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Slander or 'trash-talking'? Drake-Kendrick Lamar feud has a day in court
A federal judge is pondering the nature of rap battles in Kendrick Lamar's "Not Like Us," the diss track that spurred a defamation lawsuit from Drake.
Universal says the lyrics are just hyperbole in the tradition of rap beefing, and the label is trying to get the case dismissed.Judge Jeannette Vargas didn't immediately decide after a lively hearing Monday, when the raw creativity of hip-hop brushed up against the staid confines of federal court. He argued that Universal had campaigned and contrived to make it "a de facto national anthem" that didn't just address hip-hop fans who knew the backstory and were accustomed to over-the-top lyrical battling.The average listener could be "a 13-year-old who's dancing to the song at a bar mitzvah," Gottlieb suggested. ""What you hear in these rap battles is trash-talking in the extreme, and it is not, and should not be treated as, statements of fact," the attorney said.The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages.Drake also went after iHeartMedia, claiming in a Texas legal petition that the radio giant got illegal payments from Universal to boost airplay for "Not Like Us."
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