Kendrick Lamar kicked off his co-headlining tour with SZA, The Grand National Tour, at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on Saturday night. In doing so, he trolled Drake during a pre-recorded skit that he played before launching into his hit diss track, "Not Like Us."
In the skit, Lamar sits down for a deposition with what appears to be an attorney. They asked him: "Does this ring a bell? Drop, drop, drop, drop," as caught by AllHipHop. In numerous viral clips from the event, the crowd can be heard bursting with excitement as the beginning of "Not Like Us" comes on afterward.
By positioning himself in a deposition, Lamar was seemingly referencing Drake taking legal action against Universal Music Group over the diss track. He filed a defamation lawsuit against the company a number of months ago, accusing them of allegedly artificially boosting the success of the track in an effort to devalue his brand.
Drake's UMG Lawsuit
Last week, Drake updated his lawsuit with a massive 107-page amendment. He referenced Kendrick Lamar's performance at Super Bowl LIX as well as his wins at the Grammy Awards.
For the Super Bowl, the filing argues that the event introduced “Not Like Us” to “millions of children” who had “never before heard the song or any of the songs that preceded it. It was the first, and will hopefully be the last, Super Bowl halftime show orchestrated to assassinate the character of another artist.”
Universal Music Group has already responded with a statement of its own. The company is continuing to deny the allegations while also warning Drake against further pursing legal action against them.
“Drake, unquestionably one of the world’s most accomplished artists and with whom we’ve enjoyed a 16-year successful relationship, is being misled by his legal representatives into taking one absurd legal step after another,” they wrote. After noting that "Drake will personally be subject to discovery as well," they concluded: "As the old saying goes, ‘be careful what you wish for.’"
