Drake vs. Kendrick Lamar: A complete timeline of the rappers’ beef

• Drake and Kendrick Lamar, once collaborators early in their careers, are now actively beefing.
• Their feud reached a fever pitch in May 2024, when Lamar dropped the diss track “Not Like Us.”
• Now, Drake is suing Universal Music Group for allowing the song’s release.

in a New York court against Universal Music Group (UMG) — the record company that owns Lamar’s label Interscope and Drake’s label Republic Records — as well as the streaming giant Spotify.

The petition accuses both UMG and Spotify of using illicit methods, such as bots and payola (otherwise known as “pay-for-play”), to inflate streams of “Not Like Us.”

The filing also claims that “Not Like Us” caused Drake to suffer “economic harm.”

Hours after the filing made headlines, Billboard unearthed another action by Drake’s company, filed the same day in Texas court. The second petition claims that UMG “funneled payments” to the radio conglomerate iHeartRadio in order to boost spins of “Not Like Us.”

Drake’s lawyers alleged that UMG could have blocked “Not Like Us” from being released because it “attacked the character of another one of UMG’s most prominent artists, Drake, by falsely accusing him of being a sex offender, engaging in pedophilic acts, harboring sex offenders and committing other criminal sexual acts,” per Billboard.

“The suggestion that UMG would do anything to undermine any of its artists is offensive and untrue,” a spokesperson for UMG told BI.

“No amount of contrived and absurd legal arguments in this pre-action submission can mask the fact that fans choose the music they want to hear,” the spokesperson added.

Representatives for Lamar and Drake did not immediately respond to BI’s requests for comment. A representative from Spotify declined to comment.

In January, Drake sued UMG for spreading a ‘false and malicious narrative’

In a defamation lawsuit filed January 15 in federal court, Drake claimed UMG “approved, published and launched a campaign to create a viral hit out of a rap track” which was “intended to convey the specific, unmistakable and false factual allegation that Drake is a criminal pedophile, and to suggest that the public should resort to vigilante justice in response,” per The New York Times.

The suit also accuses UMG of valuing “corporate greed over the safety and well-being of its artists,” citing the security guard who was injured outside Drake’s home as an example of the song’s repercussions. (The cover art for “Not Like Us” is a photo of Drake’s home in Toronto, covered in red sex-offender markers.)

Drake withdrew his November legal action filed in New York against UMG and Spotify in favor of filing the new defamation suit in federal court.

Representatives for Drake and UMG didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment from BI.

Lamar won five Grammys for ‘Not Like Us,’ including record and song of the year

Lamar was the most-awarded artist at the 67th annual Grammy Awards, where “Not Like Us” swept its nominations for best music video, best rap song, best rap performance, record of the year, and song of the year.

Lamar did not mention Drake by name in either of his televised speeches, but much of the crowd sang along to “Not Like Us” as he made his way to the stage.

Lamar did praise “all the West Coast artists,” calling them “the cats that inspired me to be the emcee I am today.”

“This is what it’s about, man, because at the end of the day, nothing more powerful than rap music,” Lamar said while accepting song of the year. “I don’t care what it is. We are the culture that’s gonna always stay here and live forever.”

Lamar didn’t mince words while performing ‘Not Like Us’ at the Super Bowl

One week after the Grammys, Lamar took the field in New Orleans to headline the 2025 Super Bowl halftime show.

Lamar performed a medley of recent hits, including “Euphoria” and “Not Like Us” as the penultimate song.

Although Lamar omitted the word “pedophile” from the broadcast, he clearly rapped several lines that reference his nemesis, including “Say, Drake, I hear you like ’em young” — while looking directly at the camera — and “Tryna strike a chord and it’s probably A minor,” which appeared to have the whole crowd singing along.

At one point during the song, the camera cut to Serena Williams crip walking — an interesting choice for a guest given that she and Drake sparked dating rumors back in 2015. Seven years later, Drake mocked the star athlete and her husband, Reddit founder Alexis Ohanian, in in the 2022 track “Middle of the Ocean.”

In “Not Like Us,” Lamar chastises Drake for disparaging Williams: “N**** better not speak on Serena.”

At the end of Lamar’s halftime performance at Caesars Superdome, lights in the crowd spelled out the words, “Game over.”

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.