Today, Explained - Super Bowl GNX

Episode Date: February 7, 2025

Kendrick Lamar is celebrating his latest album, GNX, on the biggest stage in American music. But everyone wants to know if he’s bringing the beef. NPR’s Sidney Madden and Stephen Thompson explain. This episode was produced by Travis Larchuk, edited by Amina Al-Sadi, fact-checked by Peter Balonon-Rosen and Victoria Chamberlin, engineered by Andrea Kristinsdottir and Patrick Boyd, and hosted by Sean Rameswaram. Transcript at vox.com/today-explained-podcast Support Today, Explained by becoming a Vox Member today: http://www.vox.com/members A handmade t-shirt celebrating Kendrick Lamar's hit song "They Not Like Us." Photo by Michael Blackshire / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today Explained is not bringing you the story of Not Like Us Today. We did that back in May when it was the biggest story in music. But a lot has happened since then. Shortly after our episode aired, Kendrick Lamar closed out a Juneteenth concert by playing the Drake diss track six consecutive times. In September we found out Kendrick would be headlining the Super Bowl halftime show. The song became the anthem for the Dodgers' championship season. It got played at Harris rallies, remember Kamala? Then in November it got nominated for five Grammys. It would go on to win all of them on Sunday. That's

a record for any song ever. But also in November, Drake took this beef to court. That's never really happened in a rap beef before. Just a few weeks ago, Drake sued Kendrick's label over Not Like Us. There's pending litigation over this song heading into Kendrick's performance this Super Bowl Sunday, and that's what we're gonna explain on the show today. One more time. Yes!

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Today Explained. Sydney Madden has been following the Drake-Kendrick story for months for MPR, and she's here to tell you about how this historic rap beef became a historic legal battle. So back in November, in the midst of, honestly, Kendrick dropping his sixth studio album and taking a big victory lap off the beef, Drake filed a legal action alleging that his label, his parent company, Universal Music Group, colluded with the streaming giant Spotify in order to boost Not Like Us to become this streaming darling and one of the most streamed songs of 2024. And debuting in the number one spot is Kendrick Lamar's Not Like Us. Certified lover boy, certified pedophile. All right, 2024 has been a great year for Kendrick as he lands on top of the Billboard charts. It's Lamar's first ever number one on the year end global songs chart. And really became this undeniable hit and propelled it to be such a cultural force.

And I think the merits of that were questioned because we heard that song at high school graduations at Bar Mitzvahs. They don't even like drink at the Bar Mitzvahs. At weddings. As walkout songs at sporting events. Number 9. Gavin. Lux. What the hoes be. Spotify didn't do any of that, you know?

People have autonomy and that song bumps. Like, let's be honest. They not like us. They not like us. So, that legal action was later withdrawn and this new lawsuit that really replaced it, it goes at Universal Music Group specifically and it's not about the song itself, it's not about the merits of the song or how popular the song was, but it's about how UMG used all of its power in the music industry to mobilize the song and further the accusation

that Kendrick makes in the track, which is that Drake is allegedly a pedophile. Drake denies the claim that he's a pedophile or a child groomer of any kind, but it details the amount of real-world harm that's been caused by the accusations in the song. Now we should say here that UMG is Kendrick Lamar's label, but it also happens to be Drake's label, right? Exactly. I mean, that's just the way the music industry works now. Everything becomes a conglomerate.

So yeah, this is both artist, parent label. When Drake took this legal action on this song back in the fall of last year, I remember seeing conjecture that part of the reason he was doing this was to maybe put himself in a stronger bargaining position for his contract negotiation at UMG. Did you see that? Do you think that might have been part of what was going on here? Um, I am not a member of Drake's legal team, so I can't say indefinitely what the strategy was. But in the January lawsuit, the argument that's being set up

is that UMG went after Drake by way of promoting the song so heavily in order for him to be in a weaker position for his character to be defamed and his brand to be so tarnished that he would resign to UMG at a rate and at a understanding and agreement that was more favorable to UMG. And I mean what we know about Drake, Drake is one of the top artists in the world. He's the most streamed artist outside of Taylor Swift. Drake has continued to dominate the Billboard charts in the 2020s with four number one albums.

