Did Kendrick Lamar Call a Truce with J. Cole at "The Pop Out"?

Roddy Ricch is 2/2 with new singles—is a comeback on the horizon with his new album? You can listen to “911” and all the other music in our NMF list now. In other news today:

• Songs streams & revenue 💰️ 

• Did Kendrick offer J. Cole an olive branch at “The Pop Out”? 🤔 

• Metro Boomin’s “BBL Drizzy” starts a war on AI 🤖 

• New Music Friday releases 💿️ 

• Industry Insights 📈 

Update your email preferences or unsubscribe here

Song Streams & Revenue

It’s a new week and a new song revenue chart. As reported by Hits Daily Double, which tracks streaming revenue week over week, the above chart reflects the streaming period from June 14 to 20.

“Million Dollar Baby” and “Not Like Us” stay in the six-figure revenue range, earning $136K and $134K, respectively. The only new entry is Moneybagg Yo’s collab with Morgan Wallen, “Whiskey Whiskey,” which generated $65K from 14M streams in its first week.

Did K. Dot Call A Truce with J. Cole at “The Pop Out?”

Long ago (just like Avatar), the Big Three lived in harmony. Then everything changed when Kendrick hopped on “Like That.” 

K. Dot rapping “mother**** the big three, n**** it's just big me” was the first shot fired, and J. Cole and Drizzy would have looked crazy not to respond. Drizzy had disastrous results in his battle against the rap giant. However, Jermaine dropped out before things got crazy – and rap fans caught a move by Kendrick at “The Pop Out” that seems to think the duo has no beef. 

What did Kendrick do? 

K. Dot performed his song “Alright” during the Juneteenth celebration, with one subtle but major change. He performed J. Cole’s remix of the track, and one of Cole’s ad-libs can be heard at the beginning of the intro. 

Fans immediately got hopeful, with X user XKingxGrizzlyX7 in a June 26 post stating that “There's a layer there somewhere. Probably saying him and Cole are good, we alright. I'm reaching for the stars obviously lol.”

“Normally I would say so but with how meticulous Kendrick is there’s no way that was on accident, he was definitely trying to send that message out,” X user BeingParticle said in a June 26 post. 

It seems like everything between Kendrick and J. Cole is “Alright.” K. Dot loves a good subliminal message, and the choice of song and K. Dot not throwing additional shade at him means that in his eyes, the “Cole World” will remain unscathed. 

What were they even beefing about?

In response to “Like That,” J. Cole dropped the diss “7 Minute Drill,” a couple of weeks later on April 5, firing shots at K. Dot. 

Regardless of how hard he went on the song, he was apologetic at this year’s Dreamville Fest. During his set on April 7, he asked the crowd “... Dreamville, y’all love Kendrick Lamar, correct? As do I... That was the lamest, goofiest s**t. I say all that to say it made me feel like 10 years ago when I was moving incorrectly. And I pray that God will line me back up on my purpose and on my path."

People immediately began clowning J. Cole online for backing down on what he originally said, saying that “rap is dead” or that he was “scared.” After seeing how K. Dot dragged Champagne Papi by the geometric cornrows though, people are changing their tune. 

J. Cole and Kendrick go way back, with rumors of a collaboration album still swirling to this day. Hopefully, with Kendrick’s laser-sharp gaze set directly only on] Drake’s cosplay ranch, they both can show publicly that they will always have “family ties.”

Metro Boomin’s “BBL Drizzy” Starts a War on AI

Metro Boomin, in his song “BBL Drizzy,” did more than “shut up and make some drums.” He created a beat that took social media by storm with the ​​#bbldrizzybeatgiveaway, getting everyone behind the mic to diss Champagne Papi. 

Despite the song’s major success, organizations like the RIAA are not happy – and they are trying to take the AI companies behind the song down. 

Wait…The song used AI? 

 The RIAA, on behalf of the Warner Music Group, Universal Music Group, and Sony Music Entertainment, filed two copyright infringement lawsuits against the AI companies behind the song, Udio and Suno. 

They claim that the AI companies “wrongfully used the work of some of their artists to create copyrighted music without their permission,” according to a June 26 article from The Root. 

