On March 22, 2024, Kendrick Lamar was featured on a song with famous rapper Future and rap producer Metro Booming on a song titled Like That. In the song, Kendrick Lamar talked poorly towards rapper Drake, including lines such as “*explicit* first-person shooter, I hope they came with three switches,” which refers to a song by Drake called “First-person Shooter,” where he called J. Cole, Kendrick Lamar, and Himself the big three. Kendrick Lamar did not like being referred to as that; even 10 years ago, he said in a song that he has a love for a lot of rappers, including J. Cole and Drake, but is trying to murder them.
Rapper Kendrick Lamar
Drake and Kendrick Lamar went on to go back and forth with songs defaming each other as a result of “Like That.” These songs continued until May 5th, 2024, when Kendrick Lamar was released, which shattered multiple records, including Fastest Rap Song to Surpass 100 Million Streams and most streams on a rap song in a week. The song taunted Drake and his team’s image with lines like “Say Drake I hear you like em young,” “To any *explicit* that talk to him and they in love just make sure you hide your lil sister from him,” “Certified Lover Boy? Certified pedophile”, “your homeboy need subpoena that predator move in flocks that name gotta be registered and placed on neighborhood watch.” All of these lyrics suggest Drake and the people he’s associated with are pedophiles.
Drake hasn’t taken these accusations lightly and is filing a lawsuit against Universal Music Group (UMG) for promoting and publishing the song “Not Like Us.” Drake didn’t file the lawsuit against Kendrick and focused on UMG, even saying the release of “Not Like Us” shows “corporate greed over the safety and well-being of its artists.” The lawsuit also alleges that the song encouraged violence against Drake as after the song came out, Drake’s bodyguard was shot, and on two separate occasions, people tried breaking into his house. Kendrick Lamar’s music does have lyrics that allude to the idea of hurting Drake, such as “he *explicit* around, get polished” (polished meaning killed), “you think the bay gonna let you disrespect Pac *explicit*? I think that Oakland shows gon’ be your last stop”, and “roll they *explicit* up like a fresh pack of ‘za.” Rappers commonly use the metaphor of putting someone in a marijuana cigarette as a way of indicating they want to kill that person.
Rapper Drake
Drake thinks that UMG was monetizing the drama and allowing the accusations to go wild, bringing in much attention. Diss tracks do garner a lot of attention, as seen in the past with songs like Ice Cube’s “No Vaseline,” Tupac Shakur’s “Hit em’ Up,” Dr. Dre’s “Dre Day,’ and Notorious B.I.G.’s “Who Shot ya?”. These songs were made over 30 years ago and are still talked about to this day, so it could seem plausible that UMG would want to monetize drama due to how many streams diss tracks gain. Drake’s lawsuit against UMG hasn’t ended yet, but if the judgment is made in favor of Drake, it could raise many questions about what is allowed in music and if other rappers should be held accountable for threats they’ve made in songs. Many rappers make threats to other people’s lives, and this lawsuit may influence other rappers who have been threatened to do the same thing.
