Current:Home > InvestKendrick Lamar owns the summer with 'Not Like Us' music video, continues Drake diss -MacroWatch
Kendrick Lamar owns the summer with 'Not Like Us' music video, continues Drake diss
View
Date:2025-04-14 23:51:42
Kendrick Lamar isn't done with his Drake shakedown. In fact, he's come for the Toronto rapper's song of the summer trophy.
On July 4, Lamar released the music video to his Drake diss track "Not Like Us" — a pointed release date after calling his adversary a "colonizer."
The music video, directed by Lamar and Dave Free, celebrates California culture from dance to landmark locations and has visual responses to some of the disses in Drake's tracks "Push Ups" and "Family Matters."
As Lamar warned in "Euphoria," he's the "biggest hater."
The "Not Like Us" music video opens with him doing push ups on cinderblocks in response to Drake's "Push Ups."
Need a break? Play the USA TODAY Daily Crossword Puzzle.
He later uses owl symbolism in reference to the mascot for Drake's record label OVO Sound and makes it clear they're enemies. In one shot, Lamar smashes an owl piñata, while a disclaimer on the bottom of the screen reads: "No OVHoes were harmed during the making of this video."
A breakdown:All 9 Drake and Kendrick Lamar 2024 diss songs, including 'Not Like Us' and 'Part 6'
As the final victory lap, Lamar ends the video dancing with his partner Whitney Alford and their two children to the catchy tune. Drake alleged in "Family Matters" that the Compton rapper abused Alford and that Free is the father of one of their kids.
Everyone wanted a Drake 2016 summer. Now he's 'Not Like Us.'
"Not Like Us" released on May 4 as a catchy clapback to Drake, who has insulted Lamar's ability to make a radio hit.
The DJ Mustard-produced song calls Drake a "certified pedophile" and has everyone from children to adults drawing out the incendiary lyric: "Tryna strike a chord and it's probably A-Minor." Lamar also comes for Drake's industry friendships, his appropriation of certain aspects of Black American culture and shoots his lyrics back at him saying it was "God's plan to show y'all the liar."
Ironically, Drake once owned the song of the summer. "One Dance," "Controlla" and "Too Good" from his 2016 album "Views" created a holy trinity of sorts for summer anthems. There wasn't a party without them.
For a while it was Drake vs. Drake. In 2017, he came back with songs "Fake Love" and "Passionfruit." In 2018, he managed another song trifecta with "God's Plan," "In My Feelings" and "Nice For What." In 2020, he had a brief comeback with "Laugh Now Cry Later" and "Life Is Good" by Future. However, Drake's summertime success waned with his follow-up albums "Certified Lover Boy," "Honestly, Nevermind" and "For All the Dogs" leaving the gap open for a new successor.
Drake effectively became the victim of the music expectations he set with Lamar's "Not Like Us" becoming the millennials' "Hit 'Em Up" by 2Pac (a vicious diss to Biggie Smalls).
Kendrick Lamar performs Drake diss'Not Like Us' 5 times at Juneteenth 'Pop Out' concert
"Not Like Us" (in addition to Sabrina Carpenter's "Espresso") has replaced the yearning for summer 2016. We are finally living in the present, with a diss track calling the Toronto rapper a pedophile that has united different gang affiliations.
The culture driven by Lamar's diss track rollout from "Euphoria" to "6:16 in LA" to "Meet the Grahams" to "Not Like Us" has proved that hateration in this dancerie is winning in summer 2024.
Will Drake win back his song of the summer title? He's got two months to try.
veryGood! (833)
Related
- DoorDash steps up driver ID checks after traffic safety complaints
- 1.5 Degrees Warming and the Search for Climate Justice for the Poor
- Best Friend Day Gifts Under $100: Here's What To Buy the Bestie That Has It All
- Selma Blair, Sarah Michelle Gellar and More React to Shannen Doherty's Cancer Update
- DoorDash steps up driver ID checks after traffic safety complaints
- Warming Trends: School Lunches that Help the Earth, a Coral Refuge and a Quest for Cooler Roads
- Hurricane Irma’s Overlooked Victims: Migrant Farm Workers Living at the Edge
- As California’s Drought Worsens, the Biden Administration Cuts Water Supplies and Farmers Struggle to Compensate
- Israel lets Palestinians go back to northern Gaza for first time in over a year as cease
- Maternal deaths in the U.S. more than doubled over two decades with Black mothers dying at the highest rate
Ranking
- Meet first time Grammy nominee Charley Crockett
- When Autumn Leaves Begin to Fall: As the Climate Warms, Leaves on Some Trees are Dying Earlier
- ‘This Is an Emergency’: 1 Million African Americans Live Near Oil, Gas Facilities
- The Paris Agreement Was a First Step, Not an End Goal. Still, the World’s Nations Are Far Behind
- US appeals court rejects Nasdaq’s diversity rules for company boards
- Kim Zolciak Won't Be Tardy to Drop Biermann From Her Instagram Name
- Fearing for Its Future, a Big Utility Pushes ‘Renewable Gas,’ Urges Cities to Reject Electrification
- Man fishing with his son drowns after rescuing 2 other children swimming at Pennsylvania state park
Recommendation
Civic engagement nonprofits say democracy needs support in between big elections. Do funders agree?
Shooting leaves 3 dead, 6 wounded at July Fourth celebration in Shreveport, Louisiana
Pink’s Daughter Willow Singing With Her Onstage Is True Love
High-Stakes Fight Over Rooftop Solar Spreads to Michigan
Stamford Road collision sends motorcyclist flying; driver arrested
Here's why insurance companies might increase premiums soon
Activists sue Harvard over legacy admissions after affirmative action ruling
Murder probe underway after 6 killed, 1 hurt in South Carolina house fire