Drake Accused Of Fueling Racial Bias With Kendrick Lamar Lawsuit
Drake‘s defamation lawsuit towards Common Music Group (UMG) over Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us” lyrics has prompted authorized and cultural students to warn a federal choose that treating rap lyrics as literal statements might gas racial prejudice within the justice system.
In a courtroom submitting completely obtained by AllHipHop, 4 lecturers—Charis Kubrin, Jack Lerner, Adam Dunbar and Kyle Winnen—submitted an amicus transient on Could 14 in assist of UMG’s movement to dismiss the case.
The transient argues that Hip-Hop diss tracks are a long-established type of exaggerated inventive expression and shouldn’t be interpreted as factual claims.
“Drake’s defamation declare rests on the belief that each phrase of ‘Not Like Us’ needs to be taken actually, as a factual illustration,” the students wrote. “This assumption is not only defective—it’s harmful.”
The transient, filed within the U.S. District Courtroom for the Southern District of New York, goals to coach the courtroom on the inventive norms of rap battles, the place artists usually use hyperbole, sarcasm and lyrical bravado to say dominance, to not make factual accusations.
“They’re hyperbolic types of inventive expression in step with the distinctive inventive practices and normative conventions of the style,” the students defined. “Rap diss tracks are understood by audiences to not symbolize factual assertions in regards to the opposing artist, however quite to reveal talent and dominance meant to construct allegiance and win competitions by intelligent wordplay, hyperbole, bluster, and demonstrations of disrespect.”
The consultants additionally warned that taking rap lyrics at face worth in courtrooms might invite racial stereotypes and undermine free speech protections.
“When rap lyrics are admitted, it’s as a result of they’re handled as literal. This in flip opens the door to racial bias and stereotypes into the courtroom, as empirical research have demonstrated,” they wrote. “Treating rap lyrics as literal additionally threatens First Modification speech protections, and the observe already has created a demonstrable chilling impact throughout the business.”
Drake first filed the lawsuit in January, claiming that “Not Like Us” and its promotion falsely labeled him a “licensed pedophile.”
In April, he expanded the grievance to incorporate Kendrick Lamar‘s Tremendous Bowl LIX halftime present and his Grammy Awards look, arguing these occasions amplified the alleged defamation to a broader viewers.
UMG responded on Could 7 with a movement to dismiss, calling the lyrics “nonactionable opinion and rhetorical hyperbole.”
The label’s attorneys described the up to date grievance as “astonishing” and stated it was an effort by Drake to “save face” after dropping a public lyrical battle.
UMG additionally identified that Drake’s revised submitting eliminated earlier claims that the label had paid for bots to spice up streams of “Not Like Us,” calling these allegations “clearly false.”
“Nowhere within the hundred-plus web page ‘authorized’ blather written by Drake’s attorneys do they trouble to acknowledge that Drake himself has written and carried out massively profitable songs containing equally provocative taunts towards different artists,” UMG’s authorized crew wrote.
Regardless of the movement to dismiss, the authorized course of continues to be shifting ahead.
A choose just lately denied UMG’s request to pause discovery, permitting Drake’s crew to proceed looking for paperwork, together with Lamar’s contracts with the label.
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