Drake has filed his appeal after his lawsuit against Universal Music Group (UMG) over Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us” was dismissed, arguing that the judge issued a “dangerous” ruling that rap can never be defamatory.

Drake’s case, filed last year, claimed that UMG defamed him by releasing Lamar’s chart-topping diss track, which tarred his arch-rival as a “certified pedophile.” But a federal judge ruled in October that fans wouldn’t think that insults during a rap beef were actual factual statements.

In his awaited appeal of that ruling on Wednesday, Drake’s lawyers say that’s actually exactly what listeners thought: “Millions of people understood [Not Like Us] to convey factual information, causing countless individuals around the globe to believe that Drake was a pedophile.”

To dismiss Drake’s case despite that reality, his lawyers say, the judge created an “unprecedented” and “dangerous” precedent: that statements in a rap track can never be considered defamatory.

“It is hard to imagine a statement more damaging to one’s reputation and safety than being labeled a ‘certified pedophile,’ which elicits intense vitriol, and can spur violent retaliation,” Drake’s attorney Michael J. Gottlieb writes. “The court’s rule brushes aside the risk of concrete reputational harms that can and here, did spill over into violence.”

The appeal marks the next chapter in a legal battle that stunned the music industry. Few expected a rapper to respond to a diss track with a lawsuit — a move that drew ridicule in the hip-hop world. Fewer still expected him to file it against UMG, his longtime label and the biggest music company in the world.

Lamar released “Not Like Us” in May 2024 as the knock-out punch in a series of bruising diss tracks from the two stars. The song was not only seen as a final rhetorical victory for Lamar, but also went on to become a chart-topping hit in its own right. The track won five Grammy Awards, including record and song of the year, and formed the centerpiece of Lamar’s Super Bowl halftime show.

Last January, Drake responded with litigation – claiming UMG had defamed him by boosting the track’s popularity, including through the use of bots and other nefarious marketing tactics. The lawsuit, which didn’t name Lamar himself as a defendant, alleged that UMG “waged a campaign” against its own artist to spread a “malicious narrative” about him.

But in October, Judge Jeannette Vargas dismissed the case. She said Kendrick’s insulting lyrics were the kind of “hyperbolic” opinions that cannot be considered defamatory because listeners would not think they were “sober” statements of fact that could be proven true or false.

“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.”

In Wednesday’s appeal, Drake’s lawyers called that ruling “indefensible” – warning that it had ignored evidence that fans understood the song as a “factual indictment of Drake” and instead had issued “dangerous” new rule that rappers can’t be sued.

“If rap diss tracks cannot contain statements of fact, then they are inoculated from any liability for defamation no matter how direct and damaging the defamatory statements they contain,” his lawyers say. “This case illustrates that.”

Lawyers for UMG will file a response in the coming weeks. A spokesman for the company did not immediately return a request for comment on Thursday.

What qualities of Bruno Mars’ new single, “I Just Might,” helped it soar to a No. 1 debut on the Billboard Hot 100 (dated Jan. 24)?

Here’s a look at the sonic highlights of the song — the first taste of Mars’ album The Romantic, due Feb. 27 — that contributed to its out-of-the-gate chart success.

Still Retro, Still Relevant

With the exception of his 2024 ROSÉ collaboration, “APT.,” Mars’ three most recent Hot 100 top 10s prior to “I Just Might” — “Leave the Door Open,” “Smokin Out the Window” (both with Anderson .Paak via their Silk Sonic side project, in 2021) and “Die With a Smile” (with Lady Gaga; 2024) — have been rooted deep in 1970s nostalgia. “I Just Might” continues that lineage through a meticulous blend of classic disco, funk, R&B/soul and pop, brought to life by era-authentic instrumentation including acoustic drums, electric bass, vintage overdriven guitar, handclaps and a full brass section.

