What’s going on between Kendrick Lamar and Drake? Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl 2025 performance raised questions.
Kendrick Lamar (Photo: NFL) / Drake (Photo: Drake on Instagram)
Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl LIX performance was epic! The Pulitzer Prize winner rapped his hits, “Squabble Up,” “Humble,” “DNA,” “Euphoria,” “Man at the Garden,” and “Peekaboo.” SZA also joined Kendrick Lamar on stage for a soulful live show of their songs “Luther” and “All the Stars!” But the highlight of the show appeared to be Kendrick Lamar’s Grammy Award-winning song for Record of the Year, Song of the Year, Best Music Video, Best Rap Song, and Best Rap Performance โ “Not Like Us.”
The Super Bowl LIX crowd rapped along with Kendrick Lamar, with global tennis legend Serena Williams crip walking to the beat. So what’s the big deal about it? Apparently, it has something to do with Drake.
What is Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us” about?
Kendrick Lamar dropped “Not Like Us” on May 4, 2024. Aside from bagging five Grammys last week, “Not Like Us” is one of the songs in his reignited feud with Drake. Kendrick Lamar and Drake traded a series of diss tracks through the years. However, “Not Like Us” implies serious allegations against Drake, with verses like “Say, Drake, I hear you like ’em young / You better not ever go to cell block one” and “Why you trollin’ like a b****? Ain’t you tired? / Tryna strike a chord and it’s probably A minor.”ย
A Summary of the Kendrick Lamar and Drake Beef (Timeline and Song List)
- Over the years, Kendrick Lamar and Drake have thrown subliminal comments at each other through interviews and songs. One early example is Kendrick Lamar’s guest verse on Big Sean’s “Control” in 2013.
- In 2023, Drake released his single “First Person Shooter” featuring J. Cole, who named himself, Drake, and Kendrick Lamar the “big three” of rap music. The lyrics go, “Love when they argue the hardest MC / Is it K-Dot? Is it Aubrey? Or me? / We the big three like we started a league / But right now, I feel like Muhammad Ali.“
- On March 22, 2024, Kendrick Lamar fired back in “Like That,” claiming there’s no “big three,” “it’s just big me.“
- On April 13, 2024, Drake disagreed in โPush Ups,โ where he rapped, โPipsqueak, pipe down / You ain’t in no big three, SZA got you wiped down / Travis got you wiped down, Savage got you wiped down / Like your label, boy, you in a ‘scope right now.”
- On April 19, 2024, Drake followed up with the now-deleted track “Taylor Made Freestyle,” which used AI-generated voices of Tupac and Snoop Dogg. In it, Drake went, “The first one really only took me an hour or two / The next one is really ’bout to bring out the coward in you / But now we gotta wait a f****** week ’cause Taylor Swift is your new Top / And if you ’bout to drop, she gotta approve.”
- On April 30, 2024, Kendrick Lamar brought out “Euphoria,” in reference to the series that Drake produces, leaving no single stone unturned โ from Drake’s rapping skills down to his parenting skills. Kendrick Lamar rapped, โYou not a rap artist, you a scam artist with the hopes of bะตing accepted.โ
- On May 3, 2024, Kendrick Lamar got more to say in “6:16 in LA.” The song goes, “It was fun until you started to put money in the streets / Then lost money ’cause they came back with no receipts / I’m sorry that I live a boring life, I love peace / But war-ready if the world is ready to see you bleed.”
- Also on May 3, 2024, Drake opened “Family Matters” with “Nโ, I said it, I know that you mad / I’ve emptied the clip over friendlier jabs / You mentioned my seed, now deal with his dad / I gotta go bad, I gotta go bad.”ย It then goes on to imply allegations about Kendrick Lamar’s relationships with his manager, son, and fiancรฉe Whitney Alford, such as, “You the Black messiah wifin’ up a mixed queen / And hit vanilla cream to help out with your self-esteem.”
- On May 4, 2024, Kendrick Lamar rapped “Meet the Grahams” dedicated to Drake’s father, wife, and son: “Dear Adonis / I’m sorry that that man is your father, let me be honest / It takes a man to be a man, your dad is not responsive.”
- Hours later, Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us” comes out.
- On May 5, 2024, Drake put out a play on Kendrick Lamar’s decade-long-running “The Heart” series in “The Heart Part 6,” while addressing the last two diss tracks. “You gotta learn to fact-check things and be less impatient / Your fans are rejoicin’ thinkin’ this is my expiration,” Drake raps.
Drake’s Response to Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us”
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Drake denied the allegation made by Kendrick Lamar on “Not Like Us” and took legal action against Kendrick Lamar’s record label, Universal Music Group (UMG) in January, alleging defamation and harassment for their role in promoting and releasing “Not Like Us.”ย Meanwhile, a spokesperson for UMG told CNN, โWe have not and do not engage in defamationโagainst any individual.โ
Hours before the Super Bowl halftime show starring Kendrick Lamar, Drake’s legal team reportedly expressed their continued confidence in the case.
Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl Halftime Show
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Kendrick Lamar arrived on the Super Bowl LIX halftime show stage wearing a huge sparkling lowercase “A” chain around his neck. This led viewers to anticipate his live performance of “Not Like Us” despite the ongoing lawsuit. The award-winning rapper also teased, saying, โI want to perform their favorite song, but you know they love to sue.โ To Uncle Sam’s (Samuel L. Jackson) “dismay,” however, Kendrick Lamar did not end his set without it.
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As Kendrick Lamar rapped, “From Alondra down to Central, nโ better not speak on Serena,” the camera revealed Serena Williams, crip walking. This dance style is rooted in Harlem but later became popular in Los Angeles, especially Comptonโthe same city where both the Wimbledon superstar and Kendrick Lamar grew up. Furthermore, given Serena Williams and Drake’s dating history, fans picked up on the subtle shade.
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