Not Like Us, it’s like them — Kendrick Lamar and SZA will hit the road together in 2025.
On Tuesday morning, Lamar and SZA announced the Grand National Tour, which will hit 19 stadiums across North America next spring and summer, making a lone Canadian stop in Toronto.
The news arrives less than two weeks after Lamar released his latest album, GNX, which features SZA on two tracks: Luther and the closer Gloria. In a review, AP described the album as leaning into the same creativity-juicing pride, self-righteous anger and supreme confidence that fuelled the Grammy-nominated Not Like Us and won his feud with Drake: “I kill ’em all before I let ’em kill my joy.”
Lamar’s Not Like Us, released on May 4, is a diss track against Drake, one of several that the rappers exchanged earlier this year. In it, he questions the Canadian rapper’s authenticity and claims he is a sexual predator. It was seen as the breakout hit of the feud, and debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.
While the feud may be over, it appears the hatchet is not buried.
Last month, Drake launched two legal actions against Universal Music Group, the distributor for the record labels of both Drake and Lamar, in relation to the rap beef. The initial petition alleged UMG and streamer Spotify conspired to falsely boost the popularity of Lamar’s diss track amid the beef between the two hip-hop superstars.
The second action accused the music giant of defamation and claiming it could have halted the release of Kendrick Lamar’s song Not Like Us for “falsely accusing him of being a sex offender.”
In addition to calling Drake a “certified pedophile,” Lamar says in the song: “Say, Drake, I hear you like ’em young, You better not ever go to Cell Block 1.”
A petition, which is what both of Drake’s filings are, comes prior to a lawsuit and is aimed at preserving and obtaining information from figures that might support Drake’s accusations in a future lawsuit, according to Bryan Sullivan, a founding partner at the law firm Early Sullivan Wright Gizer & McRae who specializes in risk management in the entertainment industry.
Experts have called the petitions unprecedented and say they could have not only legal, but significant cultural implications for Drake and the world of hip-hop.
Spotify has declined to comment to The Associated Press on the filings.
UMG told the AP in a statement that the “suggestion that UMG would do anything to undermine any of its artists is offensive and untrue.”
“We employ the highest ethical practices in our marketing and promotional campaigns. No amount of contrived and absurd legal arguments in this pre-action submission can mask the fact that fans choose the music they want to hear.”
None of the allegations have been proven in court.
Lamar and SZA’s tour kicks off on April 19 in Minneapolis, then hits Houston; Arlington, Texas; Atlanta; Charlotte, N.C.; Philadelphia; East Rutherford, N.J.; Foxborough, Massachusetts; Seattle; Los Angeles; Glendale, Ariz.; San Francisco; Las Vegas; St. Louis; Chicago; Detroit; Toronto; Hersey, Penn.; and Washington, D.C.
