Drake won’t be trying to stop Kendrick Lamar from playing his megahit “Not Like Us” at the Super Bowl halftime show next year.
“The rumors are completely false,” a rep for Drake, 37, told Us Weekly in a statement on Tuesday, October 1.
The denial comes after reports circulated that the “Hotline Bling” rapper planned to send a cease and desist letter to Lamar, also 37, that would stop him from performing his No. 1 diss track when he takes the stage at Super Bowl LIX.
Despite the rumors, a source adds that “there was never any intention or plan to send a cease and desist to anyone.”
Lamar was announced last month as the halftime performer for the 2025 Super Bowl in New Orleans. Fans immediately began speculating about whether he’ll play “Not Like Us,” which he dropped in May amid his explosive feud with Drake. Among other things, the lyrics accused Drake of pedophilia.
Drake later responded to the accusations in his own diss track, “The Heart Part 6,” in which he rapped, “I never been with no one underage.”
While Lamar’s fans are excited to see him perform on sports’ biggest stage, his confirmation as the halftime performer also sparked backlash among critics — and some other artists — who thought Lil Wayne, a New Orleans native and longtime football fan, deserved the gig.
Wayne, 42, admitted last month that the snub was difficult for him.
“That hurt. It hurt a lot. You know what I’m talking about. It hurt a whole lot,” he said in an Instagram video shared on September 13. “I blame myself for not being mentally prepared for a letdown. And for automatically mentally putting myself in that position like somebody told me that was my position. So I blame myself for that. But I thought that was nothing better than that spot and that stage and that platform in my city, so it hurt. It hurt a whole lot.”
While Drake didn’t specifically comment on Lamar’s Super Bowl gig, he shared a series of photos of Wayne via his Instagram Story after the news went public. Fans interpreted the snaps as Drake’s not-so-subtle reaction to Lamar’s selection as the halftime performer.
Rappers like Cam’ron and Nicki Minaj, meanwhile, have suggested that Wayne was snubbed because of his connection to Drake, who began his career on Wayne’s Young Money label.
“It’s not really a secret, Lil Wayne had a problem with somebody before who’s kind of part of the organization running it. This is payback,” Cam’ron, 48, claimed last month. “Who’s Lil Wayne’s artist? Drake … Lil Wayne not to be performing in New Orleans for the Super Bowl is egregious and it’s gotta stop.”
The “Hey Ma” rapper was seemingly referring to Wayne’s rumored beef with Jay-Z, who has been a coproducer of the halftime show since 2019. While the duo traded jabs over the years, they seemed to make up in 2015 when Jay-Z, 54, named Wayne as a co-owner of his streaming platform, Tidal.
