Ja Rule claims UMG lifted copyright strikes for Kendrick Lamar's "Not Like Us" but not Drake's songs, making it harder for fans to share

Ja Rule recently appeared for a conversation on the BagFuel musical podcast. A clip of the conversation was uploaded on their official YouTube channel on Thursday, July 10, 2025. In the video, Rule was talking about the sensational beef between Drake and Kendrick Lamar.

According to the 49-year-old rapper, Universal Music Group happened to lift copyright strikes for Lamar's Not Like Us, but did not do the same for Drake's record. Rule believed that it was done so that fans could not share the Canadian rapper's track as much as Not Like Us was getting shared. He said:

"When Drake dropped, I don't remember what record it was or whatever, but his fans were trying to put it up on Instagram and it kept getting pulled down because, uh, it's because of Universal's f*cking... you know... Copyright infringement."

He added:

"But f*cking Interscope cleared all of that so that the f*cking fans can push out Not Like Us as much as they want."

Ja Rule, however, did not mention the particular Drake record that he was referring to in the aforementioned statement. The claims by the rapper surfaced when he was talking about the apparent influence that record labels had on rap beefs. At some point during the interview, he claimed that Interscope was very good with handling rap beefs.

Rule even ended up making a reference to Tupac and claiming that Interscope had been dealing with rap beefs since that time. Elsewhere, the rapper spoke about the co-founder of Interscope, Jimmy Iovine, and called him "the boss."

In the conversation, Ja Rule continued talking about his rap beef as well, and how the record label played a big part in it. The entire interview had been released on July 10 and could only be accessed through membership as of now.

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Ja Rule recalled the time when he got involved in a rap beef with artists signed with Interscope Records

As aforementioned, Ja Rule claimed that record labels often played significant parts during rap beefs. To corroborate his stance, he gave the example of Kendrick Lamar and Drake's beef that happened last year. Rule claimed that in the beef, Interscope Records was the one that influenced it massively.

While talking about it, the rapper recalled the time when he got into a beef with artists from Interscope Records. For the unversed, the beef primarily was between Ja Rule and 50 Cent. However, later artists like Eminem and Dr. Dre were also involved in it. The beef between the two rappers reportedly began way back in 1999.

During the latest interview, Rule said that Interscope then made some "clever moves." He continued:

"Get a call from MTV. You know we don't think it's a good idea that you guys come to the awards this year because we're going to have... Dre and Em... they don't feel say if y'all are there."

Ja Rule then said that the public, on the other hand, were confused not to see the artists at the event. However, they did not know that these artists were apparently asked not to attend the award show. According to Rule, beefs were fine as long as only the artists were involved because they were in the "same playing field."

Elsewhere during the interview, he claimed that due to these tactics, fans were prevented from helping their favorite artists fight the beef. Rule additionally said:

"You're getting stopped. Your fans are getting stopped from trying to help you fight the beef."

While concluding this topic, Ja Rule said that these things did not bother him anymore, and he would "poke" people for fun.

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Ja Rule had recently trolled 50 Cent over a clip from the latter's concert

On June 30, Ja Rule took a dig at 50 Cent through a tweet, which was a response to a fan who claimed that the latter's show was sold out. The show in question was one of Cent's The Final Lap tour performances in the UK. The fan's tweet mocked Rule, and read:

"His tickets sold out Ja Fool. 😂😂😂"

This grabbed his attention, and he chose to come up with a response. He shared a video seemingly of one of the aforementioned shows of 50 Cent, which showed that the floor was not packed. In the tweet, he wrote:

"You sure bout that??? Ain't nobody coming to see you Otis… I mean Curtis."

The dig, however, did not surprise netizens since the two rappers had been in a feud since the late 90s. There had been instances where Cent also took a dig at Rule. In December, 50 Cent told Big Boy that he bought the first four rows from one of Rule's shows, ensuring that those rows remained empty.

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As for the latest claims made by Ja Rule, neither Kendrick Lamar nor UMG has given any response.