Merely weeks after a similar case we reported on, a federal judge has dismissed another defamation suit based on unsupported use of the “P-word.” This case involved the rap star Drake’s ongoing verbal battle with fellow rapper Kendrick Lamar. In the Judge’s ruling, she concluded, “‘Not Like Us’ is replete with profanity, trash-talking, threats of violence, and figurative and hyperbolic language, all of which are indicia of opinion . . . A rap diss track would not create more of an expectation in the average listener that the lyrics state sober facts instead of opinion than the statements at issue in those cases.” However, whether someone is a pedophile is a matter of provable fact, not an opinion. So, the federal courts have now ruled that the P-word is OK if it is used against anyone with a non-pedophilic sex offense, or if it can be defended as opinionated “artistic license.” The courts are left to adjudicate when defamation is art. If it is art, then it is up to us as consumers of art to decide when artists have crossed the line into normalizing hate speech and to reject them when they do.
When It’s OK to Call Someone a Pedophile: Part 2
