Joe Coscarelli

On Popcast, a discussion about the singer’s latest “return to form” album and whether her aggressive promotion of it adds up to anything new.

She played the rapper music as a child, stood by his side during his meteoric career and navigated the legal and artistic questions that arose after his killing.

The Valentine’s Day release, a collaboration with PartyNextDoor, tries on different styles (acoustic pop, traditional Mexican) while only alluding to Kendrick Lamar.

“No one involved with the production was aware of the individual’s intent,” the N.F.L. said in a statement about the protest during Kendrick Lamar’s show.

A 13-minute audio track featuring new vocals that sounded like Lamar spread online on Thursday.

The rapper headlined the show a week after the song, a diss track taking aim at Drake, won five Grammys.

After sweeping the Grammys on Sunday, Lamar’s ubiquitous Drake diss could be the centerpiece of the halftime show. That, it bears mentioning, is pretty strange.

A look back at Kendrick Lamar’s diss track before his Super Bowl halftime show.

The two rappers had circled one another for more than a decade, but their attacks turned relentless and very personal in a slew of tracks released over the weekend.

The superstar is the first Black woman to take the prize this century, and the fourth in Grammy history. It was her fifth nomination for the show’s top award.