Stephen A's Take: Eddie Murphy and Martin Lawrence kids engaged. Rap beef Kendrick keeps winning!

Summary

The Stephen A. Smith Show - Episode Summary

Episode Title: Stephen A's Take: Eddie Murphy and Martin Lawrence Kids Engaged. Rap Beef Kendrick Keeps Winning!
Release Date: December 3, 2024
Hosts: Stephen A. Smith and iHeartPodcasts

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1. LL Cool J's Enduring Influence in Hip Hop

Timestamp: 01:02 - 06:15

In the opening segment, Stephen A. Smith delves into the legacy of LL Cool J, emphasizing his monumental impact on the hip hop industry. Smith highlights LL Cool J's pioneering contributions, asserting that he set foundational trends that have endured over decades.

• Introduction of Key Elements: Smith remarks, "When it comes to the jewelry, this is the guy that introduced all the diamond and ice and the champagne..." (02:15). He credits LL Cool J with popularizing essential elements of hip hop culture, from fashion to lyrical themes.

• Love Songs and Emotional Depth: "When it comes to the love songs, this is the guy who introduced the love songs and all the love shit," Smith notes (03:10), pointing out LL Cool J's role in bringing emotional depth and romantic narratives into rap music.

• Bad Boy Vibe: Smith continues, "When it comes to the bad boy vibe, they're gonna realize... before it was done," (04:20), recognizing LL Cool J's influence in shaping the rebellious and edgy persona that many rappers adopt today.

• GOAT Terminology: Highlighting LL Cool J's linguistic contributions, Smith states, "When it comes to goat terminology, they're going to say... LL is the greatest of all time," (05:05). He underscores how LL Cool J popularized the term "GOAT" (Greatest of All Time) within the rap community.

• Def Jam Legacy: Addressing LL Cool J's role in the industry, Smith asserts, "When it comes to Def Jam, wow. This is the first artist that was deaf. He's right. He's right." (05:50), emphasizing LL's foundational role in the establishment and growth of Def Jam Recordings.

Smith praises LL Cool J’s versatility as a "rap artist, actor, producer," and labels him as a "transcendent figure who has withstood the test of time," (06:00). He lauds LL Cool J's multi-faceted career and enduring relevance in both music and entertainment.

2. Drake vs. Kendrick Lamar: The Unintended Consequences of Legal Battles

Timestamp: 06:16 - 15:37

Stephen A. shifts focus to the recent legal confrontation between Drake and Kendrick Lamar, providing an insightful analysis of how the lawsuit has backfired, inadvertently boosting Kendrick Lamar's popularity.

• Overview of the Lawsuit: Smith outlines that Drake filed a lawsuit against Universal Music Group (UMG) alleging defamation for the release of Kendrick Lamar's diss track "Not Like Us," which Drake claims accused him of being a pedophile. He explains, "Drake's recent lawsuit against Universal Music Group... has resulted in a massive 440% increase in the song's sales and a 20% rise in streams," (07:45).

• The Streisand Effect: Highlighting the unintended consequences, Smith mentions, "This could be a case of the Streisand effect, where attempting to suppress something only amplifies it," (09:10). He explains how Drake's attempt to silence criticism has instead brought greater attention to Kendrick's track.

• Industry Reactions: Smith references industry experts who caution Drake that his legal actions might be detrimental, stating, "Entertainment lawyer Kevin Cassini even speculated that Drake's filings will likely lead to even more streams for 'not like us'," (10:25).

• Community Sentiment: Emphasizing public opinion, Smith asserts, "The community has spoken against you. They ain't go to be curious about. Not like us. They went to say we rolling with Kendrick Lamar," (12:40). He conveys that fans are rallying behind Kendrick, rejecting Drake's legal maneuvers.

• Advice to Drake: Smith advises Drake to focus on his artistry instead of legal battles, proclaiming, "Drake, you got a problem with Kendrick Lamar, where the hell is you? Not like us. You... You got to do the same. You got to get back in that studio and do your thing," (14:15). He encourages Drake to respond creatively rather than resorting to litigation.

• Future Implications: Looking ahead, Smith predicts increased tensions as the Super Bowl approaches, stating, "As the Super Bowl draws near, it's only gonna proliferate even more. He gonna come at you harder," (15:00). He suggests that the feud may intensify, leading to further developments in the rap landscape.

Overall, Smith critiques Drake's choice to involve lawyers in what he perceives as a creative dispute, advocating for artistic expression over legal entanglements.

3. Engagement of Eddie Murphy and Martin Lawrence's Children: A Union of Comedic Royalty

Timestamp: 15:38 - 15:37

In a heartwarming finale, Stephen A. Smith shares the joyous news of the engagement between Eddie Murphy's son, Eric, and Martin Lawrence's daughter, Jasmine, celebrating the union of two iconic comedic families.

