KENDRICK Lamar dropped an astonishing $1.2 million on his unique Super Bowl necklace to keep his Drake feud raging, a source close to the rapper has told The U.S. Sun.
Kendrick, as exclusively revealed by The U.S. Sun, had no hesitation unleashing the controversial diss track Not Like Us at halftime in New Orleans on Sunday, which insinuates Drake is a sex offender.
SIMMERING FEUD
The Grammy award-winning star, who bagged five awards for the song earlier this month, pointedly didn’t sing the word “pedophile” in front of a global TV audience of hundreds of millions.
But the 37-year-old had no issue singing the rest of the lyrics, including the now infamous “A minor” putdown.
According to a friend of Kendrick’s, the sparkling necklace, which gleamed with 515 diamonds, including an encrusted lowercase letter “a,” worn at the Superdome, was a further jab at Drake.
The U.S. Sun has been told Kendrick’s people and backup dancers were “all caught by surprise” and “stunned with the detail” when he put on the necklace after receiving it from Eliantte, a private jeweler in New York City, just 24 hours before the game.
The insider says Kendrick spent $1.2 million on the necklace, which has 240 diamonds, and another 275 on the rest of the sparkling chain.
Sources claim the rapper was under increasing pressure to tone down his show, including a cameo from SZA, who will be touring with him this year.
And although he didn’t say “pedophile,” the rest of the song – and his new necklace, which some claim was made to reflect his creative company pgLang as well as being seen as a cheeky nod to the notorious “A minor” jibe – were enough to keep Drake sweating.
“Kendrick succeeded in wanting to pass his message and not be censored,” said the insider.
“Everyone thought it was a brilliant way of having his lyrics and message echoed by the masses. It was the kind of genius move only ultra-smart people would make.”
The music superstars have been locked in a heated feud since 2023—but now, it’s getting legal.
Kendrick Lamar slams rival Drake with diss track Not Like Us at Super Bowl halftime show
LEGAL WAR
Just four months after Kendrick was crowned the Super Bowl halftime show headliner, Drake returned with a lawsuit against record label Universal Music Group (UMG) following the release of Not Like Us.
Filed in January 2025, the lawsuit accuses UMG of playing dirty, claiming they knew Kendrick’s song falsely painted Drake as a pedophile but let it drop anyway.
“We employ the highest ethical practices in our marketing and promotional campaigns,” a UMG spokesperson said last November. “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.”
Drake, whose real name is Aubrey Drake Graham, didn’t stop there — he also says the label helped Kendrick steal the coveted Super Bowl stage right out from under him.
DRAKE & KENDRICK FEUD TIMELINE
On October 6, 2023, Drake and J. Cole released First Person Shooter, in which J. Cole claimed that himself, Drake, and Kendrick are the “big three” of hip-hop.
On March 22, 2024, Kendrick responded to the claim of a “big three” in his verse on Metro Boomin and Future’s song Like That, where he instead stated, “It’s just big me,” and accused both rappers of sneak dissing.
On April 5, 2024, J. Cole dropped his Kendrick diss track, 7 Minute Drill, in which he fired “warning shots” at the rapper as he accused the good kid, m.A.A.d city artist of seeking “attention” and slammed his latest music releases as “tragic.”
But on April 7, 2024, two days after releasing the Kendrick diss, J. Cole retracted his statement and backed out of the feud, as he stated he felt pressured to respond because “the world wanna see blood.”
On April 13, 2024, Drake responded to Kendrick with Push Ups, which had lyrics ridiculing Kendrick’s height and his mainstream collaborations with Taylor Swift and Maroon 5.
The track also dissed rappers Future and Rick Ross and producer Metro Boomin.
On April 19, 2024, Drake dropped another diss track, Taylor Made Freestyle, that used AI-generated voices of Snoop Dogg and the late Tupac Shakur to pressure Kendrick to respond.
On April 30, 2024, Kendrick dropped Euphoria, a six-minute diss track, in which he criticized Drake’s biracial identity, questioned the rapper’s ability as a father, and claimed that Drake is a “scam artist.”
On May 1, 2024, Drake responded to Kendrick’s diss by posting a clip from the 1999 film 10 Things I Hate About You on his Instagram Story in which Julia Stiles’ character Kat lists the reasons she hates Heath Ledger’s character Patrick – mirroring a Euphoria bar where Lamar provides reasons he hates Drake.
On May 3, 2024, Kendrick dropped a second Drake diss track, 6:16 in LA in which Kendrick alleges Drake’s own team is working against him as he rapped, “Everyone inside your team is whispering that you deserve it,” and stated Drake “can’t Toosie Slide up out of this one.”
After Drake responded with his diss track Family Matters, where he called accused Kendrick of infidelity, the Humble hitmaker would release Meet the Grahams, his fourth diss track against the Canadian rapper.
Just hours before the halftime show featured Drake’s former flames, SZA, and tennis star Serena Williams, he took to the stage in Melbourne, Australia.
“If you ever in your life gave your time, gave your energy, gave your money, gave your heart, gave your soul, gave everything you ever had to somebody, and they f**king played with you and wasted your time, wasted your energy, wasted your money? I want you all to turn up to this song!” the Canadian snapped.
“This is to all of your exes that thought they could play you in their f**king life.
“If you’re doing better than your ex, I want to see you turn the f**k up!”
All the focus on Kendrick’s performance centered on his volatile lyrics: “Certified Lover Boy, certified pedophile / Say, Drake, I hear you like ’em young / You better not ever go to cell block one / Tryna strike a chord and it’s probably A-minor.”
The California-born star, according to our source, agreed that taking out the inflammatory “pedophile” line to “create a surprise effect” encouraged fans to spit out the word themselves.
The U.S. Sun understands that his crew were only told about the alteration on Sunday morning.
“Everyone expected him to say it, but he would have been bleeped,” said the source, “so he created a buzz in another way, and it worked.”
