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Caalarogus Shark Media, Good morning, I'm read Carter Monday, October thirteenth,
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twenty twenty five. Finally a celebrity case that doesn't involve murder.
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Drake sued Universal Music Group over Kendrick Lamar's disk track
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Not Like Us. Kendrick called Drake a pedophile. Literally Thursday,
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a federal judge tossed the lawsuit. Her ruling in the
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context of a heated rap battle, no reasonable listener would
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believe Kendrick was stating facts its opinion protected speech. Drake's appealing.
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Twenty three bodies have been found in Houston Bayous this year.
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Officials say there's no serial killer, just coincidence, drownings, accidents,
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nothing to worry about, But retired NYPD Sergeant Joseph Jackaloni
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isn't buying it. Something is afoot, he told Fox News
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a coincidence unlikely. Bodies found every other day in the
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same waterways, different ages, genders, ethnicities, no obvious pattern except
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they all end up in Bayous and Houston residents are
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launching their own investigations because they don't trust official answers.
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And Mark Sievers is back in court fighting his death
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sentence in twenty fifteen, he hired hitmen to murder his wife, Teresa,
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with a hammer five insurance policies totaling four point four
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million dollars. Mark attended her funeral and said, I was
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and still am, the luckiest man in the world. Now
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he's on death row, trying to overturn his conviction. I'm
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Red Carter today.
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Drake versus Kendrick the Houston Bayou mystery that officials refused
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to investigate as serial killings and the husband who hired
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hitman then gave a touching eulogy. This is Celebrity Trials.
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Drake versus Kendrick Lamar, the most infamous rap battle in
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hip hop history, and now a defamation lawsuit. Spring twenty
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twenty four, the feud erupts. Drake and Kendrick, two of
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hip hop's biggest stars, start trading distracks. It escalates quickly.
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In April, Drake releases push ups, mocks Kendrick's height and
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shoe size, questions his success. Kendrick responds with euphoria, insults
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Drake's fashion sense, and questions his authenticity. Then it gets
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vicious personal The insults become attacks. May twenty twenty four,
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Kendrick drops not like Us. Judge Janette Vargas calls it
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the metaphorical killing blow. The song has a catchy beat,
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propulsive bassline. It becomes one of twenty twenty four's biggest songs,
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wins Record of the Year and Song of the Year
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at the Grammys, helps make the Super Bowl halftime show
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the most watched ever. When Kendrick performs it, and the
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lyrics explicitly called Drake a pedophile. I hear you like
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him young. That's not subtle, that's direct. The song attacks
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Drake as a colonizer of rap culture, makes insinuations about
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his sex life, calls him out by name. The cover
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art shows an aerial photo of Drake's Toronto mansion with
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more than a dozen sex offender markers overlaid on it,
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like Drake's house is full of registered sex offenders. Obviously exaggerated,
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obviously doctored, but there it is, Drake's home marked as
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a sex offender residence. January twenty twenty five, Drake files
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a defamation lawsuit, not against Kendrick, directly against Universal Music Group,
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the parent label for both artists. The lawsuit alleges UMG
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intentionally published and promoted Not Like Us despite knowing it
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contained false, defamatory allegations that it tarnished Drake's reputation and
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decreased his brand value. Drake also blamed the song for
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real world consequences attempted break ins at his Toronto home,
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a security guard shot. The lawsuit claims the song suggested
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listeners should resort to vigilante justice against Drake. UMG denies everything,
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says the lawsuit is an affront to all artists and
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their creative expression. Thursday, October ninth, Judge Vargas tosses the lawsuit.
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Her written opinion is fascinating. She recaps perhaps the most
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infamous rap battle in the genre's history, acknowledges that calling
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someone a pedophile is certainly a serious accusation, then explains
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why it's not defamation. Context matters. This is a rap battle,
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not a news article, not a documentary, not investigative journalism.
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Its two rappers trading insults in a public feud that
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both participated in willingly. Vargas writes, a reasonable listener could
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not have concluded that Not Like Us was conveying objective
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facts about Drake. The broader context of a heated rap
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battle with incendiary language and offensive accusations hurled by both participants,
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would not incline the reasonable listener to believe that the
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song imparts verifiable facts. She notes the song as replete
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with profanity, trash talking, threats of violence, and figurative and
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hyperbolic language, all of which are indichia of opinion. A
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reasonable listener, she says, would conclude that Lamar is wrapping
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hyperbolic vituperations. Hyperbolic vituperations. That's legal language for over the
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top insults. Vargas also addresses the cover art thirteen sex
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offender markers on Drake's mansion, her ruling, no reasonable person
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would view the image and believe that law enforcement had
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designated thirteen residents in Drake's home as sex offenders. It's
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obviously exaggerated and doctored. The judge considers the forum rap
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battles aren't thoughtful investigations, they're not fact checked content. They're
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artists insulting each other creatively. The average listener understands this.
