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A federal judge reflects on Nature of rap battles And the game of cutting word in “Not like Us” by Kendrick Lamar, the megahit diss traces that stimulated a defamation trial From his compatriot Superstar Drake.
Drake continued Universal Music Group – his record label and Lamar – on “Not Like Us”, saying that the company had published and promoted a song he considered. Universal says that words are just a hyperbola in the tradition of strengthening rap, and the label is trying to have the case reject.
US district judge Jeannette Vargas did not immediately decided after a animated hearing in New York on Monday, when the raw creativity of hip-hop rubbed against the limits of the Federal Court.
“Who is the ordinary listener? Is someone who will catch all these references?” Vargas wondered aloud, addressing a legal standard that concerns how an average and reasonable person would include a declaration. “There are so many specialists and nuanced to these words.”
Neither of the two artists attended the hearing.
The case stems from an epic quarrel between two of the biggest hip-hop stars on one of the biggest songs in 2024-the one that won the record for the year and the song of the year, obtained the most Apple music flows in the world and helped make the show of half-time most watched by the Super Bowl this winter.
Released as two artists exchanging a burst of pieces of insults, Lamar’s song calls the Drake of Canadian origin by name and implies his authenticity, the marking “a colonizer” of rap culture which is “not like” in the original turf of Lamar de Compton, in California and, more broadly, West Coast Rap.
“Not like us” also makes insinuations on Drake’s sex life, including “I hear you like ‘I young” – of the implications he rejects.
Drake’s costume says that the song is equivalent to “wrongly accusing him of being a sex offender, of engaging in pedophile acts” and more. Building that the track put it in danger by moving the notions of vigilant justice, the costume blame “not as us” not only to have harmed the image of Drake but also for the attempts to break and the shooting of a security guard in his house in Toronto. The manor was represented in an aerial photo of the song cover.
“This song has achieved cultural ubiquity unlike any other rap song in history,” said Drake Michael Gottlieb’s lawyer. He argued that Universal had campaigned and artificial to make it “a de facto national anthem” which was not only addressed to hip-hop fans who knew the background and were used to exaggerated lyric fights.
The average auditor could be “a 13 -year -old child dances on the song in a Mitzvah bar”, suggested Gottlieb.
“It would be a very interesting bar,” said the judge. (The song was indeed played during certain celebrations.)
Universal, meanwhile, stressed that “not like us” was part of an exchange of beards between Drake and Lamar.
“The context is essential,” said lawyer for the Rollin Ransom label on Monday, at one point to have had to use the blasphemy while reciting some of the words that Drake was aiming for Lamar in a song entitled “Taylor made freestyle”.
“What you hear about these rap battles is the extreme matter, and it is not and should not be treated as factual statements,” said the lawyer.
The trial requests unpertified damage.
Drake also continued Iheartmedia, affirming in a legal petition in Texas that the radio giant obtained illegal payments from Universal to Booster Airplay for “not like us”. Iheartmedia denied any reprehensible act. This dispute was resolved in March.
Drake did not prosecute Lamar himself.
