of epithets, fiery rhetoric or hyperbole rather than factual assertions.”

Lawyers for UMG have until March 27 file a response to Drake’s claims.