Stephen A. Smith is a New York Times Bestselling Author, Executive Producer, host of ESPN's First Take, and co-host of NBA Countdown.
Stephen A. chimes in on Queens rapper L.L. Cool J crowning himself the G.O.A.T., rapper Kendrick Lamar’s sales surge following the Drake Universal Music Group lawsuit, and he congratulates Eddie Murphy’s son, Eric, and Martin Lawrence’s daughter, Jasmine, on their engagement.
I want to take a moment to switch and transition to two stories from the world of entertainment that caught my eye this weekend.
The first comes to the world of hip hop, which has roots in my hometown, Queens, New York.
Did y'all see what my fellow Queen's native l L Kolj said about his relevance and impact on the rap game.
For those of you who didn't see it, check this out. Please.
They're gonna look and say wow. When it comes to the jewelry, this is the guy that introduced all the diamond and ice and the champagne.
They're gonna say.
When it comes to the love songs, this is the guy who introduced the love songs and all the love shit. When it comes to the bad boy vibe, they're gonna realize, Oh, this is the guy who introduced all the rebellious bad boy vibes.
Before it was done.
When it comes to the goat terminology, they're gonna say, Yo, this is the guy.
Who came up with the goat stuff.
They're gonna say, when it comes to death jam, Wow, this is the first artist that was death.
He's right, He's right. Think about it.
Go el Elle the greatest of all time. Cool Jay, the greatest of all time. Y'all, remember that nobody was saying that before him. Love songs boys to men, before that, I need love, Hey, love, You don't remember that?
It was Haller met the Rutgers.
I saw you with your man smiling, coach bag in the hand, and I was laying in the coop with the hat turned back. We caught eyes for a moment, and that was that. Then I skated it off as you strolled off, looking at the legs. Goddamn, you look so soft, so fine? Are you kidding me?
When did you hear that? When did you hear that? Now? This is a brother that loved Big Daddy Kane. This is from the love, and you remember that.
What I'm going to do is keep the flame warm and sing a better love sowing than Jeffrey Osborne serenade a couple. What I mean is a couple that might want to hug a snugger Linda kiss and say I love you.
See you don't understand. You understand who you're listening to. You understand where I'm coming from. I got my little nephew over there, like damn, I ain't know my arm knew it like that. You see what I'm saying.
That's the world I come from. You listening to LLL break down. I remember when he would get into it all right with coolm O D, lower level, lack luster LI.
I mean you don't remember that's.
To win after LLL went after him, You understanding. I remember when Cannabus tried to come after him.
He said, can our bus? Yes you can't.
I mean, Lord, have mercy. Let's bring it back memories. Let's bring it back memory. I mean everything you think about, everything ll EL said and that quote that I read to you.
He was right, He was right, He was right.
Now, look, let me grab my compose here for a second there, because it's touching for me. Ready, let me spla center, y'all, like I love jay Z to me that that brother something special.
Biggie. You know what I often fantasize about ladies and gentlemen. And I throw this out to y'all little test for y'all.
I want to know, if Biggie and Tupac were alive, who would be bigger?
Who would be bigger?
I want y'all to answer that question for me, because Biggie was Oh my god, Biggie was was special, no doubt.
But the beats helped him too, which by the way, P did he ha something to do with just so y'all know. But the beats helped him. You see what I'm saying.
Tupac, however, I think, would have been bigger because he would have been more of an activist and as a result, because of the world that we're living in, with the trying times and everything else, Tupac would have been doing who lord knows what he would have been doing.
And acting. Biggie one no actor Tupac was, but you know who else is an actor? Ll Hello?
I mean do you see him? I mean, do you remember the movie in Too Deep? You remember the movie deliver Us on Eva? Remember that in Too Deep with My man omar Apps remember that? Remember he had his own damn sitcom.
LLL been at this game for a long time. In cis Brother Special? What's the CSI damn it? I keep forgetting.
I'm so confused bout all of them, But I think it's That's what it is.
The point that I'm making to you is LLL.
It's a rap artist, actor, producer, got his own.
Channel on serious. You ever speak to the boy about important issues. He's an actor, he's an activist at heartiness his own soul.
And I'm looking at a lot of these cats out here, and I'm like, when he talks about his resume, his reputation, his history, anybody can be somebody that can show up and you at the top of the heap, But how long do you stay there? How long are you in that game? Ll is a transcendent figure who has withstood the test of time. This brother has been doing his thing since the eighties, since the eighties. I'm going to knock you out.
I mean, come on, this is who he is.
So when he said what he said, he talked about being most important, not the goat, I'm saying, I ain't got problems with you talking about you the goat if you're bringing all of those things into the equation. Because if he is, how are we going to definitively refute that?
That's what I'm saying. We gotta be on it. This is straight about that. This hellow we talking about this? Allow? We talking about that was item number one? Can I get to item number two? Please?
Because that would involve Drake and Kendrick Lamar. Now you remember last week have to talk about this Drake lawsuit thing, right, Well, it's some additional news that y'all need to know about. Drake's recent lawsuit against Universal Music Group.
UMG has seemingly backfired, y'all in.
A big way, by the way, inadvertently boosting Kendrick Lamar's streams. The legal filings, which accused UMG of artificially boosting the popularity of Kendrick's distrack Not Like Us through streaming bots and payola, have resulted in a massive four hundred and forty percent increase in the song's sales and a twenty percent rise in streams. Since the filing on November twenty fifth, track has surged back up the charts on both Apple Music and Spotify, even making a significant jump on Spotify's Global chart.
This unexpected outcome.