Since the beginning of the 2020s, just 3% of Hot 100 top 10 hits have featured this specific combination of ‘70s-inspired genres and influences — and Mars goes deeper than most. The result is a song that’s instantly recognizable to his core fanbase yet distinctive in today’s marketplace, reinforcing that when he revisits a familiar sound, he doesn’t merely recycle it — he sets the bar for how high it can go.

Keeping the Party Going

The song’s carefree, live-it-up party theme is a relative rarity on today’s charts, appearing in less than 10% of Hot 100 top 10 hits since the start of the ‘20s. Yet for Mars, it’s a proven sweet spot — showing up in roughly 42% of his top 10s over the past decade-plus, including such chart-toppers as Mark Ronson’s 2015 smash “Uptown Funk!,” featuring Mars, and 2017’s “That’s What I Like.”

Say It Again … and Again

“I Just Might” is a hook lover’s dream, with every section packed with vocal and instrumental ear candy. But the defining technique is what Hit Songs Deconstructed calls the “say it again” repetition-based hook approach. From the song’s playful “doo, doo, doo” opener to repeated pre-chorus phrases including “break my heart” and “show me now” to the echoed title hook in the chorus and nonsensical “whoo”s in the second post-chorus, repetition drives memorability.

The result is a song that rolls effortlessly off the tongue — catchy, fun and perfectly aligned with its party-first spirit.

David and Yael Penn cofounded Hit Songs Deconstructed. In 2023, Hit Songs Deconstructed and fellow song analysis platform MyPart publicly launched ChartCipher, an AI-powered platform analyzing a deeper scope of hit songs, as defined by Billboard’s charts.

Roughly two‑thirds of U.S. consumers say they are not particularly interested in listening to music that is partly or entirely created using artificial intelligence, according to a new survey by Bain & Company.

Bain’s Media Consumption Survey 2025 asked several thousand people about their interest in engaging with a variety of forms of entertainment and media, from video games to social media to books. Researchers found that U.S. consumers have the lowest tolerance for AI when it is used to make music, news and magazines and books. Roughly 62% of respondents said they would not or were less likely to engage with AI-generated music, with another 30 percent of respondents saying they were equally likely to engage with AI-generated music.

“That was one of the strongest endorsements of human-created content across media types,” Bain researchers Matt Keith and Nicole Magoon wrote.

Consumers were even less warm to AI-generated news, magazines and books, with 65% and 71% saying they would not engage or were less likely to engage with AI-generated content in those mediums, respectively.

Nonetheless, most respondents were open to AI being used in limited ways, including to enhance vocals or instruments on a track or improve lyrics.

More than half of the study’s some 3,500 respondents said they were equally interested or more interested in hearing songs that used AI to write lyrics, and 56% of respondents expressed equal or greater interest in songs where AI was used to translate lyrics into another language and replicate the singer’s voice singing the lyrics in that other language.

Around 60% of respondents expressed equal or greater interest in songs that used AI to create instrument sounds or to enhance the sounds of instruments or vocals, and 67% — two-thirds — said they were equally or more interested in songs that used AI to help with the initial idea, development or to improve lyrics.

Researchers Keith and Magoon say these findings reflect an audience that is mostly ready to accept AI as a new additive tool in music so long as it doesn’t replace artists’ authenticity.

They add that AI presents needed opportunities for the major music companies, creators and companies in the live entertainment space.

Existing creators can use it to “work faster [and] experiment more” to meet the need to release “more music more frequently,” angling for better exposure across streaming platforms’ algorithms and playlists and stand out from the new class of hobbyist creators enabled by AI.

The researchers suggested that labels and live music companies could use AI to improve and extend older artists’ ability to perform live by using AI tools for “instant voice de-aging” and improving sound mixing to match a variety of venues and accoustics.

“The creators and companies that accept [generative AI] and move swiftly to capitalize will have a shot at enduring success,” the authors wrote, adding they suggest the industry soundtrack these next steps to R.E.M.’s “It’s the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine).”