• Announcement of the Engagement: Smith reveals, "Eddie Murphy's son Eric proposed to Lawrence's daughter Jasmine the day before Thanksgiving," (16:00). He describes the proposal with enthusiasm, noting the couple shared a joint Instagram post capturing the special moment.

• Public Reaction and Significance: Emphasizing the rarity and significance of this union, Smith remarks, "It's an indication of how much your daddies matter to the world," (16:20). He underscores the importance of their fathers' legacies in the entertainment industry.

• Tribute to Eddie Murphy and Martin Lawrence: Smith pays tribute to both comedians, stating, "Martin Lawrence is hilarious to this very day. Bad boys for life. Hysterical. Eddie Murphy is that special... the man is comedic genius," (16:35). He highlights their contributions to Hollywood and their roles in shaping comedic entertainment.

• Personal Reflections: Sharing his personal admiration, Smith recalls favorite Eddie Murphy roles, such as Rasputia in "Norbit," and praises their enduring ability to entertain, "We owe y'all such a debt of gratitude. Y'all are truly, truly mesmerizing and inspirational in so many ways," (16:50).

• Well Wishes: Concluding with heartfelt congratulations, Smith extends his best wishes to the newly engaged couple, "Wishing you nothing but a lifetime of happiness together as one union," (17:10). He also expresses gratitude towards Eddie Murphy and Martin Lawrence for their enduring impact on comedy and entertainment.

This segment serves as a celebratory acknowledgment of a significant personal milestone within two legendary comedic lineages, highlighting the continued influence of Eddie Murphy and Martin Lawrence in the world of entertainment.

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Conclusion

In this episode of The Stephen A. Smith Show, Stephen A. offers a multifaceted discussion that spans the enduring legacy of LL Cool J, the ramifications of Drake's legal battle with Kendrick Lamar, and the heartwarming engagement of the children of Eddie Murphy and Martin Lawrence. Through insightful analysis and genuine admiration, Smith provides listeners with a rich tapestry of entertainment and cultural commentary, underscoring his renowned ability to blend sports, entertainment, and societal issues seamlessly.

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Notable Quotes:

• "LL is a transcendent figure who has withstood the test of time." – Stephen A. Smith (06:00)
• "This could be a case of the Streisand effect, where attempting to suppress something only amplifies it." – Stephen A. Smith (09:10)
• "Drake, you got a problem with Kendrick Lamar, where the hell is you? Not like us." – Stephen A. Smith (14:15)
• "Y'all are truly, truly mesmerizing and inspirational in so many ways." – Stephen A. Smith (16:50)

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Listeners who miss this episode can tune in on:
iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Transcript

[A]

Are you still quoting 30 year old movies? Have you said cool beans in the past 90 days? Do you think Discover isn't widely accepted? If this sounds like you, you're stuck in the past. Discover is accepted at 99% of places that take credit cards nationwide, and every time you make a purchase with your card, you automatically earn cash back. Welcome to the now it pays to Discover. Learn [e-mail] credit card based on the February 2024 Nielsen report. What's up everyone? It's Greg Rosenthal and I'm teaming up with the King of Spring, Daniel Jeremiah. He requires me to say that we're going to be bringing you 40s and free agents, the only podcast you'll need this NFL draft season. From DJs mock drafts to my top 101, free agents will have it covered for you with all new episodes every Thursday keeping you up to date as we head to the NFL Draft. Listen to 40s and free agents starting on March 6th on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[B]

