Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Already and this is the Daily This is the Daily OS. Oh,
now it makes sense. Good morning, and welcome to the
Daily OS. It's Wednesday, the twelfth of February.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
I'm Emma, I'm Zara.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
From Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni to Jay Z Diddy
and Prince Harry. Celebrity lawsuits have dominated the headlines in
recent months. Another high profile case is back in the spotlight, though,
this week, after Kendrick Lamar's Super Bowl halftime performance. Lamar's
disc track not Like Us is the subject of a
defamation lawsuit filed by Drake last month. Today, we'll take
(00:44):
you through everything you need to know about this long
running Drake Kendrick feud and the latest developments on this lawsuit.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
M This is one of those stories that we have
received a lot of messages about, asking us to break
it down, explain it, especially, as you said, in light
of the Super Bowl where everyone was talking about this
Kendrick Lamar Drake feud and subsequent lawsuit For anyone that
might not be up to date, and for all those
people that have slid into our dms. Where does this
(01:16):
story begin.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
So it's been nearly a year since this feud or
this story really started gaining global attention. In case you
missed it, American rapper Kendrick Lamar Canadian rapper Drake real
name Aubrey Graham were engaged in this serious fight last
year that took the form of diss tracks.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
So they began distrack.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
A distrack is part of hip hop law of generations
gone by, where artists will have feuds maybe about where
they're from, the kind of music that they're making, and
they express those feuds in the form of song. So
Drake and Kendrick began exchanging insults through a series of
these distracks, and that's soon escalated to personal attacks. It
(02:00):
moved really quickly, so you could be forgiven at the
time for not quite keeping up with all these tracks.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
That's me.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
There were multiple songs being released honestly days apart, and
that kind of all came to a head in May,
so Kendrick dropped back to back tracks aimed at Drake.
Drake released a song called Family Matters where he alleged
that Kendrick Lamar physically abused his partner. So the lyric
in question is they hired a crisis management team to
(02:27):
clean up the fact that you beat on your queen.
He rapped worth lagging here that there haven't been any
other similar allegations against Kendrick made in public just in
Drake's songs, and within minutes, Lamar released the song Meet
the Grahams, where he accused Drake of employing sex offenders.
The lyrics compared Drake to form a film producer and
convicted rapist Harvey Weinstein and urged people to quote keep
(02:50):
their family away from him. The day after Kendrick released
Meet the Grahams, he dropped not Like Us Now. This
is the song in question. This song is the subject
of a defamation lawsuit filed by Drake last month. Now,
in terms of where this all started, why they hate
each other so much, it seems in the first place,
(03:10):
it might be hard to believe now that there was
a time when Drake and Kendrick Lamar might have been friends.
They featured in music together, they shared tour stages, but
that was short lived, and they've been feuding pretty much
ever since twenty thirteen. I do think it's important to
kind of acknowledge that rap is a genre of music
famous for egos and big personalities and feuds. You know,
(03:33):
think Big in Tupac, jay Z and Nas fifty cent
and Kanye. So this is kind of a long standing
tradition in the genre, but it has gone a little
bit further.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
So.
Speaker 1 (03:43):
Kendrick featured on a Big Sean song in twenty thirteen
called Control There with Me Where. On that song he
called out Drake, J Cole and a host of other rappers,
warning them quote, I got love for you all, but
I'm trying to murder you. In an interview with Billboard,
Drake dismissed Kendrick's words as an ambitious thought and basically
(04:04):
he said there's no way that Kendrick was kind of
ever going to succeed more than him or ever be
a better or bigger rapper than him. Now, over the
next few years, they exchanged jabs pretty harmless. It never
seemed that serious. And then in twenty twenty three, rapper
J Cole featured on a Drake song called First Person Shooter,
where he referred to himself and Drake and Kendrick as
(04:27):
raps big three. So this idea that J Cole, Drake
and Kenny are the three most kind of consequential or
popular rappers of their time. In March twenty twenty four,
If You're Still with Me, a hidden track with an
uncredited verse by Kendrick popped up on an album from
producer Metro Boomen and rapper Future. Kendrick rapped that there
(04:48):
was no Big Three, It's just Big Me. A lot
more was said on that song, but I won't bore
you with all of the detail. All you need to
know really is that that lit a fuse for Drake.
It seems j Cole released a disc track in response
to that about Kendrick, but he later described it as
a misstep, apologized took it all back. So the Big
(05:09):
Three became the Big two, and it seems like there
was kind of no going back for Kendrick and Drake
from that point.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
Okay, so they've obviously exchanged strong words on a number
of occasions through a number of distracks. But why is
not like us the song that you said is the
subject of this defamation suit. Why is that song any
different to anything else that's happened.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
Yes, so you could argue there are two reasons for
the focus being on this song, and the first is
its lyrics and the second is its popularity. We'll start
with the lyrics, which drake claims include false allegations that
he's a pedophile. So some of the lyrics include Drake,
I hear you like him young, make sure you hide
your little sister from him trying to strike a chord,
(05:51):
and it's probably a minor, certified lover boy, certified pedophile.
That's a lyric in reference to Drake's twenty twenty one album.
And then the popular plority of this song is relevant
to the legal action that will get too shortly.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
Because that song blew up.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
It absolutely blew up. It's skyrocketed to the top of
the charts. It became Spotify's most streamed American hip hop
song in a single day, and at the time of recording,
not Like Us is well on its way to one
point one billion streams on Spotify. To put that into perspective,
Kendrick is, you know, a long time popular figure in
(06:25):
rap music. He has twenty two Grammys to his name.
