Drake is used to winning so he’s not taking this legal L lightly.
Just when you thought the dust had settled on the most talked-about beef in years, Drizzy is stepping back into the legal ring.
The Toronto superstar has formally filed his appeal, taking the first official step to reverse the court ruling that threw out his defamation lawsuit against Universal Music Group (UMG) over Kendrick Lamar’s scathing diss track, “Not Like Us.”
Drake’s latest move is an attempt to switch up the game after a federal judge ruled earlier this month that he couldn’t actually sue over Kendrick’s jaw-dropping lyrics calling him a “certified pedophile.”
However, Drake’s legal team, who’s been adamant that millions of fans took that claim literally, had already let it be known they weren’t going out like that.
Speaking to Billboard, a rep for Drake said Wednesday: “This confirms our intent to appeal, and we look forward to the Court of Appeals reviewing that filing in the coming weeks.”
Now, the appeals court could take well over a year to even drop a ruling. But If Drizzy wins the appeal? We could be looking at years more litigation after that.
As previously reported, Not Like Us by Kendrick Lamar dropped on May 4, 2024. It was a bold diss track fired amid his beef with Drake, loaded with provocative accusations and sharp lyrical shots. People believed Kendrick “won” the feud largely because the song not only smashed commercially, debuting at number one on key charts and breaking streaming records.
At the same time it was hailed by critics as one of the strongest diss tracks ever, so it wrapped up both street credibility and mainstream dominance.
Drake’s legal eagles will bring the noise by reviving their core argument: “millions of people, all over the world, did understand the [song] as a factual assertion that plaintiff is a pedophile.”
They’re gonna argue the song was implying there was “undisclosed evidence” of wrongdoing, and the “audience understood as much,” Billboard noted.
Furthermore, they’ll argue that the judge dismissed the case too soon, denying them the chance to prove their claims with actual evidence through longer-term litigation.
If the appeals court agrees with that whole line of thinking, the case will be brought back to life and sent right back to Judge Vargas. That means more digging into Drake’s allegations and possibly a full-blown jury trial.
This beef has gone from the studio to the charts to the courtroom. It seems like the final verse is nowhere in sight.