Скачать или смотреть Drake Files APPEAL Brief for Not Like Us Defamation Lawsuit

Drake’s appeal boils down to this: the district court wrongly threw out his case by pretending that calling someone a “certified pedophile” can never be taken as a statement of fact if it appears in a rap song. He argues that this wasn’t abstract trash talk or obvious exaggeration, but a repeated, graphic accusation of a specific crime, reinforced by cover art, a music video, mass promotion, and republication to audiences far outside any rap-battle context.

Millions of people, according to the complaint, understood the accusation as real, acted on it, and some even turned violent. Drake says the judge broke basic rules by relying on materials outside the complaint, guessing how a “reasonable listener” would interpret the song, and effectively inventing a blanket rule that rap diss tracks are immune from defamation claims. At minimum, he argues, the case should have gone forward to discovery so evidence and experts could be considered, rather than being dismissed at the pleadings stage based on speculation and cultural assumptions.