Of Disrespect and Defamation: What Hip Hop Feuds Can Teach Us About the Truth

A lawsuit by Drake against Kendrick Lamar got me thinking

Welcome to the waning days of the Empire…sorry, the end of 2024. The Frontier Psychiatrists is a health-themed publication that veers routinely into adjacent areas with a profound impact on our well-being. Today, we will cover the crucial domain of defamation law as it applies to beefs in Hip-Hop.

And Baka got a weird case, why is he around?
Certified lover boy, certified pedophiles

—Kendrick Lamar, “Not Like Us”

Nobody likes to be disparaged. Some individuals take particular issue with disrespect to their honor.

American jurisprudence is based on English Common Law—which, at least up through the 1500s generally considered defamation, which includes both spoken content, or slander, and written content, or libel. Way back when, these issues were dealt with by ecclesiastical courts. However, they were limited in the damages they could dole out. It was already understood that insulting somebody's sexuality or sexual preferences was a more grave form of insult than others. Eventually, t…