Has led to industry experts to warn Drake that this legal battle might be doing more harm than good. While Drake claims that UMG defamed them by releasing a song that accuses him of being a pedophile, the lawsuit has only drawn more attention to the track music industries. Music industry insiders rather pointed out that this could be a case of the streisand effect. We're attempting to suppress something only amplifies it. Entertainment layer Kevin Cassini even speculated that Drake's followings will likely lead to even more streams for quote unquote, not like us, ladies and gentlemen.
Here's what I want you to understand. In the day and.
Age that we live in, religiously, people tell you to kind of ignore folks, because when you ignore folks, you unsane. You don't give them no shine, you don't buffer them, you don't elevate them.
When you don't.
Ignore them and you give them attention, it serves their best interest as opposed to yours. I understand that reality this is different. People usually do that because they knows the and inquisitive and they want to hear something and they want to find out what's going on.
All right, what is this? Your pissed about? What is this? You reacted to? Blah blah blah. That ain't the case with this. Everybody heard the song, not like us.
They knew what Drake did and they said, fd that's some bs.
Nah, you don't be suing it.
So you got a problem with a cat in front of the mic dropping.
Balls and lyrics against you. You got to do the same. You gotta get back in that studio and do your thing.
Where are your shit at? That's what they saying. What they're saying is, Drake, you got a problem with Kendrick Lamar.
Where the hell is your not like us? Where that at? You? Drake? You wnna sit up there.
That as many times as you.
Skin cats alive with your lyrics, taking them to school, doing whatever it was you were supposed to do, Kendrick Lamar, you came at the wrong dude, it appears because what you were supposed to do is get back in that studio and said not like us. Well, guess what, it's gonna be my turn, and I'm gonna make sure I dropped that shit on.
You right before the super Bowl. That's what you was supposed to do. That's what you're supposed to do. But instead, here's what we're saying. Lawyers, lawyers.
And I told y'all, I like the music that I like. I listen to songs that I like to listen to. But I ain't no fishing not I ain't no expert. I'm not covering hip hop. I got a lot of shit to do with my time that ain't.
One of them.
But I still love the music, and I love the genre, and I love the generation. Having set all of that, I know this much. It don't usually involve no damn lawyers when it comes to catch this one with one another.
I brought up LLLL.
I brought up him going at coolmo D and vice versa. I brought up cannabis trying to get at LL and LL having to bounce back.
I brought stuff like that up. We know about jay Z and.
Os, we know about a lot of cats, well we ain't never seen.
So you you got a song that's got damn near a.
Billion views, I'm gonna get my lawyer.
Really, I am in no way saying all of this to this Drake. Drake is great and his success speaks for itself. I'm saying, Bro, the community has spoken against you. They ain't going to be curious about not like us. They went to say we rolling with Kendrick Lamau. We rolling with him because we don't like the shit you just pulled trying to get lawyers involved.
And they gonna stay that way.
And as the Super Bowl drawers in there, it's only gonna proliferate even more he gonna come at you harder. There's only one way out of this, Drake actually too.
One is to get in the studio and make your own nothing like us. Hell, are you damn right? I ain't like y'all you could do that. Got to be skilled, because Kendrin Lamar soon special. You got to be skilled with it, or you gotta say he got me, he got me.
One of the two lawyers. Can't help you with this, my brother, not this, not this last on the list another item. Didn't bring this up earlier, wasn't going to, but I just remembered it because I want to get to the last entertainment story I found interested in this week. And y'all know that Eddie Murphy and Martin Lawrence are comedic royalty, right, comedic royalty in Hollywood, with a string of blockbuster feels between the two of them. Together, they collaborated on a hit film Life, playing two men wrongly accused of a crime who spent the rest of their time in prison concocting hilarious schemes to get out. Well, it turns out both Eddie Murphy and mart Lawrence will be bonded for life.
Again is their kids.
Eddie Murphy's son Eric, proposed to Lawrence's daughter Jasmine the day before Thanksgiving. The couple share the joint post on Instagram Saturday of the special moment that you're looking at right there, when Eric got down on one knee and popped the question. The peer first went public with their relationship back in twenty twenty one. First of all, congratulations to the two, wishing you a life time of happiness together as one union.
It's very very special. I imagine I've never been married, but I imagine I will say this to you.
The reason why the world cares is because it's an indication, or it should be an indication to you, how much your daddy, your daddy's.
Matter to the world.
Mark Lawrence, it's hilarious to this very day.
Bad Boys for life, hysterical.
Okay, you've got Eddie Murphy who is flat out comedic genius. He's on an extra level. It's who he is. Eddie Murphy is that special. You know the work that he's done. I just finished watching forty eight Hours and forty eight hours to the other night.
I love the Clumps. I love Ras Spucher.
Every time I think about a big woman. My boy POOLI would love I think about rash Spuscher in noorbit. Okay, all of that stuff is Eddie Murphy. You understand, the man is comedic, genius, and for him and Maun Lawrence to have this kind of union is something that's.
Very very special to behold.
Congratulations to Eric, Congratulations to Jasmine. Wishes you nothing but a lifetime of happiness. But it's also a special congratulations coming from me to Eddie Murphy and Mark Lawrence, and a sincere level of gratitude for making us all laugh for so many decades. When you think about the great ones, the Richard Pryors of the world, you know, the you know, red Foxes of the world, and others YouTube belong in that esteemed category. We owe y'all such a debt of gratitude. Y'all are truly truly mesmerizing and inspirational in so many ways, and the whole world owes you an incredible debt of gratitude for always making us smile and always making us laugh. And now your children are gonna make y'all laugh and make y'all smile for the rest of y'all lives. Hopefully, all the best of y'all all the best,