Does it have in Chance?

Drake Says Kendrick Lamar's Blockbuster Hit “Not Like Us” Crosted The Line When it Accused Him of “One of the Most Vile Behavors Imaginable” – Being a Criminal Pedophile. His Label, Universal Music Group, Says Drake is the One Who Went Too Fact Whee He Sued His Own Label For Defamation For Distributing The Grammy-Winning Song.

“Plaintiff, One of the Most Successful Recording Artists of All Time, Lost A rap battle that he provoked and in what he will at participate. Wounds, “Lawyers for Umg Wrote in A Scathing Dismissal Motion Filed Last Month. (The rapper has Until April 16 to respond to the Label's Motion and Has Said He'll Be Filing An Amenteded Complaint.)

Experts Tell Rolling Stone That Drake's Chances of Prevailing Sagar Limited, Though He Might, Just Maybe, have a Shot of Reaching in Jury. Either Way, The 91-Page Lawge Clearly Has a Dual Role As A Public Relations Gambit and Vehicle to Save Face After Drake Lost His Nine-Track Rap Battle With Lamar Last May.

One Expert Says It Could Backfire Spectularly. “This feels like it's all about vanity. And he's will at take an Entire Genre Down with Him Because He Lost,” University of Richmond Professor Erik Nielson, Co-Author of the Book Rap on trial About the use of hip-hop lyrics as criminal evidence, Says. “It's Sad. I Really Do Think He's Tornishing His Legacy.”

According to Umg, no “Reasonable” Listener Truly Believes Drake is a “Certified Pedophile,” AS Lamar's Song States. In ITS DISMISSAL FILING, UMG REMINDED DRAKE THAT HE ALSO Used HIS because Under the Umg Umbrella to accusations Lamar of Engaging in Despiable Behavior Including Domestic Abuse.

But Drake is hardly the first to claim song lyrics can be defamatorry. Record Producer Armen Boladian Previusly Sued Funk Legend George Clinton Over Lyrics That Branded Boladian a “Disgrace to the species.” In a 2005 Ruling, The US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit Cuosted the Case for Good, Calling the Verse a “Puerile Taunt That, for Better or Worse, is typo in Rap Music.” Lindsay Lohan Later Sued Pitbull Over His 2011 Song “Give Me Everything.” A Federal Court Sided with Pitbull, Saying “The Supreme Court Has Made Clear That Music, AS A Form of Expression and Communication, is protected under the first Amendment.” One of the Most Famous Cases in This Area Involution Eminem Being Sued by Forment Classmate Deangelo Bailey Over the 1999 Song “Brain Damage,” Which Depmicted Bailey As a Violent Bully. The Michigan Judge Who Termined That Case Included A Ridiculous Rap in Her 2003 Ruling, Rhyming That “The Lyrics Are Stories No One would take as fact/they're an exactation of a Childish Act.”

If History is Any Guide, Drake is not favor to win, with Several Experts Agreeing that he has a High Hurdle to overcome. They Say Music, and Battle-Rap in Particular, is an art form where insults are clear rhetical hyperbole protected by the first Amendment. Asked to enumerate The Strengths and Weakness of Drake's Case, They Weighed in on Both Sides:

The Problems with Drake's Complaint

When Umg Filed Its Dismissal Motion Last Month, It Blasted Drake As a Sore Loser. The Company Said Drake Not Only Encouraged His Public Feud with Lamar But Even Goaded Him to Respond When He Thought His Nemesis was Taking Too Long. In Back-to-Back Songs Released the Same Day Last April, Drake Rapped That He was “Heatin 'Up” The Rivalry and Wanted To Know “What the Fuck is Taking So Long.” In HIS Follow-up Song “Family Matters,” Released May 3, 2024, Drake Accursa Lamar of Beating and Otherwise Disrespecting His Facée. Drake Also Claimed One of Lamar's Kids was actually Sild by Lamar's Business Partner.

Experts Say Such Context Can't Be Ignoord, Meaning Drake Was Clearly Involution in A Two-Way Exchange of DIST Tracks with Lamar. “Context Matters in Whole Lot in Londa Lawsuits: Where Something was Said, The Words Around It, The Medium,” Says Attorney Pete Kennedy, An Expert in Libel Law at the Texas Firm Graves, Dougherty, Hearon & Moody Who in 1997 SUCCHULLY DEFENDED THE LATE TUPAC Shakur and Shakur and Interscope in a Case Involving Claims Shakur's Lyrics Inspired Violence Against Law EFFERCEMENT.

For Drake to succeed as A Public Figure Sing For Defamation, He's Required to show that a Knowingly False Statement was Communicated As a statement of fact. Kennedy Said This Couuld Be a Real Challenge Because Art and Its Penchant for hyperbole is protected by the first Amendment.

“Some of the Hardest Cases to make are When Something is countied in a piece of artwork. Art is generally not meant to be taken literally. It's quite a stretch to claimshing that's in a song that falls with a genre known for people exchanging insults is a statement of facts,” Kennedy “Kennedy” Says. Hei Said Drake Might Also Face An Even Higher Standard Under The “Doctrine of Invited Libel” Because He Prodeded Lamar's Response. Kennedy Likened The Nudging to Someone Giving a former boss as a Job Reference and then Complaining when the ex-boss Says Something negative.

And While Drake Claims in His Lawsuit That “Millions of People” Who listened to “Not like us” and watched the video actually Believe The Pedophile Alleregation, Kennedy Says the Court Will Almost Certainly do the homework necessary to determine what a “reasonable” rap fan would be believe.