Udio is an AI music generator that was used to create the original “BBL Drizzy” song, which was then sampled by Metro to create the beat. Meanwhile, Suno teamed up with the software ChatGPT to create the catchy lyrics playing in the background. 

The War on AI 

In the Silicon Valley version of the rap civil war, the two AI companies aren’t going down without a fight. Speaking about the use of AI in music in a June 25 thread on X, Udio said that “... Producers have sampled AI-generated tracks to create hit songs, like ‘BBL Drizzy’, and everyday music-lovers have used the technology to express the gamut of human emotions from love to sorrow to joy.”

Suno’s CEO Mikey Shulman responded the same day to the lawsuit by breaking down the mission of the organization to help users create something completely new. 

“That is why we don’t allow user prompts that reference specific artists … We would have been happy to explain this to the corporate record labels that filed this lawsuit (and in fact, we tried to do so), but instead of entertaining a good faith discussion, they’ve reverted to their old lawyer-led playbook,” Shulman said in a statement obtained by Music Business Worldwide. 

RIAA is still maintaining its RBF regardless of what the AI companies have to say. Responding to Udio’s statement on June 26, they posted on X that “if there is any takeaway from Udio's meandering 'response,' it is that Udio is attempting to construct an alternate reality where being pro-artist means stealing artists' work for profit.”

So AI can’t be used in rap songs anymore?

Metro is not the first person in the rap game to come under fire for the use of AI. His opp Drake received a firestorm of hate for the use of an AI-Tupac voice in his Kendrick diss “Taylor Made Freestyle.” He eventually took it down online, but not before Tupac’s estate could vehemently address Drizzy as well. 

AI dupes like Travis Bott (the so-called twin of Travis Scott) have been attempting to make their way onto the rap scene and overshadow the real rappers they use for inspiration. They even made their way into the Drake and Kendrick beef, like the “1 Shot 1 Kill” Drake/J. Cole diss released in April. When people began to question if the track was legit, Sy the Rapper came out and revealed they made the song with AI.

What’s next for Metro?

Despite all the chaos, Metro has been stepping out and reveling new endeavors. He was spotted at the June 26 Balenciaga fashion show during Paris Fashion Week. He released the first issue of his Metroverse comic book series this month. He even offered his two cents about streaming services. 

He shared a post on the Gram that said “A fan needs to stream an artist’s music 20 times a day for a whole year for that artist to make $25 from a fan.”  He said because of this, his next album might be the last one available to stream. It looks like he is going to make moves even bigger than "BBL Drizzy" real soon. 

New Music Friday

Here’s all the music you can listen to now—categorized by 💿️ for albums and 🎶 for singles:

• 💿️ Bad Cameo by Lil Yachty, James Blake

• 💿️ C, XOXO by Camila Cabello ft. Drake, Playboi Carti

• 💿️ 2012 by DC The Don

• 💿️ Shut The Door Nobody Listening by Lil Got it

• 💿️ Megan by Megan Thee Stallion

• 💿️ The Last One by Headie One

• 💿️ Samurai by Lupe Fiasco

• 🎶 “Style Rare” by Offset, Gunna

• 🎶 “911” by Roddy Ricch (out now)

• 🎶 “N.P.O.” by 42 Dugg, Sexyy Red

• 🎶 “Went Hollywood For A Year” by Lil Durk

• 🎶 “Bando Kid” by Trippie Redd

• 🎶 “OUT MY MIND” by Rich Amiri

• 🎶 “Wait On It” by Jeremih, Bryson Tiller, Chris Brown

• 🎶 “Girls” by The Kid LAROI

• 🎶 “Everytime” by Bakar, Lancey Foux

• 🎶 “Big Mama” by Latto

• “Not Like Us” may win it all. Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr. confirmed June 24 that the Drake diss is eligible for Grammy nominations if Kendrick submits it. 

• Eminem has a new headlining gig. He confirmed on Instagram on June 24 that he will be performing at the 2024 Formula 1 U.S. Grand Prix in Austin this October. 

• Is a Don Toliver + Travis Scott collab album coming soon? Toliver, in a June 25 interview with GQ, said that “it doesn't look too far away on the horizon. So, we'll see.”

Like sports? 🏀 🏈 Get up-to-date analysis and unique insight that’s actually interesting to read with the Playmaker Newsletter.