On May 4th, Kendrick Lamar dropped “Not Like Us,” the fifth song in his 2024 “beef” with Drake. I’m counting Kendrick’s feature on Future and Metro Boomin’s “Like That” as Kendrick’s first song of this year’s beef, but Kendrick and Drake have made oblique references to each other in their music for many years. “Not Like Us” came less than 24 hours after Kendrick released “Meet the Grahams,” one of the darkest lyrical eviscerations I’ve ever heard. But “Not Like Us” was basically Kendrick having a ball as he stomped on Drake even harder. It’s become the song of the summer and it was Kendrick’s closing song at The Pop Out concert he organized for Juneteenth. Kendrick performed “Not Like Us” five times and every single person there knew every word.

After the Pop Out, we heard that Kendrick was filming the music video for “Not Like Us” in Compton. I saw some fan-videos online, including one lady pinching Kendrick’s cheek as he walked past and he turned and smiled at her (adorable). Well, it really happened, and Kendrick dropped the video on the Fourth of July. Imagine choosing those two holidays for the biggest “I hate Drake” moves ever. When Kendrick dropped just the song on May 4th, the YouTube video racked up millions of views in just a few hours. The same thing happened with the music video – it came out around 7 pm EST last night and it already has over 12.5 million views. Kendrick also seems to be previewing a brand-new song at the beginning and there are consistent rumors that he will drop a full album soon.

There are so many visual references to Drake – the owl pinata, the actual owl in a cage at the end, the push-ups and on and on. Drake also claimed all kinds of sh-t about Kendrick’s relationship with his fiancee Whitney, and Whitney is there, in the video, with their two children. This was Whitney’s clapback too. Drake also claimed that Whitney had a thing with Kendrick’s friend Dave Free… the same Dave Free who co-directed the music video with Kendrick. The whole video is amazing, what’s your favorite shot? I love when Kendrick looks into the camera for “other vaginal option,” as if he’s saying: I really mean this sh-t. I also love the hopscotch for “A minorrrrr.” Tons of cameos too, including DJ Mustard and basketball player DeMar DeRozan (“I’m glad DeRoz came home, y’all didn’t deserve him neither”).

Screencaps courtesy of ‘Not Like Us’.