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Nobody hears a distrack and thinks, well, that must be
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literally true because it's in a song. Drake's lawyers immediately
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announce their appealing They believe the Court of Appeals will
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overturn this ruling. U MG's statement from the outset this
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suit was an affront to all artists and their creative expression.
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We're pleased with the dismissal and look forward to continuing
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our work promoting Drake's music and investing in his career.
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Think about the implications if Drake won. Every distrack becomes
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a defamation lawsuit. Every rapper who calls another rapper a name,
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questions their credibility, makes exaggerated claims, faces legal liability. Hip
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hop battles, a fundamental part of the culture become legally dangerous.
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Eminem's entire career would be litigation. Every beef would end
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in court instead of on tracks. Artists would lawyer up
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before releasing songs. The genre would fundamentally change. Kendrick didn't testify,
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wasn't a defendant. This was Drake versus Universal Music Group,
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Drake arguing that his own label should have protected him
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from another artist on the same label, UMG arguing that
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both artists have creative freedom and the label can't censor
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one to protect the other. The song generated massive attention
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for both artists. Kendrick got Grammy Awards and the Super Bowl.
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Drake got a dismissed lawsuit, but the feud itself generated publicity,
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streams engagement. Both artists benefited commercially even as they destroyed
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each other lyrically. Will the appeal succeed. Probably not. First
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Amendment protects opinion. Rap battles are clearly opinion. The context
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is so obviously hyperbolic that no reasonable person mistakes it
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for factual reporting. Courts protect artistic expression, especially when both
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parties are public figures engaged in a voluntary public feud.
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Drake could have responded with another disk track, could have
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ignored it, could have addressed it in interviews. Instead, he sued,
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and now Not Like Us is more famous than ever
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because of the lawsuit, the strissand effect in action. Kendrick
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Lamar called Drake a pedophile in a Grammy winning song.
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The courts say that's protected speech. Welcome to hip hop.
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We'll be right back with the Houston Bayou mystery and
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twenty three bodies that officials refused to investigate as serial killings. Houston,
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Texas America's fourth largest city, and this year, twenty three
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bodies have been pulled from the city's Bayous official say
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it's not a serial killer, just coincidence. Retired detectives say
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that's unlikely, and Houston residents are conducting their own investigations
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because they don't trust the answers they're getting. Late September,
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officials announce five bodies found in five days. Houston police
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claim the total for twenty twenty five is fourteen deaths,
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but KPRC investigates using medical examiner records, the real number
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is twenty two, and Wednesday, October ninth, another body is
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found in white Oak by U twenty three. Last year,
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twenty four bodies were found in Houston BYOUS this year,
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with almost three months still remaining, we're already at twenty three,
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one less than the entire previous year. But officials say
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there's no pattern, no serial killer, nothing to worry about.
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Mayor John Whitmyer, September twenty third, enough of misinformation and
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wild speculation by either social media, elected officials, candidates, the media.
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We do not have any evidence that there is a
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serial killer loose in Houston, Texas. Strong denial, forceful definitive,
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no evidence, just drownings accidents. Houston has two thousand, five
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hundred miles of Bayous, people fall in, it happens, move along.
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But Joseph Jackaloni, retired NYPD sergeant and criminal justice professor
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at Penn State Lee High Valley, isn't buying it, he
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told Fox News. Something is afoot, a coincidence unlikely. Jackoloni
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says more work needs to be done. A careful inspection
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of each case is warranted, including the forty eight hours
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prior to the discovery of their disappearance. That's the key question.
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What happened in the forty eight hours before these people
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ended up in Bayous? Where were they? Who saw them?
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How did they get to the water? Did they fall?
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Were they pushed? Were they killed elsewhere and dumped? Houston
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police say there's no pattern, but let's look at the victims.
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The first found last month was jade Elise McKissick, twenty
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years old University of Houston student. September eleventh. She left
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a local bar, left her cell phone behind, went to
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a gas station next door to buy a drink, walked
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toward brays by You September fifteenth, her body was discovered.
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No signs of trauma or foul play, police say. Lauren Johnson,
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who sang with McKissick in Church told The Daily Mail,
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Jade was such a light in our room. She was
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talented and always had a smile on her face. Jade
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was also a great friend to me, whom I looked
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up to for her ambition and her go get it attitude.
