Drake’s ongoing appeal of his legal loss to Universal Music Group over their promotion of “Not Like Us” has finally set a date for oral arguments.
Last Friday (Sept. 18), the U.S Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit announced that Drizzy’s lawyers will go head-to-head with UMG’s on December 4. Oral arguments before a panel of appeals court judges will be the final step before a decision is rendered.
Both sides have already submitted numerous written arguments during the appeals process. In addition, parties that aren’t involved, but have an interest in the outcome, have submitted their own written arguments in favor of UMG. The Floyd Abrams Institute for Freedom of Expression at Yale teamed up with Constitutional law scholar Professor Lyrissa Lidsky to pen a brief in support of the company, as have a separate group of social scientists and legal scholars.
Drake originally sued UMG back in the beginning of 2025, alleging defamation, harassment, and deceptive business practices regarding its release and promotion of Kendrick Lamar's diss track.
The lawsuit was dismissed in October of that year, with the judge explaining that Lamar’s lyrics “are nonactionable opinion” that do not qualify as defamation.
Drizzy appealed several months later, arguing that the dismissal could set a “dangerous categorical rule,” prohibiting others from filing defamation cases against artists or labels.
“The court effectively created an unprecedented and overbroad categorical rule that statements in rap diss tracks can never constitute statements of fact,” the appeal reads.