Highly anticipated would be an understatement. Drake's new album, Certified Loverboy, became Spotify's most streamed album in a single day. Drake commemorated toppling multiple chart records that were long held by the Beatles with an Abbey Road inspired tattoo on the Fab Four. He makes UMG a lot of money and with money comes power, so he has a lot of bargaining power. But if your reputation is so tarnished by this claim

that you're allegedly a pedophile, obviously that's gonna lower your stock, so if you were gonna resign to that company, they'd have more leverage. The lawsuit names vloggers, YouTubers, Twitch streamers, and even established news outlets as sources that according to his lawyers ran with the narrative and the accusation of him being a pedophile and really defamed him and his life and livelihood. I should say MPR is mentioned in the lawsuit. I myself am even mentioned in the lawsuit

as one of the journalists. So Drake reads your work, we can assume or what? Or his lawyers do, I don't know. But the lawsuit also shares photos of flyers that were posted around his neighborhood in Toronto, alleging that he was a sexual predator. And the lawsuit also details that the ridicule and that the threats were getting so bad around him

that he had to pull his child out of school. Someone shot at his house, right? Yes, that there have been break-ins that have happened at his house since May that he thinks are connected to the song and promotion of the song. And yes, a member of his team, one of his bodyguards, was even shot and injured during one of those break-ins. So these are all the pieces of evidence

they're putting forward in furtherance of the argument that this song has done real harm to him and it's UMG's fault. Why isn't Drake just suing Kendrick or going after Kendrick specifically? Is it because that would be a worse look for him in hip hop? I don't know about looks because in the court of public opinion and in the culture, the look is not that great already.

But it is a good question that's been floating around a lot. And one thing that Charles said in a past episode of Today Explained that I want to underline is there's no rules in rap beef. Period. The thing that people have to understand about rap beef is rap beef is not about truth that much. Rap beef is about who is the funniest or who will go low and will punch you the hardest. Drake also went at Kendrick a lot during this rap beef and he accused Kendrick of abusing his wife. They hired a crisis management team to clean up the fact that you beat on your queen.

And he alleged that one of Kendrick's children was fathered by another man. I heard that one of them little kids might be day free. So if you were to go ask Kendrick directly, he could potentially open himself up to a counter suit there. There was a lot of mudslinging back and forth. But what is it that Jay-Z says? He says, I'm not a businessman. I'm a business man.

I'm a business man. Me and my business team. Like, both Kendrick and Drake are businesses. They are corporations in their own right. Hip-hop is also, in many senses, a business. And in Drake's lawsuit against UMG, they make it very clear that this is not about a war of words between two artists and it makes no claims against Kendrick for that. It's about UMG as the publisher

and the exclusive rights holder of their music making this, quote, malicious decision to promote one of the songs so heavily over others that have come out in the context of The Beef. So for everyone who thinks Drake just keeps taking L's, there is something to be said for what they're not seeing, which is behind the scenes, Drake protecting what Drake cares about most, which is his bottom line.

Period. He knows that, culturally speaking, unequivocally, he lost this rap beef, right? But he's going to get his lick back one way or another. When it comes to his pockets, that's a great way to look at it. Kendrick and Drake are part of the Mount Rushmore of hip-hop, and that comes with setting new precedents in hip-hop and taking hip-hop to new levels and that includes monetarily speaking.

Okay, so it remains to be seen how this is all going to get settled between Drake and his label UMG. But we should also note that Drake is not yet done losing this battle because it's the Super Bowl this weekend and Kendrick Lamar is the halftime entertainment. this weekend, and Kendrick Lamar is the halftime entertainment. [♪MUSIC PLAYING》 To the victor goes the spoils, right? Kendrick announced that he was going to be the halftime performer last year,

I would say in the aftermath of going back and forth with Drake, bar for bar, and this is part of his victory lap. He also just grabbed five Grammy Awards at the 67th annual Grammys for this song, Not Like Us, including for song and for record of the year. That's brand new territory for a diss track period. So right now there's a lot of speculation about whether Kendrick will perform this song at probably one of the biggest stages of the world. Sydney Madden, NPR Music, how a rap beef landed on one of the biggest stages in the world when Today Explained returns.

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your jobs more visibility at indeed.com slash vox ca. Just go to indeed.com slash vox ca right now and support this show by saying you heard about Indeed on this podcast. Indeed.com slash VOX CA. Terms and conditions apply. Hiring Indeed is all you need. Psst. I see today explained. I'm Stephen Thompson. I'm a host with NPR Music and I'm also on Pop Culture Happy Hour. So you know our friend Sydney from earlier in the show. But perhaps unlike Sydney, you are currently sitting in front of a Green Bay Packers beach towel of some kind. I am speaking to you from my home studio, which is decked out with Packers paraphernalia,

win or lose. I'm ride or die. Go Pack Go. Okay. So you care about music, but you also care about football. So we're coming to you to ask for a prediction. Because we're speaking to you on Thursday, February 6th. The show is airing on Friday, February 7th. The Super Bowl, of course, is Sunday, February 9th.

