NEW YORK (AP) — A federal choose is pondering the character of rap battles and the reducing wordplay in Kendrick Lamar ’s “Not Like Us,” the megahit diss monitor that spurred a defamation lawsuit from his fellow famous person Drake.
Drake sued Common Music Group — each his and Lamar’s report label — over “Not Like Us,” saying the corporate printed and promoted a music he deems slanderous. Common says the lyrics are simply hyperbole within the custom of rap beefing, and the label is attempting to get the case dismissed.
Decide Jeannette Vargas did not instantly determine after a vigorous listening to Monday, when the uncooked creativity of hip-hop brushed up towards the staid confines of federal court docket.
“Who is the ordinary listener? Is it someone who’s going to catch all those references?” Vargas puzzled aloud, addressing a authorized commonplace that issues how a median, cheap individual would perceive a press release. “There’s so much specialized and nuanced to these lyrics.”
Neither artist attended the listening to.
The case stems from an epic feud between two of hip-hop’s largest stars over one in every of 2024 largest songs — the one which gained the report of the yr and music of the yr Grammys, received probably the most Apple Music streams worldwide and helped make this winter’s Tremendous Bowl halftime present probably the most watched ever.
Launched as the 2 artists have been buying and selling a flurry of insult tracks, Lamar’s music calls out the Canadian-born Drake by identify and impugns his authenticity, branding him “a colonizer” of rap tradition who’s “not like us” in Lamar’s house turf of Compton, California, and, extra broadly, West Coast rap.
“Not Like Us” additionally makes insinuations about Drake’s intercourse life, together with “I hear you like ’em young” — implications that he rejects.
Drake’s go well with says that the music quantities to “falsely accusing him of being a sex offender, engaging in pedophilic acts” and more. Contending that the track endangered him by fanning notions of vigilante justice, the suit blames “Not Like Us” not just for harming Drake’s picture however for tried break-ins and the capturing of a safety guard at his Toronto house. The mansion was depicted in an aerial photograph within the music’s cowl artwork.
“This song achieved a cultural ubiquity unlike any other rap song in history,” Drake lawyer Michael Gottlieb stated. He argued that Common had campaigned and contrived to make it “a de facto nationwide anthem” that did not simply tackle hip-hop followers who knew the backstory and have been accustomed to over-the-top lyrical battling.
The typical listener may very well be “a 13-year-old who’s dancing to the song at a bar mitzvah,” Gottlieb steered.
“That would be a very interesting bar mitzvah,” the choose opined. (The music has certainly been performed at some such celebrations.)
Common, in the meantime, has emphasised that “Not Like Us” was a part of an change of barbs between Drake and Lamar.
“Context is key,” label lawyer Rollin Ransom argued Monday, at one level apologizing for having to make use of profanity whereas reciting a number of the lyrics Drake geared toward Lamar in a monitor known as “Taylor Made Freestyle.”
“What you hear in these rap battles is trash-talking within the excessive, and it’s not, and shouldn’t be handled as, statements of truth,” the legal professional stated.
The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages.
Drake additionally went after iHeartMedia, claiming in a Texas authorized petition that the radio big received unlawful funds from Common to spice up airplay for “Not Like Us.” IHeartMedia has denied any wrongdoing. That dispute was resolved in March.
Drake hasn’t sued Lamar himself.
