Drake, UMG attorneys clash with judge over Kendrick Lamar's 'Not Like Us'

Drizzy’s ongoing lawsuit against Universal Music Group (UMG) saw its first courtroom drama on Monday.

Just to recap, the feud between Drake and Kendrick Lamar intensified last year when the two rappers hurled personal insults at each other in a series of diss tracks.

The conflict led to the 38-year-old filing a lawsuit against UMG in November for allegedly conspiring to inflate streaming figures of Lamar’s Not Like Us.

However, in January, he withdrew his petition and filed a new one for defamation for allegedly promoting the diss track.

The Canadian singer updated the lawsuit one more time back in April and further alleged that Lamar’s performance in the Super Bowl 59 halftime show damaged his reputation.

Although neither artist attended Monday’s lively hearing, their legal representatives appeared in front of Judge Jeannette Vargas to discuss the label’s request to dismiss the case.

Throughout the session, UMG’s lawyer attempted to convince the judge that the lyrics of Not Like Us are not defamatory in nature.

However, Vargas broke down each verse and enquired about Lamar’s intention while the attorney highlighted that the Compton native based his words around “rumors about Drake and young females.”

Meanwhile, the God’s Plan hitmaker’s lawyer pointed out that UMG promoted the song to such an extent that it has “achieved a cultural ubiquity unlike any other rap song in history.”

Drake’s attorney argued that the label relentlessly tried to make the track “a de facto national anthem” not just for rap fans but for a general audience who were prone to take the lyrics literally.

When did the Drake and Kendrick Lamar feud begin?

The highly publicised rivalry between Drake and Kendrick Lamar originally began in 2013 when the Canadian rapper responded to the Compton native’s verse on the track Control by Big Sean.

After years of subtle jabs, the feud became mainstream in 2023 when J. Cole collaborated with Drake on First Person Shooter.

In the song, Cole claimed that he, Drake and Lamar are the “big three” rappers of contemporary hip-hop, a notion that was dismissed by Lamar, who proclaimed in Like That that it is “just big me.”

The beef escalated in 2024 when the two artists traded insults in diss tracks such as Family Matters and Meet The Grahams.

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