Drake v. UMG Round Two Is Underway — Rapper Officially Appeals ‘Not Like Us’ Lawsuit Dismissal

Drake isn’t ready to put his “Not Like Us” litigation in the rearview quite yet. Now, the 39-year-old is appealing the $1 billion defamation complaint’s dismissal.

At this point, pretty much everyone is familiar with the straightforward suit, which named UMG Recordings but not Kendrick Lamar himself as a defendant. Multiple twists and discovery developments later, a federal judge tossed the action earlier in October, explaining “that the allegedly defamatory statements in ‘Not Like Us’ are nonactionable opinion.”

On the heels of the dismissal, a Drake spokesperson underscored plans to appeal. “We intend to appeal today’s ruling, and we look forward to the Court of Appeals reviewing it,” the rep spelled out in a statement to DMN.

Now, just shy of three weeks later, said appeal is officially underway, Team Drake confirmed in a brief notice today.

Though the same notice doesn’t include concrete details about the direction of the appeal itself, we’ll be covering the revived legal battle as it unfolds.

More immediately, it seems safe to say that the ongoing dispute isn’t exactly improving the professional relationship between UMG and Drake, particularly given that multiple execs were dragged into the ugly courtroom confrontation’s first round. Even so, the Toronto-born artist is reportedly preparing to drop an album entitled Iceman via Republic (and OVO) before 2025’s end.

Similarly, it’s abundantly clear that the optics of litigating over (not against the creator of, once again) a diss track aren’t excellent. Even now, fans needn’t look far at all on social media to find criticism of Drake’s decision to sue – criticism that will presumably reignite in tandem with the appeals process.

“Bro too busy appealing his second L to drop music,” one such Instagram comment reads, with separate remarks directly referencing the alleged insinuations in “Not Like Us.”

Plenty of different commenters, evidently unbothered by the complaint, are taking the opportunity to beg Drake to send along a bit of money. And some diehards are focused solely on the aforementioned Iceman; the project doesn’t have a firm release date, but 2025 is, of course, winding down.

In other litigation news, Drake is also fending off a class action for allegedly “glamorizing” the “deeply fraudulent” gambling platform Stake. (Is there a correlation between this alleged glamorization and the many Drake supporters who say they’re broke?) Judging by his latest Instagram post, the rapper doesn’t intend to stop promoting the cryptocurrency-based casino due to the suit.