Michael Rapaport's defamation lawsuit against Barstool Sports explored as Drake drags comedian in his pushback against UMG's dismissal motion

As per exclusive reports by AllHipHop, Drake's legal team has recently cited that Michael Rapaport's failed defamation lawsuit was the basis of UMG's attempt to get the suit dismissed. According to the team, Rapaport's suit against Barstool Sports involved some exaggerated online feuds and no grave criminal accusations.

According to the outlet, Drake's team further added that UMG was trying to compare a case in which Michael Rapaport was called insults like "fraud" and a "creepy herpes riddled failure", to a case in which Drake was labeled a p*edophile.

According to the lawyers, the primary aspect that separated the two cases was the believability factor. The outlet reported that as per the rapper's legal team, Michael's case for dismissed due to the court's ruling that no reasonable person would interpret the attacks on the actor as truths, mostly due to their exaggerated versions.

Drake's lawyers argue that Not Like Us falsely labeled him a p*dophile, making the claim seem credible, especially since it was performed at major events such as the Grammys and Super Bowl.

For context, in 2018 Michael Rapaport sued Barstool Sports and several people associated with it, including CEO Dave Portnoy. The actor reportedly sought $15 million in damages back then. The defamation case went on for about three years until it was dismissed by the court in 2021.

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Why did Michael Rapaport sue Barstool Sports in 2018?

In June 2017, Michael Rapaport first announced that he was going to be a part of Barstool Sports. His contract with the blog website included an amount of $600K, revenue sharing, and other benefits. The situation, however, began deteriorating within a few months.

The issues stemmed when the 55-year-old actor tweeted about a Barstool employee, accusing them of taking steroids for a boxing match. As per reports by The Hollywood Reporter, Michael even responded to a fan by tweeting:

"[I]f you call yourself a f*cking stoolie for real, you’ve already lost in life."

This prompted Portnoy to terminate Michael's contract for insulting fans. In response, the actor shared a photo of him sodomizing the CEO. During the next few months, the blog website shared multiple posts calling the actor a racist and claiming that he had herpes. They also claimed that he would stalk his ex-girlfriend.

This led to the 2018 defamation suit by Michael Rapaport. A breach of contract lawsuit was also filed at the same time by the actor. U.S. District Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald dismissed the case in 2021 and said:

"As used here, these labels represent nothing more than the Barstool Defendants’ subjective evaluations of Rapaport that are incapable of being objectively proven true or false."

The judge, however, allowed the breach of contract lawsuit against Barstool Sports. Finally, in September 2022, these claims were also dismissed in a summary judgment by the district court. Following this, in January 2024, the decision was further affirmed by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals.