Drake’s Defamation Lawsuit Against UMG Dismissed Over Kendrick’s Diss Track Blogged by: yallnotgonnadragme A #NewYork judge just closed the book on #Drake’s defamation lawsuit against #UniversalMusicGroup, ruling that #KendrickLamar’s record-breaking diss track #NotLikeUs was protected free speech, not a smear campaign. U.S. District Judge Jeannette Vargas said Thursday that “a reasonable listener could not have concluded that ‘Not Like Us’ was conveying objective facts about Drake.” Drake alleged that UMG helped promote damaging claims about him, including accusations of pedophilia, by backing Kendrick’s track and offering incentives to distributors. But the court wasn’t convinced. “The average listener is not under the impression that a diss track is the product of a thoughtful or disinterested investigation,” Judge Vargas wrote. UMG responded with a sharp statement: “From the outset, this suit was an affront to all artists and their creative expression and never should have se...