KENDRICK Lamar is ready to drop his Drake diss track at the Super Bowl next month – and “doesn’t care” what his bitter rap rival thinks.
The U.S. Sun revealed there is nothing legally Drake can do to stop Kendrick from performing Not Like Us, which insinuates the Canadian superstar is a pedophile.
Drake has launched a defamation lawsuit against his labelmate and is suing Universal Music.
But two sources close to Kendrick have told The U.S Sun that the 37-year-old plans to sign the smash-hit tune – now streamed over a billion times on Spotify – during the half-time show at the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans on February 9.
They claim some have advised him to ditch the track from his setlist, fearing that it could spark massive controversy at the iconic NFL showpiece.
The pleas, however, have fallen firmly on deaf ears.
“He won’t back down,” one of the insiders emphatically told The U.S. Sun.
“He doesn’t care about what Drake says or what he thinks about the song; it’s a hit. Kendrick won’t be silenced or shut down.”
Rapper Drake, aka Aubrey Drake Graham, is going nuclear in a bombshell lawsuit, claiming his record label threw him under the bus and put his life on the line by promoting the savage diss track.
The music megastar says Universal Music Group (UMG) didn’t just drop the track—they orchestrated a plan to help Kendrick Lamar land the coveted Super Bowl halftime slot and belt out the scathing song in front of a global TV audience of millions.
In Not Like Us, Lamar rapped:
“Certified Lover Boy, certified pedophile / Say, Drake, I hear you like ’em young / You better not ever go to cell block one / Tryna strike a chord and it’s probably A-minor.”
Stephen A. Smith delivers live TV message to Drake and Kendrick Lamar as First Take star addresses ‘bitter’ rap feud_First Take
LEGAL BATTLE
In the legal docs, Drake accuses UMG of trying to paint him as a “criminal pedophile,” claiming the campaign was a sinister bid to stir public outrage and even push fans toward “vigilante justice.”
It also details a shooting at Drake’s house just hours after the release of the song on May 7.
Court documents obtained by MailOnline detail fresh information about an incident when a car pulled up in front of the rapper’s mansion before someone shouted, “F**k Drake.”
Shots then rang out, with a bullet hitting a guard, as well going through a security gate and into the plush pad’s front door.
The guard survived after spending time in a hospital, said the filing, but the shooter was never caught.
A day later, someone tried to dig under the Canadian’s security fence and managed to get inside the house. The intruder reportedly screamed racial slurs before being taken out.
There was another attempt – making it three nights in a row – the very next evening.
There have been moves to try and block Lamar from performing the track during the big game.
But our insider says he is unfazed by the backlash.
“He doesn’t give a damn about what people say or think: he will play it, no matter what people think or agree or disagree,” he stressed.
COVER CONTROVERSY
In a further twist, the lawsuit also claims the cover art for the Grammy-nominated diss track — a song up for five Grammy awards — features a photo of his Toronto mansion with markers allegedly representing registered sex offenders.
The 38-year-old Toronto-based star launched a petition in November against UMG in state court in New York and Texas, accusing Spotify and radio corporation iHeartRadio of participating in an “illegal scheme” to boost numbers for Not Like Us.
UMG fired back, slamming Drake’s lawsuit as ridiculous.
The label called out the rapper for using their platform to drop his diss tracks, saying he’s no stranger to “rap battles” and the drama that comes with them.
“Not only are these claims completely false,” UMG told The U.S. Sun, “but the idea that we’d try to damage Drake’s reputation is beyond absurd. Why would we harm one of the biggest artists in the game?”
The fiery feud had raged since last March when Lamar brutally attacked Drake and J. Cole with bars on Metro Boomin’s track Like That.
Drake didn’t take it lying down, firing back with not one but two diss tracks—Push Ups and Taylor Made Freestyle.
Lamar, however, wasn’t about to back off, sniping hard with Euphoria and 6:16 in LA, where he tore into Drake’s parenting and even accused the Canadian superstar of getting plastic surgery.
DRAKE & KENDRICK FEUD TIMELINE
On October 6, 2023, Drake and J. Cole released First Person Shooter, in which J. Cole claimed that himself, Drake, and Kendrick are the “big three” of hip-hop.
On March 22, 2024, Kendrick responded to the claim of a “big three” in his verse on Metro Boomin and Future’s song Like That, where he instead stated, “It’s just big me,” and accused both rappers of sneak dissing.
On April 5, 2024, J. Cole dropped his Kendrick diss track, 7 Minute Drill, in which he fired “warning shots” at the rapper as he accused the good kid, m.A.A.d city artist of seeking “attention” and slammed his latest music releases as “tragic.”
But on April 7, 2024, two days after releasing the Kendrick diss, J. Cole retracted his statement and backed out of the feud, as he stated he felt pressured to respond because “the world wanna see blood.”
On April 13, 2024, Drake responded to Kendrick with Push Ups, which had lyrics ridiculing Kendrick’s height and his mainstream collaborations with Taylor Swift and Maroon 5.
The track also dissed rappers Future and Rick Ross and producer Metro Boomin.
On April 19, 2024, Drake dropped another diss track, Taylor Made Freestyle, that used AI-generated voices of Snoop Dogg and the late Tupac Shakur to pressure Kendrick to respond.
On April 30, 2024, Kendrick dropped Euphoria, a six-minute diss track, in which he criticized Drake’s biracial identity, questioned the rapper’s ability as a father, and claimed that Drake is a “scam artist.”
On May 1, 2024, Drake responded to Kendrick’s diss by posting a clip from the 1999 film 10 Things I Hate About You on his Instagram Story in which Julia Stiles’ character Kat lists the reasons she hates Heath Ledger’s character Patrick – mirroring a Euphoria bar where Lamar provides reasons he hates Drake.
On May 3, 2024, Kendrick dropped a second Drake diss track, 6:16 in LA in which Kendrick alleges Drake’s own team is working against him as he rapped, “Everyone inside your team is whispering that you deserve it,” and stated Drake “can’t Toosie Slide up out of this one.”
After Drake responded with his diss track Family Matters, where he called accused Kendrick of infidelity, the Humble hitmaker would release Meet the Grahams, his fourth diss track against the Canadian rapper.
Drake then escalated the battle with Family Matters, a nearly eight-minute mic drop accusing Lamar’s manager, Dave Free, of fathering his child.
But the Luther singer was locked and loaded – dropping Meet the Grahrams and Not Like Us less than 24 hours after Drake’s track hit the airwaves.
This rap beef is spilling over and shows no signs of slowing down, but another well-placed source says his friend won’t “bend over any potential threats or pressure from people.”
He claims Lamar wants to make a statement at the Super Bowl and is desperate to create a “lot of noise.”
“Kendrick has nothing to lose, and he always and will always do as he wants, as he doesn’t want his creativity and songs to be banned or censored,” said the insider.
“He wants to have a clear message to people, and it’s pretty simple: he is gonna do whatever he wants, point blank, period.”
