O’Brien’s playful jabs come as Drake settled his legal action against iHeartMedia over Kendrick Lamar’s ‘Not Like Us’
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():focal(749x0:751x2):format(webp)/CONAN-OBRIEN-Kendrick-Lamar-Drake-030225-68b77093ff51411ea2d48547174b5c9b.jpg)
Conan O’Brien made a playful reference to Drake and Kendrick Lamar’s ongoing feud at the 2025 Oscars.
The 61-year-old comedian made the jab towards the 38-year-old Canadian rapper during his stint as host at the 97th Academy Awards on March 2.
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():focal(749x0:751x2):format(webp)/Conan-OBrien-Oscars-2025-Performance-030225-eb451f1d59ec4e1f816febc1f5bee00c.jpg)
“We’re halfway through the show, which means it’s time for Kendrick Lamar to come out and call Drake a pedophile,” O’Brien joked, referencing the line in Lamar’s diss track “Not Like Us,” which won five Grammys at the 2025 Grammy awards.
“Don’t worry, I’m lawyered up,” he added about Drake’s lawsuits against Universal Music Group.
The joke comes after the Associated Press reported that Drake reached a settlement with IHeartMedia over “Not Like Us” on Feb. 28. According to court documents obtained by the AP, the rapper’s legal team confirmed, “The parties were able to reach a settlement satisfactory to both sides.”
According to court documents obtained by PEOPLE on Nov. 25, 2024, Drake filed a legal petition against IHeartMedia and Universal Music Group and alleged the company “launched a campaign to manipulate and saturate the streaming services and airwaves” with Lamar’s track. UMG — who represents both Lamar and Drake — denied the allegations in a statement to PEOPLE.
Drake later filed another lawsuit against the record label for promoting “Not Like Us,” alleging that it included defamation against him. The filing alleged that UMG “approved, published, and launched a campaign to create a viral hit out of a rap track that falsely accuses Drake of being a pedophile and calls for violent retribution against him.”
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():focal(997x160:999x162):format(webp)/drake-kendrick-lamar-split-020325-9de9c913ee6949eaa7ee28332bad4ff2.jpg)
Drake attends the “Top Boy” UK Premiere on September 04, 2019 in London ; Kendrick Lamar attends The 2023 Met Gala on May 01, 2023 in New York City.Karwai Tang/WireImage ; Arturo Holmes/MG23/Getty
In another statement to PEOPLE, UMG said, “Not only are these claims untrue, but the notion that we would seek to harm the reputation of any artist—let alone Drake—is illogical.”
“We have invested massively in his music and our employees around the world have worked tirelessly for many years to help him achieve historic commercial and personal financial success,” the statement concluded.
See PEOPLE’s full coverage of the 97th annual Academy Awards, hosted by Conan O’Brien and airing on ABC.
News
‘He had psychological issues, fearing that everything was over,…’ Family Auburn University student James “Weston” Higginbotham, who went missing in Japan, has just revealed his last known health condition, along with a 3-WORD message that still haunts us
Auburn student goes missing in Japan; family fears he’s ‘emotionally distressed’ James “Weston” Higginbotham, a junior studying biosystems engineering at the Alabama college, was last seen in Kyoto. Auburn University in Auburn, Ala. Jake Crandall / USA Today Network via Reuters …
The machines continued to beep… the family members continued to pray… but there were 3 doctor’s conclusions just minutes before the baseball struck Xavier Taylor that his father said he couldn’t stop looking at
The rhythmic, sterile beeping of the life-support machines continued to echo through the intensive care unit, a persistent, artificial pulse filling the heavy silence of the room. Around the bed, family members remained huddled together, their voices reduced to a…
Doctors have just released another heartbreaking update about 12-year-old Xavier Taylor, but what haunts his father even more is that the baseball bag was still unopened, and what was inside was completely intact, shocking everyone
The latest medical update from the doctors monitoring twelve-year-old Xavier Taylor has cast an even heavier shadow over a situation already defined by profound grief and national sorrow. As the medical team shared the heartbreaking reality of the young athlete’s…
The collision lasted less than a second… but investigators say there was a detail on the field that some parents noticed immediately afterward. Now, as Xavier Taylor fights for his life, his father says he thinks about it every night.
The collision lasted less than a second, a fleeting fragment of time that changed everything on a youth baseball field that was supposed to be filled only with the joy of summer sports. In that microscopic window, a routine play…
“You’ll wake up, won’t you…?”: As America continues praying for 12-year-old Xavier Taylor, his father has revealed a devastating update about the freak baseball accident that changed everything — but it’s the four words his son said before slipping away that he can never forget.
The story of twelve-year-old Xavier Taylor has gripped the heart of a nation, serving as a stark, devastating reminder of how quickly a joyful afternoon can transform into an unimaginable nightmare. Across America, millions of people have joined their voices…
“YOU WON’T BELIEVE WHAT HE SAID LAST…” The final words of the gunm@n behind one of the most horrifying family massacres are being revisited — and investigators say the scene inside the home was frozen in time 👀 👇 A half-eaten meal and 6 untouched chairs were reportedly still sitting around the table when officers walked in
HORROR CRIME Chilling final words of crazed gunman who shot dead six members of same family in brutal rampage A GUNMAN screamed chilling words about death and money moments before slaughtering six of his own relatives in a horrific rampage,…
End of content
No more pages to load
