The Kendrick Lamar and Drake battle extended far beyond hip-hop into the pop culture space a long time ago, to the point where whole institutions are presumably "picking sides." But this might hold other consequences for large entities who touch on this beef in one way or another, or at least, that's what fan conspiracy theories point to. Folks noticed that the Grammys deleted a portion of the award presentation for Record of the Year in the 2025 ceremony, which went to K.Dot's "Not Like Us" diss track. Specifically, they deleted the portion in which the venue plays the song and the crowd sings along from their official YouTube coverage of the night.
Furthermore, this led many people to point to Drake and his Kendrick Lamar-alluding UMG lawsuit. He accused the label and distributor of defamation for releasing "Not Like Us" and allegedly pushing its commercial performance in an unlawful manner. As such, many fans suspect that this could be the Grammys' way of disassociating themselves from those supposed practices, but it makes us wonder whether other big events and organizations like the Super Bowl, the Oscars, or any other big pop culture moment or bastion that referenced the feud will follow suit.
"Not Like Us" Grammy Wins
For those unaware, Kendrick Lamar won five Grammys this year for the Drake diss track "Not Like Us." These include the aforementioned Record of the Year award, as well as Song of the Year, Best Rap Song, Best Rap Performance, and Best Music Video. The Compton lyricist performed the track at an Amazon-sponsored concert and at the Super Bowl halftime show. In addition, other award shows like the recent Oscars, for example, referenced the OVO and pgLang showdown.
Meanwhile, big updates continue to move Drake's lawsuit along, and Kendrick Lamar might return to No. 1 on the Billboard 200 this week with GNX. In other words, both MCs kind of feel on top of the world right now in their own way, so they probably don't care that much about this unexplained move from the Grammys and the Recording Academy's social media team. The 6ix God won't back down, and Mr. Morale is probably maniacally laughing at the chaos that he caused.
