DJ Akademiks believes Drake's relationship with UMG will be "fractured" after Drizzy's lawsuit against the record label was dismissed in court

Drake has been fighting a defamation lawsuit against UMG (Universal Music Group). However, his lawsuit against the company was dismissed on October 9, 2025, by a district judge. Now, DJ Akademiks has come forward with his opinion on the matter, and he believes that the Canadian rapper's relationship with the company will be fractured:

"I believe Drake's situation with Republic/UMG is gonna be fractured. I don't care...I think what Drake kinda got himself into is that Universal is like not only do we just give it a whooping in court, now we gotta really humble your a** because we can't have you in a position where you think you can just willy nilly go ahead file some type of civil suit that kinda f**ks up our business."

Akademiks continued:

"So I definitely do believe. I believe a hundred percent that UMG is going to be looking at how much money they had to spend here and they're gonna get that off the back of Drake."

UMG's official statement on the matter states that they're looking forward to continuing their work with Drake. However, Drake's representatives have confirmed that they are going to appeal the decision, as per Variety.

Drake's lawsuit was dismissed by Judge Vargas

The rapper's lawsuit against UMG was dismissed by District Judge Jeannette Vargas, who stated in her ruling that there was no case for defamation because Not Like Us, the Kendrick Lamar track at the center of the lawsuit, was made during a rap battle between the two artists and therefore considered public opinion and thus not actionable accusations or facts:

"The fact that the Recording was made in the midst of a rap battle is essential to assessing its impact on a reasonable listener. Even apparent statements of fact may assume the character of statements of opinion… when made in public debate, heated labor dispute, or other circumstances in which an audience may anticipate the use of epithets, fiery rhetoric or hyperbole."

The Judge's statement continues:

"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."

Pop Crave

@PopCrave

Drake’s lawsuit against Universal Music Group over Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us” has been dismissed.

Drake's UMG lawsuit began in January 2025. The singer initially filed the defamation lawsuit against UMG, arguing that their promotion of Kendrick Lamar's track Not Like Us hurt his reputation, as the track accuses him of being a pedophile.

Trending

Before that, in a petition filed in late 2024 against UMG as well as Spotify, the rapper accused both the company and the streaming platform of artificially inflating the streaming numbers of Not Like Us. He filed the lawsuit after withdrawing this petition.

UMG responded by filing a motion to limit discovery. This motion to pause discovery was not granted, and the court proceedings continued, with UMG's March 2025 motion to dismiss the lawsuit ultimately being granted in the above-discussed ruling in October 2025.

×

Was this article helpful?

Thank You for feedback