Writer of Conan O’Brien’s 2025 Oscars Monologue Defends Kendrick Lamar and Drake Joke

Mar. 15, 2025

Kenrick Lamar; Conan O’Brien; Drake.Photo:Michael Owens/Getty; John Shearer/97th Oscars/The Academy via Getty; Karwai Tang/WireImage

Michael Owens/Getty; John Shearer/97th Oscars/The Academy via Getty; Karwai Tang/WireImage

During the2025 Oscars, host O’Brien, 61, made a direct reference to the ongoing feud between rappers Drake, 38, and Lamar, 37, and a line in the latter’s diss track “Not Like Us,” which won five Grammys at the2025 Grammy Awards.

“We’re halfway through the show, which means it’s time for Kendrick Lamar to come out and call Drake a pedophile,” O’Brien said during his monologue during the Sunday, March 2 telecast and in front of the live audience. “Don’t worry, I’m lawyered up,” he added, referencingDrake’s lawsuits against Universal Music Group.

Shortly after O’Brien made the quip, the comedian’s joke writer Skyler Higley celebrated the joke’s success onX.

“wrote the Kendrick Lamar joke and bet our executive producer $50 that it would kill. just made $50,” he wrote.

Higley alsojokedlater in the evening, “someone put me in contact with Kendrick thanks.”

Higley serves as a staff writer forAfter Midnightand formerly wrote for O’Brien’s TBS talk show,Conan.

Rich Polk/Penske Media via Getty

“The idea that it’s being taken as a real call-out or taking sides in any way in the beef is absurd,” Higley toldTMZon Monday, March 3.

He added that the joke was not O’Brien taking sides, but simply referencing thefeud’s cultural relevanceover the past year, including Lamar’s February2025 Super Bowl halftime performance.

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Higley was referring to the Sunday, Feb. 9,Halftime Showat the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans when Lamar performed “Not Like Us.”

During the song, Lamar calls Drake a pedophile and a “colonizer,” and raps the notorious lyric, “Tryna strike a chord and it’s probably A minor.” Lamar altered one particularly scathing lyric, and omitted the last word from the line “Certified Lover Boy? Certified pedophiles”, which refers toDrake’s 2021 albumCertified Lover Boy.

Kendrick Lamar performs in the Apple Music Super Bowl LIX Halftime Show at Caesars Superdome on February 9, 2025 in New Orleans, Louisiana.Kevin Sabitus/Getty

Kevin Sabitus/Getty

The song was originally released in May 2024. In response, Drakefiled a lawsuitagainst Universal Music Group, his own record label since 2009, for releasing and promoting the track.

source: people.com