Kendrick Lamar could play Not Like Us at the Super Bowl show despite Drake lawsuit

It would be a shock if Kendrick Lamar didn’t play even a snippet of Not Like Us at the Super Bowl show after its Grammy wins.

It’s the Super Bowl question fuelling more global speculation than whether the Kansas City Chiefs can make it three wins in a row next week.

Will Kendrick Lamar perform his controversial rap hit Not Like Us during his headlining half-time show?

After the Drake diss track won five Grammys this week, including the marquee Song of the Year and Record of the Year, it would typically be a no-brainer for Lamar to play the billion-streaming banger as part of his set.

But with the rap smash at the centre of a bitter legal war between Drake and Universal Music Group, there is likely to be a relentless back and forth between lawyers and Lamar’s team right up until he takes the field in New Orleans on Monday, where he will perform to a worldwide audience of 100 million people.

Lamar swept the Grammys with his famous Drake diss track. Picture: Getty.

Not Like Us, released in May last year, was an incendiary salvo in the long-running hip hop feud between the two rappers.

While Drake had been giving as good as he got over the years, the Canadian chart-topper took legal action against Universal last month, alleging he was defamed by the lyrics referring to him as a pedophile and the world’s biggest music group boosted the track despite its “malicious narrative.”

Not Like Us was Lamar’s response to Drake’s diss track Family Matters. In that track, Drake accused the West Coast hip hop star of domestic violence and claimed one of his children had been fathered by another man.

Drake is suing Universal Music Group for defamation over Not Like Us. Picture: AFP.

Music trade bible Billboard reports American legal experts don’t believe Drake’s legal action against Universal will be successful because he has to prove that the average listener believed Lamar’s lyrics to be facts.

Hip hop fans expect diss tracks to be full of hyperbole and bluster so the sledges, even ones as provocative as calling someone a pedophile, could be considered “artistic licence”.

Taylor Swift was among the many Grammys guests singing along to the lyric “Tryna strike a chord and it’s probably A minor” as Lamar took the stage to claim his trophies at Monday’s ceremony.

@billboard

Wait for the moment @Taylor Swift shouts “A MINORRRRRR” 🗣️ The crowd reacts to Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us” winning record of the year at the #Grammys#swifties#swifttok#tswift#kendricklamar

♬ original sound - billboard

After the Grammys, social media conspiracy theorists even went as far as to suggest Swift and other artists broadcast rapping along to the lyrics could be added to the lawsuit.

But Lamar could face great resistance from the Super Bowl half-time show broadcasters due to strict Federal Communications Commission rules – the same ones which unfairly targeted Janet Jackson for that infamous wardrobe malfunction when she performed alongside Justin Timberlake back in 2004.

The extreme fallout and ongoing damage to her career has kept half-time performers and their minders on their toes ever since, as the FCC rules prohibit the airing of “obscene, indecent, or profane content” on primetime television.

But that wouldn’t stop Lamar performing a snippet of Not Like Us during his 12 minutes on the field, perhaps the track’s instrumental hook or other less contentious lyrics.

As Drake opened his Australian tour in Perth on Tuesday, the night after the Grammys, he avoided giving Lamar any airtime, with his setlist devoid of any of the diss tracks aimed at his rival.

Originally published as Kendrick Lamar could play Not Like Us at the Super Bowl show despite Drake lawsuit