Saturday Night Live comedians Will Ferrell and Ana Gasteyer have urged beefing rappers Kendrick Lamar and Drake to “hug it out” during the show’s 50th anniversary special.
The pair’s feud reached new heights when Lamar performed his blockbuster diss track “Not Like Us” to an audience of 250 million viewers at the Super Bowl this week. He was awarded five Grammys for the record-breaking single, making it one of the most awarded songs in the accolade’s history.
During SNL50, a three-hour special to celebrate five decades of the sketch show, Ferrell and Gasteyer reprised their roles as music teachers Marty and Bobbi Culp, as they performed a series of song covers.
Among them was Lamar’s “Not Like Us”, as well as renditions of Britney Spears’ “Work B**ch”, Sam Smith and Kim Petras’ “Unholy”, Megan Thee Stallion’s “Body” and Chappell Roan’s “Good Luck Babe”.
“Are Kenny Lamar and Drake Graham in the house, by the way?” Ferrell joked. “Maybe you two can hug it out tonight in the name of love and fellowship.”
He added: “No? Not in hell?”
Mark Ronson and Amy Schumer were seen laughing at the musical characters, which first debuted on SNL in 1996.
The three-hour star-studded special, hosted by Jimmy Fallon, also featured appearances by Cher, Miley Cyrus, Lady Gaga, Snoop Dogg, Tom Hanks, and Post Malone.
Other notable moments from the event included Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson storming out of the concert.
The Hollywood couple left their seats and headed to the back of the auditorium when host Jimmy Fallon told the audience that the three-hour SNL concert would not be handing out any awards.
Fallon said: “Apparently, there’s been some confusion. This is just a concert. We’re not giving out any awards tonight. So I just want to make sure that everyone knows that.”
In a clip that has circulated online, both Hanks and Wilson could be seen jokingly walking out of the Radio City Music Hall venue in New York, with Wilson wagging her finger at the camera.
“Tom? Rita?” Fallon said, playing along, adding: “We lost Tom Hanks and Rita. Sorry. It wasn’t their fault.”
Amid the rapper’s ongoing feud, Drake is suing his own record label, who also represent Lamar. The defamation lawsuit alleges that Universal Music group allowed the spreading of a “false and malicious narrative” against him.
In a statement, UMG told The Independent: “Not only are these claims untrue, but the notion that we would seek to harm the reputation of any artist – let alone Drake – is illogical. We have invested massively in his music and our employees around the world have worked tirelessly for many years to help him achieve historic commercial and personal financial success.”
