The rap beef that dominated headlines in 2024 is about to get a Super Bowl spotlight.
Kendrick Lamar’s headlining performance at this year’s Super Bowl halftime show is also expected to add another chapter to his long-running feud with Drake. The two traded allegations and insults in diss tracks last spring, part of a very public escalation in hostility between two high-profile hip-hop artists that culminated with Lamar’s ‘Not Like Us’ becoming a No. 1 smash hit last May and a federal lawsuit about the song filed this month by Drake.
Lamar appears set to feature ‘Not Like Us’ at halftime when the Philadelphia Eagles face the Kansas City Chiefs on Feb. 9 despite the pending litigation. FOX used an instrumental version of the song in the background of promos for the Super Bowl halftime show during the NFC championship game. It is likely to thrust the issues between Drake and Lamar, which has roots dating back at least a decade, back into the national conversation during the biggest television event in the country.
So what happens during Lamar’s halftime show performance might carry as much intrigue as the football game at Super Bowl 59. Here’s what to know about the beef between Drake and Kendrick Lamar before Lamar takes the stage at Caesars Superdome in New Orleans, including a timeline of events:
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Drake-Kendrick Lamar feud timeline: How their beef started
There is a certain cinematic quality to how the conflict developed between Kendrick Lamar and Drake, with their relationship gradually evolving from collaborators to rivals to enemies over the past 15 years. Here’s a recap of events that pushed these stars to this point:
2011: Lamar was featured on Drake’s song, ‘Buried Alive Interlude.’
2012: Lamar served as an opening act for Drake on the 2012 Club Paradise tour. By October 2012, Drake had also appeared on Kendrick Lamar’s debut album for the hit song, ‘Poetic Justice.’
August 2013: Lamar called out several big name hip-hop artists, most notably Drake, during a guest verse on ‘Control’ by rapper Big Sean. A few months later, at the 2013 BET Hip-Hop Awards, Lamar seemed to subtly take another shot at Drake during a freestyle rap as part of the show.
December 2013: Drake discussed ‘Control’ in an interview with Vibe Magazine: “Where it became an issue is that I was rolling out an album while that verse was still bubbling, so my album rollout became about this thing. What am I supposed to say? Nah, we’ll be buddy-buddy? Mind you, I never once said he’s a bad guy [or] I don’t like him. I think he’s a … genius in his own right, but I also stood my ground as I should.’
November 2014: In the midst of increasing speculation that he and Drake were at odds, Lamar insisted there was no beef between the two. ‘It wasn’t no issue from the jump,’ Lamar said in an interview on The Breakfast Club. ‘I think people talk about beef … it’s just a whole ‘nother dynamic. I can’t see myself going bar for bar with Drake. We’re two different types of artists.’
July 2015: Fellow rapper Meek Mill accused Drake of using ghostwriters, which shined renewed attention on the previously released Kendrick Lamar single, ‘King Kunta,’ from his 2015 album, ‘To Pimp a Butterfly.’ The lyrics included a reference to a rapper with a ghostwriter.
January 2016: President Barack Obama was asked whether Lamar or Drake would win in a rap battle. Obama said Lamar and praised ‘To Pimp a Butterfly’ as the best album of 2015. Drake responded to Obama in ‘Summer Sixteen,’ a song that included the line, ‘Tell Obama that my verses are just like the whips that he in – they bulletproof.’
Drake-Kendrick Lamar beef timeline: Why the feud escalated
The simmering feud between Lamar and Drake moved to the periphery of the mainstream hip-hop conversation for the next five years, though several songs released by Lamar during that time included lyrics that were construed as subtle digs directed toward Drake. It wasn’t until 2023 that their problems resurfaced in a dramatic way that would captivate the music world and beyond.
October 2023: Drake teams up with J. Cole for the hit song, ‘First person shooter.’ Includes a verse by J. Cole in which the rapper proclaims he, Drake and Lamar to be the ‘big three’ of the modern rap game and proclaims himself Muhammed Ali.
March 22, 2024: Lamar responded to the notion of a big three during an appearance on the song, ‘Like that,’ by Metro Boomin and Future, rapping that ‘it’s just big me.’
