(SOUNDBITE OF KENDRICK LAMAR SONG, "NOT LIKE US")
AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
What's beef? Well, usually, it's rappers trading barbs against one another in songs and, in some cases, even trading physical blows. But the beef between superstar rappers, Drake and Kendrick Lamar has taken a different path. On Wednesday, Drake filed a new lawsuit in a U.S. court related to the dispute. We'll get to the details in a moment, but Lamar's lyrics and the fallout were pretty rough.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "NOT LIKE US")
KENDRICK LAMAR: (Singing) Atlanta when you need a few dollars. No, you're not a colleague. You a [expletive] colonizer.
RASCOE: Still, Drake didn't sue Lamar. He's going after his own record label. Joining me to bring us up to date is Sidney Madden, a reporter for NPR Music. Welcome.
SIDNEY MADDEN, BYLINE: Hey, Ayesha.
RASCOE: So, you know, the song, "Not Like Us" - it came out last year. Remind us what all the hype was about. Like, what went down with this song?
MADDEN: "Not Like Us" is a Kendrick Lamar song that dropped last May. And it was one of the biggest tracks of the year, pulling in billions of streams.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "NOT LIKE US")
LAMAR: (Singing) They not like us. They not like us. They not like us.
MADDEN: It's actually a diss track against Drake. In the song, Kendrick goes at Drake for a few different reasons, and he notably calls him a pedophile.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "NOT LIKE US")
LAMAR: (Singing) Certified Lover Boy? Certified pedophile. Wop, wop, wop, wop, wop.
MADDEN: This is an allegation that Drake has said is false, and he denied it in the lawsuit that we're going to talk about. But first, the impact of "Not Like Us" has gone way beyond a rap beef between two rap adversaries. It propelled Kendrick into dropping his latest album in November, and it was the fastest rap album to reach a billion streams last year. Now, looking ahead, the song itself is nominated for a few Grammys, and Kendrick is going to be performing at the 2025 Super Bowl. So he's gained a lot of shine and a lot of traction off this track.
RASCOE: But the lawsuit that Drake is bringing is not about the song itself. That's what I thought at first. It's about more than that.
MADDEN: Yes. What's of note here with this lawsuit is it's not about the actual song. That's not what Drake's lawyers are accusing of being defamatory. It's how the label, Universal Music Group, used the song. The lawsuit alleges that Drake and Kendrick's parent label released, heavily promoted and mobilized around the song in a way that put Drake's life and livelihood in immediate danger.
The filing says UMG removed the song's copyright restrictions on YouTube and Twitch to allow people to republish it more broadly. The lawsuit alleges that UMG did all this in order to damage Drake's reputation and back him into a corner to get him to re-sign a deal with them that would be more favorable to the label. UMG is denying the claims that Drake makes in his lawsuit about the nature of releasing and promoting the song.
RASCOE: So we should make a note here that the lawsuit references coverage of this beef by many journalists, and your coverage for NPR is among the stories mentioned, Sidney. But, like, there's a long history of rappers disparaging each other's in songs, you know, and really going at each other. But it usually doesn't end up going down this sort of legal route. Like, what makes this move different from what normally happens when rappers are going at each other?
MADDEN: This is definitely an escalation in their conflict between the two of them, but this also sets a new precedent for rap beef in general. I've studied a lot of lyrical content being used as evidence in court before. But in this case, we've never seen a rap star sue their own label for dropping a dis track that wasn't in their favor. Rap beef, at its worst - it can definitely escalate to violence between artists or other people. And according to details in the suit, Drake is saying that's what's happening.
For example, the complaint alleges that because the cover art of "Not Like Us" features an aerial view of his home, and it has dropped pins that denote that sex offenders live in that home, there have been attempted home invasions that Drake has had to deal with in the last year. The suit also says that Drake has had to pull his child out of school and relocate him because of the accusations.
RASCOE: And let's remember, though, this song was a part of a back and forth between Drake and Kendrick. So they were both releasing songs going at each other at the time, and Drake made some very serious claims against Kendrick as well, like, during this beef. I mean, it just makes me think, like, hip-hop wise, like, is there something that's too far for a diss record? Like, what crosses the line?
MADDEN: It's an interesting question because the name of the game is to embarrass your opponent into submission when it comes to rap beef. And historically, there's been no line. It's no holds barred. So you think about other tracks like Tupac's "Hit 'Em Up"...
TUPAC: You claim to be a player but I [expletive] your wife. We bust on bad boys [expletive] for life.
MADDEN: ...Or Nas, "Ether."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "ETHER")
NAS: (Singing) What you think, you getting girls now 'cause of your looks? Negro, please. You no mustache having, with whiskers like a rat. Compared to Beans, you wack.
MADDEN: When we talk about what crosses the line, I think it comes down to the level of bruising the ego that moves somebody to go from words to actions. So per Notorious B.I.G. and Tupac back in the '90s and many other rap beefs since then, the action was physical violence. With Drake, the action is a civil lawsuit.
RASCOE: And we haven't seen this before. Like, could there be an impact on the industry depending on how this lawsuit plays out?
MADDEN: When diss tracks are dropped on streaming platforms instead of in unofficial releases, freestyles or mixtapes, like, money is involved, right? And thinking about how hip-hop has become such a big business, Drake is going after the business end of the conflict instead of the creative, instead of the music itself. So if he were to be successful in this suit, it would likely change the rules of engagement for how diss tracks can be released via the label machine.
RASCOE: That's Sidney Madden. She's a reporter for NPR Music. Thank you so much.
MADDEN: Thank you.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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