Drake Lawsuit Ruling, Maverick City Case, Taylor Swift Song Debate & More Top Music Law News

THE BIG STORY: Less than a year after Drake filed a stunning lawsuit against Universal Music Group (UMG) over Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us,” a federal judge tossed it out of court. Her reason? That context is crucial.

Drake’s case claimed that UMG defamed him by releasing Lamar’s scathing diss track, which tarred his arch-rival as a “certified pedophile.” He believed that millions of people took that lyric literally, severely harming his reputation.

That might have been true, said Judge Jeannette Vargas, if Kendrick called him a pedo in a context where people expect to hear “sober facts,” like a news story. But in a series of diss tracks? Where Drake himself had suggested Kendrick wasn’t the father of his own son? In that setting, the judge said, people expect to hear bombastic insults that may or may not be true.

“The recording was published as part of a heated public feud, in which both participants exchanged progressively caustic, inflammatory insults and accusations,” Judge Vargas wrote. “This is precisely the type of context in which an audience may anticipate the use of epithets, fiery rhetoric or hyperbole rather than factual assertions.”

That outcome should surprise nobody. Back in May 2024, months before Drake sued, I asked experts whether such a case would make sense — even though it felt unthinkable at the time that a rapper would ever sue over a beef. Those lawyers told me that such a lawsuit stood little chance of success, and for precisely the reasons Judge Vargas gave last week.

But the case isn’t over yet. Despite widespread criticism and hefty legal bills, Drake seems intent on fighting this one out til the bitter end: “We intend to appeal today’s ruling, and we look forward to the Court of Appeals reviewing it,” a rep said after the decision. That means we could still be talking about the Drake v. Kendrick beef in 2026 or beyond. Stay tuned.

Other top stories this week…

MAVERICK MELEE – Days before Maverick City Music co-founder Chandler Moore announced his abrupt departure from the Grammy-winning worship collective, he sued the group and chief executive Norman Gyamfi for fraud, claiming they stole millions of dollars’ worth of royalties from him. The group strongly denied the claims as “wildly untrue,” alleging that Moore is just trying to “strong-arm” his way out of his contracts with Maverick City.

“STOP DEMONIZING” – Amid a debate over whether Taylor Swift’s new songs sound like old classics by The Jackson 5 and The Pixies, Charlie Puth took to social media to seemingly offer indirect support for his superstar pal. Though he never mentioned Taylor directly in his TikTok post, Puth told fans that “there’s only 12 notes in a scale” and that there are “bound to be similarities” to old songs when songwriters craft new ones. “We have to really stop demonizing this when it happens,” he said.

RISE UP … IN COURT – Andra Day and Jeff Evans, her manager of more than a decade, filed dueling lawsuits against each other, with each accusing the other of hoarding more than their fair share of royalty payments. Evans sued first, claiming Day was refusing to honor contract provisions that entitle him to a 40% royalty on her publishing and a 20% commission on other profits. Day then sued him back, claiming the manager had stolen more than $1 million in royalties: “Evans abused his role as a fiduciary to scam Day with blindless greed,” her lawyers wrote.

A SWIFTIE SCORNED – A Taylor Swift fan filed a class action against StubHub over allegations that the company refuses to honor its “FanProtect Guarantee,” leaving her with clearly “inferior” seats after she dropped $14,000 on Eras Tour tickets. The woman claims her pricy tickets were voided on the day of the show and StubHub offered new tickets worth only $3,600 located with “sharply angled side view of the stage” as a replacement. The case, seeking to represent potentially millions of fans, says that StubHub routinely fails to honor the FanProtect promise.

IT’S GETTING HOT – A federal judge said Nelly should be reimbursed for hefty legal bills he spent defeating a “baseless” and “frivolous” lawsuit filed by his former St. Lunatics bandmate Ali. The case claimed that Nelly owed his childhood friend a cut of royalties from the rapper’s debut album Country Grammar, but the judge said it “should have been patently obvious” that the case had “no chance of success.”

DIDDY IN REHAB Judge Arun Subramanian approved Sean “Diddy” Combs request to participate in the federal prison system’s in-house drug abuse rehab (Residential Drug Abuse Program) while serving his sentence for prostitution crimes. As Billboard‘s Rachel Scharf explains here, graduates of the RDAP treatment program can shave up to a year off their prison sentences — but there’s a catch.

CAN ZACH BRYAN SUE? The Trump administration’s Department of Homeland Security used Zach Bryan’s “Revival” in a promotional video on social media as a trolling jab at the country star after he released a song criticizing ICE raids. So Billboard wondered: Can he sue them for copyright infringement? The answer is yes, with some big qualifications.

AI LITIGATION UPDATE – A federal judge refused to allow music publishers to add claims of piracy to their lawsuit against Anthropic over copyrighted lyrics used to train the company’s Claude chatbot. The issue was important because the legality of how AI services acquire training materials — separate from the legality of using them at all — has become a key new front in the wide war over AI training.

SIA DIVORCE CASE – The singer’s estranged husband Dan Bernad demanded spousal support in their ongoing divorce case, arguing he’s owed more than $260,000 per month. Bernad said he’s “financially dependent on Sia” and that the pair live a “luxurious and upper-class lifestyle,” including private jet travel, fine dining and full-time staffers. Bernad, who was a radiation oncologist when he met Sia, also claimed the star convinced him to stop working because she disliked his long hours at the hospital.

TOUR TIFF – Rod Wave fired back at a lawsuit filed by promoter Grizzly Touring over his Last Lap tour, which claimed last month that the star owes $27 million in unrecouped advances after he failed to finish the tour. In his response, Rod said he was “was left with no option” but to cancel several dates because of massive scheduling and production issues caused by Grizzly — and that the lawsuit is trying to force him to keep working with the company.

BREAK YA CASE – Busta Rhymes filed defamation counterclaims against a former assistant, Dashiel Gables, who sued the rapper earlier this year. Gable claims the rapper assaulted him by punching him in the face for using his phone on the job, but says that claim was false and defamatory. Statements made in court are typically shielded from such claims, but Busta’s lawyers are trying to get around that rule by claiming Gables shared his case with the press and encouraged media reports about it.

Billboard‘s Live Music Summit will be held in Los Angeles on Nov. 3. For tickets and more information, visit https://www.billboardlivemusicsummit.com/2025/home-launch.