He is a Pulitzer Prize winning artist. He's been releasing
music for well over a decade, but in less than
a year, not Like Us has become one of his
most streamed songs, and in terms of its critical success,
the track won all five categories. It was nominated in
at the recent Grammy Awards, including Song of the Year.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
That was a big one. Yeah, And so that song
was released in May, but the lawsuit didn't emerge until
January of the following year. What happened in between them?
Speaker 1 (06:57):
So in the months between the release of not Like
Us this lawsuit, the few didn't go away. There was
plenty happening. A security guard was shot outside Drake's home
in Toronto. There were also several attempted break ins and
trespassing incidents at that house last year. And in November,
Drake filed but then withdrew, a legal claim against Universal
(07:17):
Music Group. Both he and Kendrick have deals with UMG
to publish their music, and that claim accused Universal of
using bots to inflate the streaming numbers of not Like Us.
Interesting the label denied those allegations and that action was dropped.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
And so that brings us to this year when Drake
filed defamation action. And what do we need to know
about this lawsuit?
Speaker 1 (07:38):
So Kendrick wrote and produced the song, but he is
not the one being sued. As with that previous petition,
Drake is actually suing Universal. So the Canadian rapper is
alleging that the song not Like Us suggests he is
a pedophile, which he denies, and UMG's publicity of the
song is defamatory. Specifically, Drake alleges that the song was
(07:59):
quote in tended to convey the specific, unmistakable and false
actual allegation that he is a criminal pedophile and to
suggest that the public should resort to vigilante justice in response. Now,
Kendrick and Drake have a deal with Universal that means
it publishes and promotes their music in exchange for a
percentage of streaming and sales revenue. So Drake alleges that
(08:22):
Universal publicized not Like Us as much as possible for
profit to profit off those big streaming numbers. Legal documents
say this lawsuit is not about the artist who created
the song. It's instead entirely about Universal Music Group, which
decided to quote, publish, promote, exploit, and monetize allegations that
it understood were not only false but dangerous. Drake alleges
(08:46):
UMG worked to make the song ubiquitous so that it's
not just fans of rap who now believe he is
a quote certified pedophile, but also that the broader kind
of community, that broad pop culture, the new cycle audiences
around the world that we're talking about it. And Drake
has also alleged that Universal organized for Kendrick Lamar to
perform the song at this week's Super Bowl halftime show.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
Yeah. I mean that's the big talking point here, that
all eyes were on Kendrick Lamar as he performed at
the halftime show. We were all watching in the office
trying to figure out if he was going to perform this,
if he was going to be allowed to perform it.
He ultimately did perform the song. Talk me through what happened.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
Yes, So, as you mentioned, Zara, there was a lot
of speculation, will he won't here? Are we going to
hear this song? Kendrick did give us a little teaser
early in the performance and he said.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
This, I want to perform their favorite song. But you
know they loved a super.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
Fans were then in overdrive wondering what that meant. But
he did eventually give them what they wanted and performed
part of the track, including some of the controversial lyrics,
but he stopped short of using the word pedophile.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
I hear you like make sure you had your bills
system from sort of fun number points Fun, you tie
your trying to strike report, and I'm curious to hear
what Universal has said about this. I mean, in the
lawsuit that you just spread out, Drake is very clearly
(10:18):
calling out their role, or at least what he alleged
ess to be their role in all of this. What
has their response been.
Speaker 1 (10:25):
Yeah, it's an interesting one because, as we've discussed, you know,
this is a music label that publishes for both artists
in question here, so tricky and unlike anything I've really
seen in the public eye. UMG said that it plans
to fight the lawsuit. It says, quote, Drake has intentionally
and successfully used Universal to engage in conventionally outrageous back
(10:47):
and forth rap battles to express his feelings about other artists.
It said, he now seeks to weaponize the legal process
to silence an artist's creative expression and to seek damages
from the label for distributing that artist music.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
Has Drake done other dis tracks about other artists before.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
Yes, Drake is well known throughout his many many years
of not being shy when it comes to distracks. There
have been so many artists in the firing line. Even
some of these distracts about Kendrick have also criticized other artists,
including The Weekend, so it's not unusual for him as
an artist to use that form of expression. Universal has
(11:25):
also said, not only are these claims untrue, but the
notion that we would seek to harm the reputation of
any artist, let alone Drake, is illogical. It noted the
label has invested massively to use its words in Drake,
helping him quote achieve historic commercial and personal financial success.
We have not and do not, engage in defamation against
(11:46):
any individual, the statement concluded. Now, coincidentally, Drake is here
in Australia right now.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
Is he just thought he'd be on a different time
zone to watch the super Bols? Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1 (11:56):
So, I mean he's away from the chaos in the
US and the interest in him there. But I'm sure
local fans are waiting to see what he might have
to say. He's doing a huge run of stadium shows
over the next four weeks, so there will be plenty
of local interest and local attention to see what he
does next and if this escalates.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
Look, it's a really interesting story. And again, you know celebrities,
that's not really our arena, but I think how this
sort of story interacts with the legal system and the
ramifications and the precedent that might be set. That is
really what makes this so newsworthy. And you know everyone
is talking about and I now better understand it. So
thanks for explaining that.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
Aam a pleasure. Thank you, and thanks so much for
listening to this episode of The Daily Hours. If you
learned something, feel free to share it with a friend.
Don't forget to follow or subscribe wherever you are listening
to the podcast or if you're watching us over on YouTube.
We'll be back a little later on today with your
evening headlines, but until then, have a good one.
Speaker 2 (12:58):
My name is Lily Madden and I'm a proud Arunda
Banjelung Kalkadin woman from Gadighl Country. The Daily oz acknowledges
that this podcast is recorded on the lands of the
Gadighl people and pays respect to all Aboriginal and torrest
Rate island and nations. We pay our respects to the
first peoples of these countries, both past and present.