"Someone who knows how to plead the fifth"— Internet reacts to Fat Joe saying "no comment" to the question about Drake and UMG

Rapper Fat Joe made waves on social media after he refused to comment on the ongoing legal battle between Drake and Universal Music Group (UMG). For the unversed, Drake sued UMG and Spotify on November 25, 2024, for allegedly "artificially inflating" Kendrick Lamar's Not Like Us using bots and payola.

The following day, Drake filed a second suit accusing UMG of defamation for allowing Lamar to release the song that accused him of being a child predator. He also claimed UMG was "funneling payments" to iHeartRadio in an alleged "pay-to-play" scheme to disingenuously boost the song on the radio.

Not Like Us came towards the end of the rap feud between Lamar and Drake in April and May 2024. The diss track, which alleged Drake was a p*dophile, broke several music records and was accompanied by a music video released on July 4.

During his December 7 appearance on Big Boy TV on YouTube, Fat Joe discussed the diss battle at length but refused to comment on Drake's legal case with UMG.

His "no comment" phrase seemingly shocked the host, who noted this was the first time in their 30 years of interviews that a rapper had refused to answer a question. The clip quickly circulated on social media, eliciting mixed reactions from netizens.

One X user commended Fat Joe for "pleading the fifth," tweeting:

"Finally someone who knows how to plead the fifth. People act like, just because they're asked a question, they have to provide an answer."

Several people theorized that Fat Joe expressed his true emotions with his expressions.

"He doesn’t have to comment on air, his face says how he truly feels," one person tweeted.

"He said everything you need to know with that breathing," another person added.

"His face says it all, he not jackin that s**t," someone else wrote.

"Without saying anything he said a whole lot of what he thinks about it," another netizen commented.

Some netizens accused Fat Joe of being weak by not speaking about the topic, while others claimed the lawsuit left him and others scared.

"Weak af. I always looked at Joe as a stand up guy. This was weird," someone commented.

"It’s crazy cause big boy hasn’t talked about drake on his radio station since he filed the petition for the lawsuit drake got these boys scared," another user added.

"Fat Joe becoming dj ak Nooooo!!!!!" another person wrote.

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Fat Joe compared Not Like Us to Lean Back and In da Club

In his interview with Bad Boy on December 7, Fat Joe hypothesized that Kendrick Lamar's Not Like Us will have a cultural impact in hip-hop akin to Lean Back, a Terror Squad song featuring him and Remy Ma, and 50 Cent's In da Club. He stated that the DJ Mustard-produced diss will remain relevant even after 50 years, adding:

"Yeah, um, if I'm being honest with you, I wasn't watching it so closely at the beginning. And then when 'They Not Like Us' – 'They Not Like Us' is a 'Lean Back.' It is a 'Go, shawty!' You got the deal with that record for the next 50 years. There's no way around it."

Fat Joe continued:

"He [Lamar] done f**ked around and made a hit. Nah, nah, nah, that's a 'You can find me In Da Club,' like, 'They not like us,' that's forever. It's crazy. It's also the energy, you know what I'm saying? You can't dismiss the energy. It was coming up to that, boom!"

He praised Lamar's latest album, GNX, for its infectious energy, comparing it to the works of hip-hop group Bone Thugs-N-Harmony. The rapper added that Lamar's cousin Baby Keem could release an album now, and it would become popular due to its affiliation with the Compton rapper.

"And so, that's that energy Kendrick got right now. His cousin could come out and sell some s**t. [Baby Keem] was already in play, he's known. Right now, Auntie Kendrick could come out, Auntie, spits ten bars and her s**t be multi-platinum right now. It's just the energy," Fat Joe said.

Previously, Fat Joe had opined about the rap beef soon after Drake released his diss track Push Ups in April 2024. According to Hiphop DX, Joe said in a livestream at the time that Lamar might not respond to the diss track after two weeks went by with no reply from the California-based rapper.

This was before Kendrick Lamar dropped his diss track Euphoria on April 30, followed by another song called 6:16 in LA. On May 3, Drake responded with Family Matters, which was overshadowed when Lamar released meet the grahams less than an hour later.

On May 4, Lamar released Not Like Us, which quickly became an international phenomenon. The track recently regained popularity after Drake filed lawsuits against UMG, iHeartRadio, and Spotify.

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In other news, a hearing for Drake's lawsuit against UMG and Spotify is scheduled for January 16, 2025. Additionally, a hearing for his second lawsuit, which accuses UMG of defamation, will be held on December 19, 2024.