{"id":231721,"date":"2025-05-15T16:44:51","date_gmt":"2025-05-15T15:44:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/?p=231721"},"modified":"2025-05-15T16:45:07","modified_gmt":"2025-05-15T15:45:07","slug":"court-should-reject-drakes-dangerous-assumption-that-rap-lyrics-are-factual-in-case-against-umg-scholars-argue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/court-should-reject-drakes-dangerous-assumption-that-rap-lyrics-are-factual-in-case-against-umg-scholars-argue\/","title":{"rendered":"Court should reject Drake\u2019s \u2018dangerous\u2019 assumption that rap lyrics are factual in case against UMG, scholars argue"},"content":{"rendered":"

A group of academics are urging the court to dismiss Drake\u2019s defamation case against Universal Music Group over Kendrick Lamar\u2019s Not Like Us<\/em>, arguing that taking rap lyrics as factual threatens freedom of speech and risks a miscarriage of justice.<\/p>\n

In a proposed amicus brief sent on Wednesday (May 14) to federal court judge Jeannette A. Vargas<\/strong>, the four scholars, all linked to the University of California\u2013Irvine, warned of \u201cthe harms that arise when courts treat rap lyrics confessions or factual representations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Drake filed a defamation lawsuit<\/a> against Universal Music Group<\/strong> earlier this year over Kendrick Lamar<\/strong>\u2019s diss track Not Like Us<\/em>, arguing that UMG \u201cdecided to publish, promote, exploit and monetize allegations that it understood were not only false, but dangerous.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Lamar\u2019s music is distributed by UMG\u2019s Interscope<\/strong> label, while Drake is signed to UMG\u2019s Republic Records<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Drake later filed an amended complaint<\/a>, adding allegations linked to Lamar\u2019s performance of Not Like Us<\/em> at this year\u2019s Super Bowl.\u00a0 UMG responded with a motion to dismiss the case<\/a>, which is being heard at the US District for the Southern District of New York, arguing that Lamar\u2019s lyrics are \u201cnonactionable opinion and rhetorical hyperbole.\u201d<\/p>\n

The UC\u2013Irvine scholars largely agreed with that assessment.<\/p>\n

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\u201cDrake\u2019s defamation claim rests on the assumption that every word of Not Like Us<\/em> should be taken literally, as a factual representation,\u201d they wrote in their proposed brief, which can be read in full here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis assumption is not just faulty\u2014it is dangerous. When rap lyrics are admitted [as evidence in a case], it is because they are treated as literal. This in turn opens the door to racial bias and stereotypes into the courtroom, as empirical studies have demonstrated. Treating rap lyrics as literal also threatens First Amendment speech protections, and the practice already has created a demonstrable chilling effect across the industry.\u201d<\/p>\n

They argue that diss tracks \u201care understood by audiences not to represent factual assertions about the opposing artist, but rather to demonstrate skill and dominance meant to build allegiance and win competitions through clever wordplay, hyperbole, bluster, and demonstrations of disrespect.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDrake\u2019s defamation claim rests on the assumption that every word of Not Like Us should be taken literally, as a factual representation. This assumption is not just faulty\u2014it is dangerous.”<\/p>\n

Proposed amicus brief from UC-Irvine scholars in Drake v. UMG<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The proposed brief points to many instances where rappers built fictional personae around themselves for the sake of commercial success, noting, for example, that Jay-Z<\/strong> came to prominence through rap battles in the 1990s with Tupac<\/strong>, Nas<\/strong>, and Mobb Deep<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

They note that rapper Curtis Jackson<\/strong>, aka 50 Cent<\/strong>, said of his track High All The Time<\/em>: \u201cI don\u2019t drink and I don\u2019t use drugs, and I didn\u2019t back then either. I put that joint on the first record because I saw artists consistently selling 500,000 with that content.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFabricating criminal activities to maintain a tough image [are] a common practice in the rap industry,\u201d the scholars noted.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany of the conflicts or \u2018beefs\u2019 between rival rappers are created as publicity stunts to raise flagging careers and sales, or create interest in new releases.\u201d<\/p>\n

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They also argued that treating rap lyrics as factual \u201cthreatens to undermine important civil and constitutional rights\u201d and \u201cmakes it more likely that rap lyrics will be exploited to introduce prejudice and racial bias in other cases.\u201d<\/p>\n

The academics who signed on to the brief include Charis Kubrin<\/strong>, a professor of law and criminology; Jack Lerner<\/strong>, a clinical professor of law specializing in intellectual property, media law, and freedom of expression; Adam Dunbar<\/strong>, an assistant professor in the criminal justice department of the University of Nevada\u2013Reno; and Kyle Winnen<\/strong>, a doctoral student at UC\u2013Irvine\u2019s law and criminology school.<\/p>\n

In a memorandum in support of its motion to dismiss the case, UMG asserted that Drake\u2019s lawsuit is an \u201cattempt to save face for his unsuccessful rap battle with Lamar.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite the legal dispute, UMG said in a statement to MBW<\/em> that it \u201cremain[s] committed to propelling Drake\u2019s career while maintaining our unwavering support of all our artists\u2019 creative expression. Drake\u2019s included.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Diss tracks ‘are understood by audiences not to represent factual assertions about the opposing artist,’ the scholars argue<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":46,"featured_media":218112,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[134182,134177,134179,2167,134180,134181,130651,134178,269],"class_list":["post-231721","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-adam-dunbar","tag-amicus-brief","tag-charis-kubrin","tag-drake","tag-jack-lerner","tag-kyle-winnen","tag-lawsuit","tag-uc-irvine","tag-universal-music-group"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231721","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/46"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=231721"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231721\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/218112"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=231721"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=231721"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=231721"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}