The NFL and Kendrick Lamar aren’t scared of Drake’s ‘Not Like Us’ lawsuit at Super Bowl

Any pending lawsuits from disgruntled rappers will NOT have any impact on Kendrick Lamar’s halftime performance.

The longstanding beef between Kendrick Lamar and Aubrey “Drake” Graham finally boiled over into one of, if not the, biggest moment in the history of Hip-Hop last year.

There were no more subliminal bars and underhanded shots from one man to the other. This was full blown lyrical warfare the likes of which we haven’t seen since Nas and Jay-Z, and never before seen in the era of social media. Everyone on the planet was talking about it and everyone on the planet kept waiting to hearing each rapper’s response to the other.

Ultimately, the result of the battle ended up being a clear and decisive victory for Lamar, and his song ‘Not Like Us’ became not only the defining track of the entire back and forth between him and Drake, but arguably the biggest song of 2024.

It was a SMASH hit. The biggest hit of the Grammy Award and Pulitzer Prize Winner’s critically acclaimed career. It was inescapable this Summer whether it be in bars, every corner of the internet and especially at sporting events.

Even head coaches in the NFL were quoting the song!

Naturally, when the NFL selected Kendrick Lamar to be the halftime performer for the Super Bowl, it seemed liked a forgone conclusion he was going to perform ‘Not Like Us’ in some capacity. How could he not perform the biggest song of the year at the biggest sporting event in America?

Would he perform the entire thing? Of course not.

Is he going to have to clean it up a bit? Obviously. You can’t perform a song where the most iconic parts of it are “Certified lover boy? Certified pedophile” and “Trying to strike a chord and it’s probably A MINORRRRRRRRR!” without changing it to be appropriate for television.

Even with changes needed to be made, there’s no real reason for the NFL to get in the way of the song being played. People will point to Drake filing a defamation lawsuit against UMG in the aftermath of his beef with Kendrick Lamar as the biggest reason why the NFL may step in, and it is understandable why people could come to that conclusion.

Why would the NFL want to potentially be involved in possible litigation for allowing the song to get played on what some would argue is the biggest and most popular sporting event in the world? Wouldn’t it make more for them to cover all their bases and stay out of it entirely?

That would make sense...if the NFL wasn’t running Super Bowl ads for Lamar’s performance with the beat to ‘Not Like Us’ playing in the background.

An organization as big, popular, and powerful as the NFL does not seem to be particularly concerned about any possible legal ramifications that could result from Kendrick Lamar performing ‘Not Like Us’ at halftime. Nor should they be, because there shouldn’t be any lawsuits post rap beef from either of the two willing participants in the first place.

Also, remember when Snoop Dogg was crip walking and throwing up gang signs when he performed at the Super Bowl halftime show a few years ago? Apparently the NFL does!

They told Snoop not to do it beforehand, he did it anyway, and everything was fine.

The NFL isn’t going to stop Kendrick Lamar from performing ‘Not Like Us’ nor should they. One of the biggest songs in all of music deserves to be performed on one of the biggest stages in sports, and we’re all looking forward to it.

Well ... all of us, except Drake.