So at this point, no one yet knows whether Kendrick will play not like us at the Super Bowl. I'm gonna ask you if you have a hunch. No one yet knows whether Kendrick will play not like us at the Super Bowl. I'm going to ask you if you have a hunch. My hunch is that if people are expecting this to be some big moment for Kendrick to dunk on Drake, I think it's very unlikely. That doesn't, at the same time, mean that he's going to forgo not like us entirely. I think there are ways. if you think about the way

Super Bowl halftime shows have evolved over the years, they've really evolved into these kind of medleys of an artist's biggest hits. So I think he's gonna have an opportunity to kind of weave in They not like us, they not like us without necessarily incorporating the stuff that is dunking on Drake. So my prediction is that you'll hear bits and pieces of Not Like Us without necessarily bringing in the parts of this song that have been controversial, that have resulted in lawsuits, etc. And if honestly, if I'm Kendrick Lamar, I don't want to make this moment about Drake anyway. I'm making this moment about me. I'm making this my giant victory lap as I head into a massive world tour and continue

to promote this chart-topping album. I'm not worried about some rap beef. That is so last year, literally and figuratively. You know, I've been listening to Kendrick for many, many, many years now. I've seen him live several times. I've realized this is the culmination of a decade plus effort on his part. And yet my hunch is next to someone like Beyonce or Coldplay or Maroon 5 or Shakira or Katy Perry or The Weeknd, most American households cumulatively cannot name more than like three Kendrick Lamar songs at most. And I'm going to maybe even say two. Wow. Is he like a bit of a rare duck in the Pantheon at Super Bowl performance?

I mean, it's interesting. For purposes of comparison, let's talk about Usher, who performed at the Super Bowl last year. I think there are many American households where if you put a tape recorder in front of their faces and said, name three Usher songs, they might not be able to do so. But then once you see that medley, you're like, oh, I know that song. I know that song. Well that song's been on the wind for a decade. True.

So sometimes the idea like can you name three songs, if somebody is not a music nerd, if somebody has not seen Kendrick Lamar in concert, if somebody has not, you know, does not anxiously anticipate the drop of every Kendrick Lamar record, that doesn't necessarily mean that there's not widespread familiarity with this music. And I do think that is one thing that Not Like Us did, is it certainly for people who weren't necessarily familiar with every song on To Pimp a Butterfly or Damn, virtually any household is going gonna at least know Not Like Us. One effort that has really been made in recent years is to make the Super Bowl halftime show a big, collective cultural experience where everyone's kinda talking about it.

And for people who might not know a whole bunch of Kendrick Lamar songs, they're still gonna be able to participate in that conversation. And that's something that the Super Bowl really wants. They want this event to be gigantically culturally all-encompassing and not just about a football game. But you, I believe, have looked at the long history of the Super Bowl halftime show and argued that it hasn't always been such a big deal. What are the humble origins of this musical interlude

to really the biggest night in sports in the United States? It is truly remarkable how recently the Super Bowl halftime show was a punchline. Present of Super Bowl halftime extravaganza. Could this be my chance? Starring at Prince of Presto Digitation, Elvis Presto. The Super Bowl was born in the USA in the 60s. It was on the wave of the future then. There was a very pivotal moment in Super Bowl halftime history when the Super Bowl halftime show was performed by Michael Jackson. I remember that and he like popped out of the stands. And this was the Super Bowl in 1993 and the year before the Super Bowl

halftime show before was called Winter Magic Salute to the 1992 Winter Olympics. And honestly, even in the years since, there definitely was a point, pretty shortly thereafter, where the Super Bowl halftime show just became the showcase for some huge star. But even there, there's a stretch of halftime shows in the aftermath of the controversy in 2004 with Justin Timberlake and Janet Jackson, when he bared her partially exposed breast on national television and everyone got the vapors, which by the way was Justin Timberlake's fault.

Where the Super Bowl halftime shows became very, very buttoned down and very, very safe. Boomer forward. Yeah, very boomer forward. Even when you think about what is widely and rightly considered the greatest Super Bowl halftime show of all time was by Prince in 2007. Reach. Purple rain, purple rain, that's alright. That is sandwiched in between the Rolling Stones and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.

