When podcaster and retired rapper Joe Budden first heard Kendrick Lamar's song "Not Like Us" in May, he was blunt with his words. Blunt yet somewhat prognosticative.

"You better thank your f -- ing heavens up above that it's not HBCU (band) season," Budden said during his "The Joe Budden Podcast."

The minute the song was released, it became more than simply the final diss track in an ongoing rap beef with Drake. It was a song with a hook catchy enough to be the soundtrack for any sports team looking to deliver a message to its opponent. It made sense particularly for college marching bands.

Budden's words ultimately came to fruition. The song carried over to the fall and took over the HBCU band season. It also has been heard in a few Power 4 stadiums.

With "Not Like Us" debuting six months ago, college football bands across the country were able to use the summer to compose their own arrangements just in time for regular-season presentations. Many band directors nationwide knew they had a hit when they first heard the song.

"I heard that marching band tempo," said J. Clyde Neal, assistant band director for Grambling State's Tiger Marching Band. "I was also thinking about that (song's) 100 beats per minute. I'm always thinking like a musician, and a lot of L.A. music is 100 beats per minute.

"I wasn't even thinking about it from a beef perspective because music is music, but for me, there was a tune, the perfect tempo for band."

How does "Not Like Us" -- or any other mainstream song -- go from a listener's ear to a college football halftime show? Before anything else, band directors must acquire the all-important, sometimes-elusive copyright.

Each stadium/arena has its own license via the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) to play the original recordings. Marching bands, however, create their own version of the song, which requires a separate copyright under federal law.

"That is a complicated thing for a lot of band directors," said Dr. Brett Bawcum, director of the University of Georgia's Redcoat Marching Band. "It's not something we necessarily learn in school, and that marketplace changes consistently. It's one of the more difficult things we deal with on a yearly basis."

Who owns the rights to the song varies. Sometimes it's the artist; other times, it's the record label. Most band directors opt to work with print publishers who have already done the groundwork in identifying who owns the rights. A submitted request -- which includes what they want to do with the rights -- then is either approved or denied. From there, the negotiation of how much it will cost begins.

Copyright fees can vary, from as low as $50 to upwards of $1,000 or more.

"It's become a lot more expensive over the last few years," Bawcum said. "To the point where for some schools, they're having to make decisions about what titles they do or do not play based on whether they have the budget to pay the copyright fees."

A copyright deal's length depends on the song. Some are only good for one year, and others are good in perpetuity.

Dr. Ken Ozzello, director of the Million Dollar Band at the University of Alabama, estimates that he spends roughly $6,000 per year on copyrights, which is a familiar amount among SEC schools. The standard of following those rules is heightened for these schools and other major institutions that are on national television weekly.

"If we play Taylor Swift's music and we don't ask for permission, somebody's gonna hear it and ask why," Ozzello said. "Publishers and owners have headhunters out there looking for things like that."

The copyright process can be prolonged. As a result, band directors begin searching for copyrights more than six months in advance of football season if they intend to play a song on the field during halftime to sync the song with choreography. In the case of "Not Like Us," it's been played mostly in stadium stands.

Bands began to break out their versions of the song in August. Dr. John B. Oliver, band director of Alabama State's Mighty Marching Hornets, believes his group was one of the first to play its version, on Aug. 22 as part of the Atlanta Braves' HBCU Night.

"The key to it is to write it the way that people hear it. If you write it the way they hear it, they recognize it from the beginning," Oliver said. "People love it, and it was a huge hit. It was a big hit for us from the beginning."

The University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff has the M4 band (Marching Musical Machine of the Mid-South). Harold Fooster, assistant band director and percussion instructor at UAPB, said the band added "Not Like Us" to its rotation in August. He said it took "a couple of days" for UAPB's arranger, Ryan Harris, to finalize their version of the song.

"It was a very popular song and a social media phenomenon this past spring," Fooster said. "It has a catchy instrumental and hook that makes it accessible for arrangers to write it for bands."

