Over the past year or so, rapper Kendrick Lamar has been making headlines for all the wrong reasons. This is largely down to a feud with fellow rap artist, Drake. This feud had been brewing ever since Lamar dropped the Control Verse, but a series of diss tracks last year had seen the beef between the two rappers reach new highs. It’s fair to say that the California native, Kendrick Lamar had the last laugh with his song Not Like Us, and ever since he’s been on victory lap.
But, who would’ve guessed that Lamar’s blockbuster live performance at the Super Bowl would have links to NASCAR’s golden era?
NASCAR is back to being a part of the popular culture
Recently, Lamar was roped in to perform at the Super Bowl last weekend, and it was a resounding success. However, it is interesting to know that the California native is a bit of an old-school NASCAR fan. As it turns out, he is the proud owner of a 1987 Buick GNX. The Buick Grand National Experimental was an extremely rare car, to the extent that only 547 were built. Apparently, Kendrick Lamar’s Buick GNX was the 191st of its kind.
It is also worth mentioning that Lamar has mentioned internal GM build codes for the GNX in the past. Naturally, despite public opinion of him being split, he has earned himself a fan in the form of Mike Joy. The NASCAR commentator declared “Love this“, regarding the tidbit about the rapper’s NASCAR connection. Well, there was a time when Buicks were one of the most successful manufacturers in NASCAR back in the good old days. In 1982, Darallel Waltrip won the championships riding his No. 11 Buick, this was the only title triumph a NASCAR driver had with the car maker.
Well, the company had a tough time creating a name for themselves with the performance car. As it turns out the 1987 Buick was the last one they built. The 87 GNX Buick was blacked out, the body was stiffened and the suspensions were also upgraded. The car was powered by a 3.8-litre V6 that produced 276 hp to the rear wheels via a four-speed transmission. With only 547 examples made of this car, the 87 Buick GNX was a rare find and Kendrick Lamar is indeed lucky to own the iconic American muscle car.
Say what you will about Kendrick Lamar and the controversies surrounding him. One thing that cannot be denied is that the man has good taste in cars, and Joy was one of the many who agreed. Another person who also admired the GNX was none other than Dale Earnhardt Jr. He recently tweeted that the Buick GNX was his dream car, so he would have been pretty envious of the rapper.
Love this… https://t.co/fT24jGqGVj
— Mike Joy (@mikejoy500) February 10, 2025
The Buick has been entrenched in NASCAR history, with people like Richard Petty driving it. As a matter of fact, he piloted the Buick to victory in the 1981 Daytona 500. Coming back to Lamar though, that Buick GNX even made an appearance at the Super Bowl, with the rapper sitting atop it.
What is the beef between Kendrick Lamar and Drake?
Back in 2023, Drake released a track in collaboration with J Cole. This track seemingly implied that the three of them were the best rappers in modern hip-hop. However, Lamar seemingly disagreed with that statement, responding with his own diss track, ‘Like That.’ His song suggested that he was better than Drake and J Cole. Later on in a live performance, Drake addressed Lamar’s song and claim and threw down the gauntlet. A month later, J Cole’s own diss track dropped, while Drake and Lamar took jabs at each other.
Kendrick Lamar accepts the award for best rap album for “Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers during the 65th Annual Grammy Awards at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles on Sunday, Feb. 5, 2023.
The meat of the feud came when Kendrick Lamar released his ‘Not Like Us’ song. That song was fairly controversial because he made some extremely wild insinuations about the Canadian rapper. Of course, Drake released his own song, ‘Heart Part 6’, where he denied Lamar’s accusations outright. Before long, J Cole decided to cut his losses and get out before things went too far. However, it seemed that neither Kendrick Lamar nor Drake, got the same memo.
Soon, things began reaching critical levels, especially when ‘Not Like Us’ topped the billboard charts. Then in November 2024, Drake took the feud to court, accusing Kendrick, his label, and Spotify of ‘artificially inflating’ the song’s popularity. Finally in January this year, Drake filed a defamation lawsuit in the federal court. However, Lamar had the last laugh, as he walked away with five Grammys and his Super Bowl appearance.
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