April 19, 2024: Drake officially releases two diss tracks in response to Lamar: ‘Push Ups’ and ‘Taylor Made Freestyle.’ In the former, the Canadian star names multiple current rappers he believes to be better than Lamar. For the latter, Drake used A.I. vocals to rap in the voices of Tupac Shakur and Snoop Dogg – who Lamar considers two of his biggest influences – and criticized Lamar further. Drake eventually had to remove the song from his social media accounts after Shakur’s estate threatened to sue.
April 30, 2024: Kendrick Lamar responded with ‘Euphoria,’ a six-minute diss track directed at Drake.
May 3, 2024: Lamar drops another diss track, ‘6:16 in LA,’ via Instagram. Drake responded later that day with ‘Family Matters,’ accusing Lamar of being unfaithful and guilty of domestic violence in his relationship with fiancée Whitney Alford. He also alleged that one of Lamar’s children biologically belongs to Lamar’s friend and business associate, Dave Free. Minutes later, Lamar struck back again with ‘Meet the Grahams’ – Drake’s legal name is Aubrey Graham – in which Lamar claimed Drake is concealing a daughter. He also made reference to potential sex trafficking and pedophilia by either Drake or his associates.
May 4, 2024: The feud reached new heights once Lamar released, ‘Not Like Us,’ less than 24 hours after ‘Meet the Grahams.’ The song made clear Lamar called Drake a ‘certified pedophile’ and the accompanying artwork for the track contained an aerial view of Drake’s mansion outside of Toronto, with red sex offender symbols placed on the home.
May 6, 2024: Drake responded with “The Heart Pt. 6” in which he denied Lamar’s accusations of pedophilia and sex trafficking and claims to have fed Lamar the information about an alleged daughter.
May 13, 2024: Lamar’s “Not Like Us” debuts at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. “Euphoria” was also No. 3 for the week.
June 19, 2024: Lamar gives the first live performance of ‘Not Like Us” at his one-off Juneteenth concert, The Pop Off, at Kia Forum outside Los Angeles. Rick Ross, The Weeknd, LeBron James, Russell Westbrook, DeMar DeRozan and James Harden were among those in attendance. Lamar opened his set with ‘Euphoria’ and memorably performed ‘Not Like Us’ five times in a row during the encore.
July 4, 2024: Lamar released the music video for ‘Not Like Us,’ which included Lamar hitting an owl piñata in reference to the logo of Drake’s OVO brand.
September 8, 2024: Kendrick Lamar was named headlining performance for the Super Bowl 59 halftime show.
Drake-Kendrick Lamar lawsuit, explained
The feud between Drake and Kendrick Lamar reached its legal stage in November when attorneys representing a company owned by Drake filed a motion in New York accusing Universal Music Group (UMG) and Spotify of inflating the streams for ‘Not Like Us’ through bots and other questionable tactics. Drake then filed a second motion in Texas alleging UMG engaged in a ‘pay-to-play’ scheme and committed defamation by allowing Lamar’s song to be released. Drake and Lamar both have distribution deals with UMG, which subsequently denied the allegations.
By January, Drake’s attorneys dropped those legal actions and filed a federal lawsuit in the Southern District of New York aimed at UMG, according to court documents obtained by USA TODAY. It accused UMG of ‘corporate greed’ in their promotion of the Lamar song, which alleges that Drake is a ‘certified pedophile.’ The filing states that Drake was targeted by armed intruders at his Toronto home and had to remove his son and his son’s mother from Toronto as a result of the song’s popularity.
‘UMG wants the public to believe that this is a fight between rappers, but this lawsuit is not brought against Kendrick Lamar. This lawsuit reveals the human and business consequences to UMG’s elevation of profits over the safety and well-being of its artists, and shines a light on the manipulation of artists and the public for corporate gain,’ Drake’s legal team wrote in a statement to USA TODAY.
How to watch Super Bowl halftime show 2025
The Super Bowl 59 halftime is slated to occur on Sunday, February 9, at the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans. It will be broadcast nationally on FOX between the end of the second quarter and the beginning of the third quarter of the football game.
Date: Sunday, Feb. 9
TV: FOX
Time: 6:30 p.m. ET (Super Bowl start time)
Streaming: Fox Sports app, Fubo (free trial)
Location: Caesars Superdome (New Orleans)
Watch Super Bowl 59 with Fubo
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