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I miss her so much and I hope her family
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finds closure. Closure requires answers. How does a twenty year
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old walk toward to buy you and end up dead
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with no signs of foul play? What happened in those
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four days between leaving the bar and being found? The
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latest three identified seth Hanson thirty four, found September sixth,
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sixteenth in White Oak Bayou. Arnulfo Alvarado sixty three, found
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September eighteenth in Buffalo by You Mikaela Miller, age unavailable,
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found nearly a week later. Police Captain Salaam Zia says
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there's no pattern. It runs the gamut genders, ethnicities, age range,
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and that's the official position. Different victims, different locations, different circumstances,
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no connection. Twenty three people ages fourteen to sixty nine,
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males and females, different ethnicities, all found in Houston Bayous.
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Police say no connection, but retired NYPD sergeant Kevin Gannon
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has a theory. Gannon believes the deaths could be connected
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to the Smiley Faced killings, a controversial theory that claims
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young college aged men found dead across the US were
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murdered by organized serial killers. The FBI has rejected this theory,
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most criminologists dismiss it, but Gannon in sissists. He told
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Fox News, We've never seen drowning numbers like this before,
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especially with a drowning occurring every other day in the
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same location. He admits the age range doesn't match the
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typical smiley face pattern, usually young men in their twenties,
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but suggests the killers might be expanding their victim pool.
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Gannon provides no evidence, just speculation based on a theory
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the FBI calls unfounded, but his comments fuel the rumors.
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Social media explodes with theories, TikTok videos warning people to
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avoid byous amateur detectives launching investigations. TikTok user Darius Sticker,
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let's set up a trap. As you know we have
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a serial killer on the loose. Just the thought that
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could possibly be my baby girl one day get snatched
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up and found in a by you That really bothers me.
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The police is clearly having a problem doing their job.
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I'm not understanding. After the first body, why aren't there
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people staking out and watching? Good question? Twenty three bodies
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and ten months, Why no surveillance, Why no increased patrols,
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Why no undercover operations? If officials truly believed these were murders,
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wouldn't they be doing more? But officials maintain these are
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drownings accidents. Houston Mayor John Whitmyer suggested drug and alcohol
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abuse among the homeless could be a factor. Said, some
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are thrown in by others living on the streets. That's
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a theory based on speculation about a vulnerable population with
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no evidence to support it. Jackloni, the retired NYPD sergeant,
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called Whitmyer's remarks premature. You have sixteen bodies, he was
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speaking before the latest deaths. You can't just say everybody's
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dying and getting thrown into the river, and everybody's homeless.
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You don't even know if they're from your town. That's
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the problem. Autopsies aren't complete, causes of death aren't determined.
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Some victims haven't been identified, but officials are already declaring
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there's no seri real killer. How do they know without
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completing investigations. Christa Gering, criminal justice professor at University of
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Houston Downtown, explained to The Daily Mail why she doesn't
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think it's a serial killer. When serial killers kill an individual,
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there's a cooling off period, so to find multiple bodies
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all at once or one day after the next is
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not characteristic. Serial Killers also have signatures, specific methods, victim types.
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They prey on vulnerable people in Houston. Gehing says, the
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only pattern is these bodies show up in a by you.
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But what if the pattern is the by you itself?
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What if someone is targeting people near water or dumping
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bodies in water knowing they'll be found, but evidence will
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be degraded, Water washes away, DNA degrades trace evidence makes
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time of death harder to determine. Wednesday's body number twenty
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three was found in White Oak by You at one
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hundred Marie Street around nine ten am. No obvious signs
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of foul play, Police say, dive team recovered it, autopsy pending,
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cause of death pending, everything pending, while officials maintain there's
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no connection to the other twenty two bodies. The Daily
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Mail reached out to Houston Police and the Harris County
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Institute of Forensic Sciences for comment about when investigations might
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be concluded. Houston Police said there were no new updates
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to provide. No updates. Twenty three bodies ten months and
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officials say there's nothing to investigate. Maybe they're right. Maybe
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it's all coincidence. Twenty three people fell into Bayous or
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drowned or died near water naturally, different ages, genders, locations, circumstances,
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all unconnected. Just Houston's water problem getting worse this year.
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Or maybe Joseph Jackaloni is right, something is afoot, a
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coincidence unlikely. Maybe Houston has a serial killer targeting people
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near Bayous. Maybe someone is getting away with murder because
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officials refuse to connect the dots. Maybe twenty three families
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deserve better answers than no signs of foul play while