Rap lyrics are handled in another way than different genres in relation to dealing with authorized penalties. Even when issues are acknowledged within the starkest of phrases, there’s a level of inventive license that’s assumed. Gerard Method and the remainder of My Chemical Romance didn’t get any surprising wellness checks or the like after their repeated performances of “I’m Not Okay (I Promise).” Nor did Paul McCartney or Ringo Starr get charged with threatening a minor for the road “I’d rather see you dead, little girl / Than to be with another man” on the tune “Run For Your Life.” Taylor Swift has written a number of songs about her exes and hasn’t been dragged to court docket over aired laundry. And but, Zohran Mamdani dangers being denaturalized over rap lyrics from nearly a decade ago. If solely Younger Cardamom was a Nation act.
After getting musically beaten, curbstomped, and victory lapped by Kendrick Lamar, Aubrey Graham is leaning on authorized in a final ditch effort to faux affect and win a rap battle. Drake has pointed the blame at Common Music Group, Spotify, miscellaneous YouTube streamers — hell, everybody however Kendrick Lamar — arguing that the rap battle tipped over into defamation when Lamar accused Drake of being a pedophile. In what’s the authorized equal of responding “boo hoo,” UMG is transferring to dismiss the go well with. Law360 has protection:
Common Music Group on Monday urged a New York federal decide to dismiss a defamation go well with from hip-hop star Drake in opposition to the document label over the hit dis monitor “Not Like Us” by his rival Kendrick Lamar, casting Lamar’s lyrics as opinion and hyperbole.
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At a listening to Monday afternoon earlier than U.S. District Decide Jeannette Vargas, an lawyer for UMG, Rollin Ransom of Sidley Austin LLP, argued that the context surrounding Lamar’s statements is essential, as a result of contextual evaluation typically determines whether or not statements are asserted as truth or opinion.“What you hear in these rap battles is trash speaking to the acute, and shouldn’t be handled as statements of truth,” Ransom mentioned.
A part of the dispute hinges on Kendrick utilizing the phrase “licensed pedophiles” within the tune “Not Like Us.” The decide confirmed some concern that the qualifier licensed could possibly be learn as Kendrick saying that Drake was formally confirmed to be a pedophile. Ransom responded that an extraordinary listener ought to have sufficient context to hearken to the tune and never learn the licensed bit as a foregone authorized conclusion. I feel that he’s proper. Drake has referred to himself as a “licensed lover boy”– he dropped an album with the identical identify in 2021 — it simply looks like Kendrick was flipping the phrase licensed. Rappers do lyric flips all the time. What’s subsequent, holding a rapper civilly chargeable for a double entendre?
The decide has but to rule on the case. Can be good if this case was wrapped up so we may all hearken to the brand new Clipse album without worrying that it, too, will become evidence in a Drake lawsuit.
UMG Says Drake Insults Are Just Trash Talk, Not Defamation [Law360]
Earlier: Drake’s Attempt To Parlay Rap Battle Loss Into Courtroom Success Results In Another Loss
I Don’t Think People Understand How Silly It Is To Use Song Lyrics As Evidence
Chris Williams turned a social media supervisor and assistant editor for Above the Legislation in June 2021. Previous to becoming a member of the employees, he moonlighted as a minor Memelord™ within the Fb group Legislation Faculty Memes for Edgy T14s . He endured Missouri lengthy sufficient to graduate from Washington College in St. Louis Faculty of Legislation. He’s a former boatbuilder who’s studying to swim, is thinking about essential race idea, philosophy, and humor, and has a love for biking that often annoys his friends. You may attain him by e-mail at [email protected] and by tweet at @WritesForRent.
