Current:Home > StocksKendrick Lamar owns the summer with 'Not Like Us' music video, continues Drake diss -CapitalCourse
Kendrick Lamar owns the summer with 'Not Like Us' music video, continues Drake diss
View
Date:2025-04-11 17:48:26
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! (51663)
Related
- John Galliano out at Maison Margiela, capping year of fashion designer musical chairs
- A record number of migrants have arrived in Spain’s Canary Islands this year. Most are from Senegal
- Bills' Damar Hamlin launches scholarship honoring medical team that saved his life
- Oklahoma State surges up and Oklahoma falls back in NCAA Re-Rank 1-133 after Bedlam
- Dick Vitale announces he is cancer free: 'Santa Claus came early'
- Oklahoma State surges into Top 25, while Georgia stays at No. 1 in US LBM Coaches Poll
- AP PHOTOS: Pan American Games feature diving runner, flying swimmer, joyful athletes in last week
- Albania agrees to temporarily house migrants who reach Italy while their asylum bids are processed
- Selena Gomez's "Weird Uncles" Steve Martin and Martin Short React to Her Engagement
- Conflict and America's role in the world: Americans show sympathy for Israeli people; parties divide over aid to Israel, Ukraine
Ranking
- Could your smelly farts help science?
- German airport closed after armed driver breaches gate, fires gun
- Trump's decades of testimony provide clues about how he'll fight for his real estate empire
- Loss to Chiefs confirms Dolphins as pretenders, not Super Bowl contenders
- New Mexico governor seeks funding to recycle fracking water, expand preschool, treat mental health
- Former Child Actor Evan Ellingson Dead at 35
- New Edition announces Las Vegas residency dates starting in late February after touring for 2 years
- August trial date set for officers charged in Tyre Nichols killing
Recommendation
'Malcolm in the Middle’ to return with new episodes featuring Frankie Muniz
Bravo Bets It All on Erika Jayne Spinoff: All the Details
Loss to Chiefs confirms Dolphins as pretenders, not Super Bowl contenders
Millions are watching people share childhood diaries on TikTok. Maybe that's a bad idea.
Civic engagement nonprofits say democracy needs support in between big elections. Do funders agree?
The Best Beauty Stocking Stuffers of 2023 That Are All Under $30
Myanmar resistance claims first capture of a district capital from the military government
Jennifer Garner Shows Rare PDA With Boyfriend John Miller on Lunch Date