And it wasn't until relatively recently, particularly when Roc Nation and Jay-Z took over the production of the Super Bowl Halftime Show, that they really tried to go for very, very current artists, very hip hop forward. They've tried to kind of make the show younger and more culturally current and more well versed in things like hip hop. But that's a very recent phenomenon. I'm glad you brought Jay-Z into this conversation because I believe it was Jay-Z who once rapped on Ape Shit,

a song he shared with his wife. I said no to the Super Bowl. You need me. I don't need you. Every night we in the end zone. Tell the NFL we in stadiums too. Last night was a... How is it that Jay-Z became such a key figure

in programming a show that he's too good for? Yeah, and I mean, you gotta think about what's more powerful than performing at the Super Bowl? Deciding who performs at the Super Bowl. And so there is certainly a larger conversation here around the troubled history of the NFL and black entertainers stemming back in part to the controversy around Colin Kaepernick

and his national anthem protests and how Colin Kaepernick was effectively driven out of the league. And that created a lot of backlash against the NFL by black musicians. My sense is the people that don't like what he's saying don't like it when black people talk about anything when it comes to justice.

They don't want us to talk about justice. They don't want us to talk about equality. They don't want us to speak up. Colin Kaepernick, as long as you're new with us, we're going be standing for you baby, Al." And bringing in Jay-Z to help program the show kind of allowed the NFL an in with a lot of the performers that it wanted to perform at the halftime show. And so Jay-Z's history with the NFL really is a history of him figuring out how to kind of barge into the boardroom and make some of these decisions. It's interesting though, and now, you know,

the Super Bowl halftime show isn't historically a very political interlude to the football. Although, you know, Beyonce's performance with Coldplay years ago did feel like it had political underpinnings. Cold is now less wicked for a nation. Of Okay, it is now let's take the information out... -♪ Of course, Donald Trump is gonna be at the Super Bowl,

and to bring this back to Kendrick Lamar, he is perhaps one of the most political artists in popular music. Do you think beyond playing not like us, there's a chance he tries to speak to what's going on in the country right now? I'm pretty skeptical. I mean, I think on one hand, in order to be a part of the cultural conversation and in

order to be extraordinarily relevant in the cultural conversation, you can't be 100% apolitical. At the same time, it's hard to think of an artistic endeavor that is more carefully choreographed and boardroom approved than a Super Bowl halftime show. When you think about the number of commercial sponsors, when you think about the network association, the Super Bowl will be airing on Fox this year. There are a number of very, very powerful, very high-level stakeholders who are doing everything they can to make sure that this is a piece

of entertainment that doesn't offend people. Is it possible that something happens that becomes viral, that becomes a culture war issue? It doesn't take much to become a culture war issue if people have a vested interest in making it one. But I'm somewhat skeptical that this performance is going to be anything beyond a victory lap for Kendrick Lamar and SZA and a way of segueing into what promises to be a hugely lucrative tour. You got a pick, Steven? You got the birds? You got the chiefs? What do you like?

Oh boy, you know, I'm going gonna predict another close and exciting Kansas City win. I think Kansas City is gonna pull off the three-peat. I think it's gonna make a lot of people very sad. And I am gonna say 31 to 27, Kansas City. Wow, you have a score! I'm just gonna say go birds. You know what, I'm a Packers fan, but I'm gonna say go birds too. Alright, great, I'm a Packers fan, but I'm gonna say, I'm gonna say go birds.

All right, great. I'm glad we agreed. ["Packers Theme"] Steven Thompson, MPR Music, support your members station. Travis Larchuk made today's show. Amina Alsati edited. Peter Balanon-Rosen and Victoria Chamberlain fact-checked

and André Christensdottir and Patrick Boyd mixed. The rest of the Today Explained team includes Avishai Artsy, Miles Bryan, Amanda Llewellyn, and Devin Schwartz, and Hadi Mawwagdi, who wishes he could have made today's show. Laura Bullard is our senior researcher, Jolie Meyers is our deputy executive producer. Miranda Kennedy is our regular executive producer.

Noel King is our supreme executive producer. We use music by Breakmaster Cylinder. Today Explained is distributed by WNYC. The show is a part of Vox. Support our journalism if you can by joining our membership program today. Go to Vox.com slash members to sign up. Or leave us a nice comment wherever you listen, you know?

Just remember, they're not like us. They're not like us. They're not like us.