Photo: Drake (in a cab) Drake’s Lawsuit Against Universal Music over Kendrick Lamar’s Not Like Us Track Dismissed by Judge | By Inga Parkel and Kevin E.G. Parents, The Independent | Drake’s defamation lawsuit against Universal Music Group over its release of Kendrick Lamar’s scathing diss track “Not Like Us” has been dismissed.
The Canadian rapper had sued the music label, which represents both him and Lamar, over the claim that it spread the “false and malicious narrative” that he is a pedophile with the song’s lyrics, “Say, Drake, I hear you like em’ young” and “Certified Lover Boy? Certified pedophiles.”
UMG filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit, slamming his claims as “groundless and indeed ridiculous.”
A judge granted UMG’s motion to dismiss Thursday. In the filing, seen by The Independent, the judge concluded that “the allegedly defamatory statements in ‘Not Like Us’ are nonactionable opinion.”
“A reasonable listener could not have concluded that ‘Not Like Us’ was conveying objective facts about Drake,” U.S. District Judge Jeannette Vargas said.
Vargas added: “The fact that the Recording was made in the midst of a rap battle is essential to assessing its impact on a reasonable listener.
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Go here to read more of the judge’s reasoning for his decision:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/music/news/drake-s-lawsuit-against-universal-music-over-kendrick-lamar-s-not-like-us-track-dismissed-by-judge/
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Dallas-based Christian Singer Chandler Moore Files Lawsuit Against Former Group
By Ineye Komonibo, Chron
On Oct. 6, Texan Christian singer Chandler Moore announced he was no longer part of the Grammy-winning Christian music collective Maverick City Music Group, turning the Christian music community upside down.
Moore, who resides in Dallas with his wife and children, took to Instagram to share the major career update, writing that the move was a “bittersweet decision.”
“When we started Mav, I was grateful to have community & belonging while fulfilling my dream of making music that would help people experience God,” Moore wrote on the post. “And we did that … in ways I couldn’t have imagined.”
With Moore as one of the faces of the group (alongside fellow singer Naomi Raine, who also announced her departure from Maverick City Music on the same day), Maverick City Music has seen great success. It launched in 2018 when founders Tony Brown and Jonathan Jay brought a group of singers and songwriters together for a songwriting camp in Atlanta. The following year, Maverick City debuted its first EP, spawning immediate success and a follow-up the next year.
Since then, things have taken off for the Christian music collective. They’ve topped music charts, won multiple awards (including Dove, Billboard and Grammy awards), and worked with some of the biggest names in Christian and secular music-Kirk Franklin, Tasha Cobbs Leonard, Will Smith, and Glorilla are among their high-profile collaborators.
However, a new lawsuit filed in an Atlanta court just days before Moore revealed his exit from the group shows that behind the scenes, things were not as they seemed. In details discovered by Billboard, the Dallas singer’s lawsuit claims that Maverick City Music’s CEO Norman Gyamfi (formerly Moore’s personal manager before expanding his work to the collective in 2023) defrauded and exploited him, “taking advantage of a creative musical artist and violating the trust the artist placed in the manager.” Moore alleges that Gyamfi made deals without his client’s knowledge or consent, forged his signature, and misappropriated “millions of dollars” of royalties, among other things.
When news of the lawsuit broke, discourse about Maverick City Music exploded online, . . .
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Go here to read about this chaos:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/entertainment/news/dallas-based-christian-singer-files-lawsuit-against-former-group/
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Country Star Tony Justice Sues AI Company that ‘stole his songs’
By Robert Alexander, Newsweek
A new lawsuit in federal court may help define how far artificial intelligence companies can go in using copyrighted music to train their systems. Country singer Tony Justice and his label, Knoxville-based 5th Wheel Records, have filed a proposed class action against Cambridge-based Suno Inc., alleging that the AI music startup copied his recordings without permission in order to build its generative-music model.
The case could become a pivotal test of how U.S. copyright law applies to the fast-growing field of AI-generated art, just a year after Tennessee introduced the ELVIS Act, specifically designed to protect artists.
Newsweek contacted Justice for comment via email outside of normal office hours on Tuesday.
Why It Matters
At its heart, Justice v. Suno asks whether artificial intelligence companies can legally “learn” from copyrighted music without permission—a question with sweeping implications for artists, tech firms and the future of creative work.
The outcome could determine if generative-AI systems like Suno’s must license the songs they use to train their models or if such use qualifies as “fair use” under U.S. copyright law. For independent musicians like Tony Justice, who rely on royalties and licensing to make a living, the case represents a fight for economic survival in an industry being reshaped by automation.
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Go here to read more about this complicated, maybe law-defining suit, may affect you:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/country-star-tony-justice-sues-ai-company-that-stole-his-songs/