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