Drake Ready To Return To Court Over Failed Kendrick Lamar Legal Bid

Drake lost the first legal round over Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us” but the superstar rapper will get another chance to challenge Universal Music Group when his appeal reaches a federal courtroom Dec. 4.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit has scheduled oral arguments in Drake’s attempt to revive his lawsuit against UMG over the release and promotion of blockbuster diss record “Not Like Us.”

The date puts the bitter legal aftermath of one of Hip-Hop’s biggest rap battles back under a judicial microscope, oddly on Jay-Z’s birthday.

Drake sued UMG in January 2025.

The Toronto rapper alleged the music giant defamed him by publishing and aggressively promoting Lamar’s record despite what Drake maintains were false allegations concerning sexual relations with minors.

The lawsuit did not name Lamar as a defendant.

U.S. District Judge Jeannette A. Vargas dismissed the case in October 2025, concluding that the challenged lyrics amounted to “nonactionable opinion” when examined within the larger context of the heated lyrical war between Drake and Lamar.

“Although the accusation that Plaintiff is a pedophile is certainly a serious one, the broader context of a heated rap battle, with incendiary language and offensive accusations hurled by both participants, would not incline the reasonable listener to believe that ‘Not Like Us’ imparts verifiable facts about Plaintiff,” Vargas wrote.

Drake refused to let the dismissal end the fight.

His attorneys appealed and argued that the lower court went too far in determining how statements contained in rap battles should be treated under defamation law.

“The court effectively created an unprecedented and overbroad categorical rule that statements in rap diss tracks can never constitute statements of fact,” Drake’s appeal states.

UMG is fighting to preserve the dismissal.

The appeal has also attracted outside legal and academic attention. The Floyd Abrams Institute for Freedom of Expression at Yale Law School and University of Florida law professor Lyrissa Lidsky backed UMG in an amicus brief. Their argument offered another potential reason for dismissing Drake’s claim, asserting that consent can prevent a defamation action and contending that Drake invited Lamar’s attacks during their musical confrontation.

The Dec. 4 hearing does not mean a ruling will arrive that day.

Instead, attorneys for both sides will make oral arguments before a panel of appellate judges after months of written submissions. The judges can question both camps before eventually deciding whether the lower court’s dismissal should stand.

Essentially, Drake seeks an appellate court to reconsider where artistic warfare ends and potentially actionable statements begin.