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 from the world of hip hop, which has roots in my hometown, Queens, New York. Did y'all see what my fellow Queens native LL Cool J 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 going to say, yo, this is the guy who came up with the goat stuff, they're going to say. When it comes to Def Jam, wow. This is the first artist that was deaf. He's right. He's right. Think about it. Go LL the greatest of all time, Cool J. 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, lover, you don't remember that? It was Harlem at the Rutgers. I saw you with your man smiling, Coach, bag in the hand. I was laying in the coop with the hat turned back. We caught eyes for a moment. And that was that. Then I skated off as you strolled off, looking at them legs. Goddamn. You look so sad, so fine. Are you kidding me? Where did you hear that? When did you hear that? Now, this is a brother that loved Big Daddy Kane. This is from the lover. And you remember that. What I'm going to do is keep the flame warm and sing a better love song than Jeffrey Osborne. Serenade a couple. What I mean is a couple that might want to hug and snuggle in their kiss and say, I love. You See, you don't understand. You understand. Who you listening to? You understand where I'm coming from? I got my little nephew over there. Like, damn. I ain't know. My uncle knew it like that. You see what I'm saying? That's the world I come from. You listening? LL break down. I remember when he would get into it, all right, with Kumo D. Lower level, lackluster. I mean, you don't remember that stuff? Went after LL Went after him. I remember when cannabis tried to come after him. He said, can I bust? Yes, you can. I mean, Lord have mercy. It's bringing back memories. It's bringing back memories. I mean, everything you think about, everything LL said in that quote that I read to you, he was right. He was right. He was right. Now, look, let me grab my composure here for a second here, because it's touching. Hold for me, right? Let me explain something to y'all, all right? I love Jay Z. To me, that brother's 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 special, no doubt. But the Beats helped him, too, which, by the way, P. Diddy had 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 who. Lord knows what he would have been doing and acting. Biggie wasn't 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 from Evil. Remember that? In too deep with my man Omar Epps. Remember that? Remember he had his own damn sitcom. LL been at this game for a long time. NCIS Brother Special. What is the csi? Damn it. I keep forgetting. I'm so confused about all of them, but I think it's. That's what it is. The point that I'm making to you is LL is a rap artist, actor, producer. Got his own channel on Sirius. You ever speak to the boy about important issues? He's an activist at heart in 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 80s. Since the 80s. 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 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 honest and straight about that. It's LL we talking about. It's LL 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 I had to talk about this Drake lawsuit thing, right? Well, there'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 diss track Not Like Us through streaming bots in payola, have resulted in a massive 440% increase in the song's sales and a 20% rise in streams. Since the filing on November 25, the 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 his legal battle might be doing more harm than good. While Drake claims that UMG defamed him 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 have pointed out that this could be a case of the Streisand effect, where attempting to suppress something only amplifies it. Entertainment lawyer Kevin Cassini even speculated that Drake's filings 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 understand. 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 nosy and inquisitive and they want to hear something and they want to find out what's going on. All right, what is this you 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, f that. That's some B.S. nah, you don't be suing that. So you got a problem with a cat in front of the mic dropping bars and lyrics against you. You got to do the same. You got to get back in that studio and do your thing. Where your shit at? That's what they saying. What they saying is, Drake, you got a problem with Kendrick Lamar, where the hell is you? Not like us. Where that at? You, Drake, you will sit up there as many times as you've skinned 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 drop that shit on you right before the Super Bowl. That's what you were supposed to do. That's what you supposed to do. But instead, here's what we seeing. Lawyers. Lawyers. Now, 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 fishy or 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 said all of that, I know this much. It don't usually involve no damn lawyers when it comes to cats dissing with one another. I brought up ll, I brought up him going at Cool Modi 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 Nas. We know about a lot of cats what we ain't never seen. So you. You got a song that got damn near a billion views. I'm gonna get my lawyer. Really? I am in no way saying all of this to diss Drake. Drake is great, and his success speaks for itself. I'm saying, bro, the community has spoken against you. They ain't go to be curious about. Not like us. They went to say we rolling with Kendrick Lamar. We rolling with him. Cause 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 draws near, it's only gonna proliferate even more. He gonna come at you harder. There's only one way out of this, Drake. Actually two. One is to get in the studio and make your own. Not like us. Hell, you damn right. I ain't like y'all. You could do that. Got to be skilled. Cause Kendrick Lamar something 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. Cause I want to get to the last entertainment story I found interesting 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 films 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 Martin Lawrence will be bonded for life again as their kids. Eddie Murphy's son Eric proposed to Lawrence's daughter Jasmine the day before Thanksgiving. The couple shared a 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 pair first went public with their relationship back in 2021. First of all, congratulations to the two. Wishing you a lifetime 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 daddies matter to the world. Martin Lawrence is 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 48 Hours and 48 Hours 2 the other night. I love the clumps. I love Raspuch. Every time I think about a big woman my boy Pooley would love, I think about Rasputia in Norbit. Okay? All of that stuff is Eddie Murphy. You understand? The man is comedic genius. And for him and Martin Lawrence to have this kind of union is something that's very, very special to behold. Congratulations to Eric, Congratulations to Jasmine. Wishing you nothing but a lifetime of happiness. But it's also a special congratulations coming from me to Eddie Murphy and Martin 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, Red Foxes of the world and others, you two 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 to y'all. All the best.

[A]

What's up, everyone? It's Greg Rosenthal, and I'm teaming up with the King of Spring, Daniel Jeremiah. He requires me to say that we're going to be bringing you 40s and free agents, the only podcast you'll need this NFL Draft season. Bring from DJs mock drafts to my top 101. Free agents will have it covered for you with all new episodes every Thursday keeping you up to date as we head to the NFL Draft. Listen to 40s and free agents starting on March 6th on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

[B]

What's up, everyone? Julie Swearbinks here along with former NHL player Nate Thompson.

[A]

We're doing a new podcast together. Here we go.

[B]

The Name Energy Line with Nate and jsb.

[A]

Each week we'll get together and talk about hockey life. All topics are fair game, right?

[B]

Exactly. And you'll never know who will drop by to join us.

[A]

Julie is pretty well connected. She has text threads going that you wouldn't believe.

[B]

Listen to Energy Line with Nate and jsb on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.