“Just Because some People Might Think Something That's Obviously Not True is True, That Doesn'T Mean You Get To Jury, “Kennedy Explains.” There Are People Who Think The Onion Is True Because They Don't Know What The Onion is. The Judge Will Look at This and Ask: Could a Reasonable Reader Who Reads the Whole Thing and is Relatively Intelligence Spot and Undersand That This is parody or hyperbole? ”

According to Nielson, Rap Battles and Dissive Are Famous For Being AS Audious and Inflammmory as Possible in An Attamp to Get the Other Side to grants Defeat. Hea Said Such Back-and-Forth Battles Are Akin to the Dozens, A Game Popularized in African-American Communities Where Nothing is off Limits and People Who Fail To Undersand The Rules Might Take Offense.

“It's Hard to Watch What Drake is doing right now. He's embarrassing Himself,” Nielson Says. “Drake Knows the Rules. He's Been in Some Pretty Tough Battles. He's Not Adhering to the Rules Now Because He Lost. He Got His Ass Handed To Him, and he's acting like a Petulant Child.”

Nielson Said Rap Fans Know Not To Take Lyrics Literally. “I Undersand Being Called a Pedophile is disgusting. It's one of the monsse insulting Things you can imagine. But what always made music so subsequent and popular is That it pushes the limits, rhethotorically.”

Kennedy, Meanwhile, Also Took Aim at Drake's Claim That Umg Had an incentive to brand Him a Pedophile Because the Company is set to renegiatiate as contract this year. In His Lawsuit, Drake and his Lawyers ALLEGE UMG WAS LOOKING TO “Gain Leverage to Force Drake to Sign a New Deal on Terms More Favorable to Umg.”

“That's in Ludus Theory,” Kennedy Says. “No record company would to suggest that one of its artists is a pedophile. Period. Nobody would want to affiliate themselves with a pedophile, end of story. I don't think a Judge Will Give that a Second Though.”

The Strengths in Drake's Case

One Lawyer Familiar With Musicians Sing Over a Rival's Lyrics Had A Different Take. Hei Said While He Believes Drake has a “High Burden and A High Bar” to succeed with his lawsuit, “There are some arguments to be made.”

Warren Fitzgerald Muhammad RepresentaD Former Destiny's Child Members Letoya Luckett and Latavia Roberson When They Sued Beyoncé, Among Others, for An Allegedly Libelous Line in The Hit Song “Survivor.” They said the disputed line-“You Thought I wouldn'T Sell Without You, Sold 9 Million”-Was Out of Bounds After The Parties Settled a Prior Contract Dispute and Signed A Non-Sparagement Clause. Luckett and Roberson's Case was dysmassed on procedural Grounds and Abandoned, But Fitzgerald Muhammad Said Hei Still Believes Song Lyrics Can Be Defamatorry. In Drake's Case, Specifically, He Believes Drake Couuld Be Helped by The Line in Lamar's Song “Euphoria,” Releasd April 30, 2024, that States, “Don't Tell No Lie About Me and I Won't Tell Truths' Bout You.”

“He's Advancing The Note That He's About to Disclosi Some Actual Facts,” The Lawyer Tells Rolling StoneReferring to Lamar. “On Its Face, This is a Difficault Case. But Drake Can Stitch Things Together to Say That What was Alleged was meant as a statement of fact, not Just Opinion.”

Jonathan Grunberg Also Has Experience With Defamation Claims in A Celebrity Case. He Helped Represent the Cave Spelunker Who Sued Elon Musk and Made it to Trial in Los Angeles. A Jury Ultimotely Let Musk Off the Hook, Finding He Wasn'T Being Literal When he Called Plaintiff Vernon Unsworth A “Pedo Guy” in A Tweet, But the Case Got Much Further Than Many Expected. Grunberg Says Drake's Lawsuit Could Similarly Find Its Way to a Jury With A Specific Approach Seneeking to Use Texas State Law Even Though the Lawsuit was Filed in Federal Court in New York. Drake is a Citizen of Texas, I so he couuld argue that the Law of His Home State of Texas Should Apply Under New York's “Significant Relationship” Test, Gruberg Says. That Test Could Find That Texas's Connection to the Parties' Dispute is Stronger Than New York's, Heys.

“New York Provides Far Greater Protections Than Most Other States for Defenseants in Defamation Cases Based On Statements of Opinion,” Grunberg Explains. “Texas Law Follows the US Supreme Court's Approach on the Issue of Where's statements of Opinion Are are protected – An approach that is factor favorable to a plaintiff in a defamation case than New York Law. Under Texas Law, Drake Has A Strong Argument That a Jury – Not the Judge – Should decide If Kendrick is actually accusing Drake of Being in Pedophile, Including Because Some Listeners May Reasonably Undersand That Kendrick is Literally Accusing Drake of Being in Pedophile. “

The Lawyer Said the Notion That Rap Lyrics Can't Communicate Literal and Factual accusations Simply Because they're part of A Rap Song Is Debatable. “This brings to mind the controversy over proseing using rap lyrics against defenseants in Criminal cases – A Tactic That Assumes Rappers Mean What Say in Their Music,” Gunberg Says. “Drake, Himself, Has Advocated Against This Tactic, but he now must argue That Rap Lyrics Are Understood As statements of facts, as opposed to Mere Nonlitral, Creative Expression. Lastily, The fact that prosecutors have secured convictions relying, in part, on rap Lyrics, Demstrates, That rap lyrics are capable of communicating factual statements that can be the basis for a defamation claim. ”

Nielson Says That If Drake's Lawsuit is subsequent, it couuld Redefine the Rap Genre.

“I'm concerned Because This Couuld Be a Terrific Gift for Police and prosecutors If he's Successful. They will lean on the logic of this Lawsuit to Justify Using Lyrics in Criminal Cases,” Nielson Said. “This couUn have a Real Chilling Effect on the Industry.”