"Vargas cited the 1974 Supreme case Gertz v. Robert Welch Inc.: Under the First Amendment, there is no such thing as a false idea. It's the court's job, the judge said, to distinguish between fact and opinion, conducting its analysis through the lens of a reasonable listener in the overall context: a two-week feud that yielded a total of eight diss tracks between the two rappers."
"Among other digs that Drake, whose full name is Aubrey Drake Graham, deemed slanderous, it calls him a certified pedophile words broadcast to more than 130 million viewers when Lamar performed the song at the 2025 Super Bowl halftime show. According to Drake, Universal Music Group, which has signed both rappers, published and promoted the track despite knowing the insinuation that he has sexual relations with minors were false and defamatory."
Drake filed notice to appeal the dismissal of his defamation case against Universal Music Group related to Kendrick Lamar's 2024 song "Not Like Us." The song included lyrics calling Drake a "certified pedophile," broadcast to more than 130 million viewers during Lamar's 2025 Super Bowl halftime performance. Drake alleges Universal published and promoted the track despite knowing the insinuation that he had sexual relations with minors was false and defamatory. U.S. District Judge Jeannette Vargas dismissed the Manhattan federal lawsuit, finding Lamar expressed nonactionable opinion and that a reasonable listener would not view a diss track as conveying objective facts.
Read at www.amny.com
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