'Time for Kendrick Lamar to come and call Drake a pedophile': Conan O'Brien shocks Oscars audience with sharp jibe

'Time for Kendrick Lamar to come and call Drake a pedophile': Conan O'Brien shocks Oscars audience with sharp jibe.

Published on: Mar 3, 2025, 07:49:11 IST

By Abhimanyu Mathur

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Oscars 2025 host Conan O'Brien drew a loud gasp from his audience as he took a sharp jibe at rapper Drake, referencing his famous feud with Kendrick Lamar. While on stage, Conan referred to Kendrick's Super Bowl half-time performance and his diss track on Drake - They Not Like Us. (Also read: Raye's 'uneven' cover of Skyfall at Oscars 2025 divides the internet: 'Only Adele should sing this live')

Conan O'Brien roasted Drake at the 2025 Oscars with a reference to his feud with Kendrick Lamar.

Conan's joke on Drake and Kendrick Lamar

As the 97th Academy Awards ceremony reached its halfway point, Conan appeared on stage and said, “This show is halfway through. And we know what that means: It's time for Kendrick Lamar to come and call Drake a pedophile.” The unexpected joke drew gasps from the Hollywood elites at the Oscars, but a lot of chuckles and some applause, too.

Conan's halfway joke was a reference to Kendrick's recent performance at the Super Bowl halftime show, where he performed Not Like Us, his diss track for Drake. The song has lyrics that imply that Drake is interested in minors and at one point, calls him a pedophile.

Kendrick Lamar and Drake's feud

The feud between Drake, a 38-year-old Canadian rapper and singer and five-time Grammy winner, and Lamar, a 37-year-old Pulitzer Prize winner who headlined the Super Bowl halftime show on February 9, is among the biggest in hip-hop in recent years.

In January, Drake filed a defamation lawsuit in federal court in New York City against UMG over what he alleges are false allegations of pedophilia made in Not Like Us. Lamar is not named in the lawsuit. Drake reached a settlement with Texas-based iHeartMedia in his ongoing legal dispute over Not Like Us,” according to court records, AP reported this weekend.

The Oscars 2025 are streaming live only on JioHotstar in India.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Abhimanyu Mathur
Abhimanyu Mathur is Deputy Editor, Entertainment at Hindustan Times. With almost 15 years of experience in writing about everything from films and TV shows to cricket matches and elections, he inhales and exhales pop culture and news. Currently, he watches movies and TV shows and talks to celebrities for a living, while occasionally writing about them as well. A journalism graduate of Delhi College of Arts and Commerce, Delhi University, Abhimanyu began his career with Hindustan Times at the age of 20, swapping classrooms for newsrooms at an early age. He began his journey in the early days of digital journalism, later switching to the madness of print journalism. Work has led him to far off places like Japan and Jordan, as well as to the interiors of Haryana and the Indo-Pak border. He dabbled in city reporting in places like Meerut, Gurgaon, and Delhi, covered the Olympics and Cricket World Cups, before finding his calling in entertainment and lifestyle during the pandemic. A Rotten Tomatoes Certified Film Critic, he is equally at home covering stories on ground as he is interviewing celebrities and studios, and sometimes prefers to shepherd teams in delivering traffic through the day. Even as his role has evolved from reporter to supervisor over the years, his first love remains writing (and of late, talking on camera). With a good understanding of cinema and its trends, and a keen eye for detail, he continues to spark conversations around showbiz for readers around the world.Read More

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