A copyright lawsuit that briefly put Drake and an Italian photographer on a collision course is now over, and decisively so.
Gabriele Galimberti, a National Geographic photographer, has dropped his copyright infringement suit against the rapper over visuals used in the music video for “What Did I Miss?”, according to recent court filings reviewed by Billboard.
The case was dismissed with prejudice, meaning it cannot be refiled.
Galimberti sued Drake in November of last year, alleging that a scene in the video copied imagery from The Ameriguns, his 2020 photo project documenting American gun culture. Both the photograph and the video scene feature men posed around swimming pools, with firearms arranged in deliberate, symmetrical patterns.
The lawsuit named Drake, whose legal name is Aubrey Drake Graham, as well as Universal Music Group and Republic Records.
The dismissal appears to have hinged less on a dramatic courtroom showdown than on procedural failure. According to Digital Music News, court records indicate that Galimberti’s legal team did not properly serve Drake or the other defendants, a misstep that ultimately sank the case before it could advance.
No settlement has been disclosed, and neither side has commented publicly on whether money changed hands.
When the suit was first filed, it drew outsized attention because of the subtext Galimberti claimed was at play. His complaint argued that Drake intentionally referenced The Ameriguns because of the photographer’s past association with a widely condemned 2022 Balenciaga campaign, which sparked backlash over allegations of sexualizing children.
Galimberti argued in the filing that Drake was attempting to mirror his own public vindication following that controversy amid Drake’s feud with Kendrick Lamar. That feud matters here. Lamar’s diss track “Not Like Us” famously labeled Drake a “certified pedophile,” prompting Drake to file a defamation lawsuit against Universal Music Group. A federal judge dismissed that case last fall, ruling that rap battle lyrics are understood as exaggeration rather than statements of fact, a decision Drake is now appealing.
With Galimberti’s case now closed for good, Drake exits this skirmish with a clean legal win, even as broader questions about appropriation, reference, and cultural signaling in music videos continue to simmer just beneath the surface of the industry’s copyright fights, including Drake’s ongoing appeal over the limits of artistic expression in rap battles.
