Former Raptors legend DeMar DeRozan joins Kendrick Lamar onstage for Drake diss track: 'This is murder' (2024)

It looks like the friendship might be over between former Toronto Raptors great DeMar DeRozan and Drake.

After the Toronto rapper lost his battle against fellow rap superstar Kendrick Lamar, DeRozan joined Lamar at his Juneteenth Pop Out concert in Los Angeles Wednesday night.

During Not Like Us— a diss number that Lamar wrote aimed at Drake — DeRozan hopped onstage alongside fellow NBA star Russell Westbrook as he grinned and danced throughout the song. LeBron James (a close pal of Drake’s) and James Harden were also at the show, in which Lamar played the song five times.

Article content

Lamar also played two other diss tracks aimed at Drake — Euphoria and 6:16 in LA.

Article content

On social media, fans of Lamar mocked Drake for not having DeRozan in his corner. “This is murder,” one person wrote. “Drake can’t come back from this.”

“Kendrick Lamar just held Drake’s funeral and invited DeMar DeRozan and Russell Westbrook to dance on his casket,” a second person swiped.

On the trackNot Like Us, which the Compton emcee dropped last month, Lamar raps, “Say Drake, I hear you like ’em young / You better not ever go to cell block one / To any bitch that talk to him and they in love / Just make sure you hide your little sister from him.”

The lines alluded to a 2010 concert video that resurfaced nearly a decade later in which theCanadian hitmaker invited a teenage fan onto the stage at a Denver show where he proceeded to dance and fondle her.

Article content

Article content

The tune also makes reference to DeRozan returning “home” to the United States after the Raptors dealt the All-Star to the San Antonio Spurs back in 2019 as part of a trade package for Kawhi Leonard and Danny Green.

“I’m glad DeRoz’ came home, ya’ll didn’t deserve him neither,” Lamar raps on the single.

Lamar’sNot Like Usalso included a dig at his rival’sCertified Lover Boyalbum title (“Certified Lover Boy? Certified pedophiles”), claims that he slept with Lil Wayne’s ex and used an image ofDrake’s Toronto mansionmarked with red pedophile markers as the track’s cover art.

Not Like Usdropped less than 24 hours after Lamar released his brutalMeet the Grahams, in which he hit out at members of Drake’s family, including his 6-year-old son, Adonis, and his mother and father, blaming them “for all his gamblin’ addictions.”

Article content

Later on, during the song, Lamarsays the five-time Grammy winner employs “sex offenders,” demands he should be in a jail cell with Harvey Weinstein and claims Drake has a secret daughter.

The war of words between the two has played out in recent months after Lamar responded to a line in Drake and J. Cole’s 2023 songFirst Person Shooter, in which Cole referred to the three of them as the industry’s three greatest hip-hop artists. “We the big three like we started a league,” Cole rapped.

Lamar dismissed that declaration on Future and Metro Boomin’sLike That, spitting back, “It’s just big me.” He also hit out at Drake on back-to-back diss tracksEuphoriaand6:16 in LAin which he called the lyricist “a terrible person.”

Article content

During his nine seasons as a Toronto Raptor, DeRozan formed a close bond with Drake, a global ambassador for the team and fixture at many home games at Scotiabank Arena.

On 2021’s Lemon Pepper Freestyle, Drake paid tribute to DeRozan, rapping, “For real, and my city love me like DeMar DeRozan.”

In 2016, the two appeared alongside Kyle Lowry on the cover of Slam with DeRozan telling the magazine the trio had a group chat.

“I mean for me, my first year here, that’s when Drake first started coming out. To see him grow and evolve into the megastar he is, and always supporting the city, the country, us, to be our team ambassador—this man got his own team jersey that we wear. To have that, it’s definitely incredible. He’s really our man. He texts me and Kyle in our group chat after games and all that. He’s really supportive of what we’re doing, and vice versa,” DeRozan said.

Article content

When DeRozan was traded away following the 2017-2018 Raptors season, Drake paid tribute to the six-time NBA All Star in an emotional Instagram post.

“I want to say 10 million thank you’s on behalf of YOUR city,” Drake wrote. “You are a fixture in Toronto forever and you gave everything you had.”

After the trade, DeRozan spoke openly about his feelings of betrayal.

“I felt like I wasn’t treated — with what I sacrificed for nine years — with the respect that I thought I deserved,”DeRozan explained in an interview with ESPN’s Chris Hayes. “By just giving me the say-so of letting me know something’s going on, or it’s a chance [that I’d be traded]. That’s all I wanted. I’m not saying you don’t have to trade me. Just let me know something’s going on because I sacrificed everything. Just let me know, you know what I mean? That’s all I ask.

Article content

“Everybody knows I’m the most low maintenance person in the world. Just let me know so that I can prepare myself for whatever my next chapter is and I didn’t get that.”

Last year, DeRozan blamed James for his exit from Toronto after the Raptors tried — and failed — to beat James’ Cleveland Cavaliers during repeated playoff appearances.

“It was Game Three (of the 2018 playoffs), and I just remember, because I was out of the game. I just remember him shooting that one-legged floater and it going in. And I was like, ‘S—, this is it right here.’ That was like the end of my time in Toronto. That one haunts me for sure,”DeRozan shared during his appearance on Paul George’s podcast.

mdaniell@postmedia.com

Article content