Bands have to make sure songs are recognizable to fans. The process of people converting what they hear on the radio or through streaming services to live instruments isn't always seamless. Fortunately for bands across the world, the "Not Like Us" melody is perfect for a horns section.

Larry Jenkins Jr., assistant band director of Tennessee State's Aristocrat of Bands, said he is always trying to find songs with cultural appeal that will elicit reactions and good feelings from crowds. He knew "Not Like Us" had that "it" factor, a song fitting for a proud HBCU ensemble that last year became the first college band to win a Grammy Award.

"It didn't take long at all (to arrange)," Jenkins said. "The song itself, the way it's built, kind of writes itself, so you're able to put your own creativity on it.

"It lends itself to translate to band very easily."

Directors and arrangers said "Not Like Us" has a simplicity that works. But as some bands see "Not Like Us" as a no-brainer, others passed on the idea, including Ohio State's marching band, known for its fantastic halftime performances and nicknamed "The Best Damn Band in the Land."

For Tennessee's Pride of the Southland Band, there's a give and take between songs that are played over the speakers versus what the band plays. "Not Like Us" is one of Tennessee football's most popular pregame songs, but it's off-limits to the band.

"That's one we talked to the football team about," said Dr. Michael Stewart, Tennessee's band director. "They brought it to us to play, but they use it during their warmups on game day, so that's one where we said, 'We're not going to do this one this year.'"

For many schools, a band director will hear the song and compose an arrangement. Some schools, however, rely on students to bring up current hits for consideration. USC has the TMB (Trojan Marching Band) CAFE (Creativity and Fan Experience), a student committee within the band that picks popular songs that could work for halftime show themes.

USC band director Dr. Jacob Vogel said his band is "jukebox style," so they have a lot of music to pull from. That includes stand tunes, which are shorter songs that can be played during timeouts.

"The way the riff repeats, the way the trap beat is set up, it just seemed perfect for that sort of implementation. And then, given the fact that it was No. 1 on Billboard, it's a chart-topper," Vogel said of "Not Like Us."

"The students all like it," he continued. "It checks those boxes. I think the students like the drama of the beef between the rappers, so that adds to the mix, as well. It really was a no-brainer to just take the piece of music, put it together and get it in their hands."

Stanford and Cal will line up Saturday in the 127th rendition of the Big Game, the annual rivalry matchup between the two northern California universities. Being able to play "Not Like Us" throughout the game will be the ultimate treat for one of the teams. That's only enhanced knowing the song has West Coast roots.

Representatives from both schools, however, acknowledged that the song -- as with many rap songs -- isn't always the easiest to arrange for bands for various reasons. Yet, they both have found ways to make it work. Cal saved its version for its nationally televised game Oct. 5 against Miami, as it was heard coming out of commercial breaks. Stanford also played it Oct. 5 when it hosted Virginia Tech. Students at Stanford began their fall semester Sept. 23, and that was the Cardinal's first home game with a full campus.

"With popular songs from the rap industry, they're hard to find the melodies," said Ashton Rotich, a third-year mechanical engineering major at Cal who arranged the song for the band. "With 'Not Like Us,' it has something playing at the beginning, which I could just loop and have the whole band playing, which was nice."

"Rap as a genre is hard to translate into band because the vocals in rap don't necessarily have a distinct pitch that's as prevalent as in genres like rock," said Gabriel Thompson, a drum major for the Stanford Band. "Sometimes it can be very difficult to translate or to arrange rap songs into things that can be played for band, so I was very surprised at how well our arrangement sounded."

"Not Like Us" is expected to have life beyond the football season. The song is nominated for five Grammy Awards, including Song of the Year and Record of the Year.

Since its debut, multiple teams celebrating victories have been heard playing the song. The Los Angeles Dodgers won the World Series and made the song a slogan during the postseason.

The song has had fans on their feet for months, and the chance of it getting continued play in college football -- and other places in the sports world -- is high.

"I want people dancing," Neal said. "I want people to be able to dance to my tune and recognize it."