Current:Home > StocksKendrick Lamar owns the summer with 'Not Like Us' music video, continues Drake diss -TradeCove
Kendrick Lamar owns the summer with 'Not Like Us' music video, continues Drake diss
View
Date:2025-04-28 07:32:52
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! (1)
Related
- What were Tom Selleck's juicy final 'Blue Bloods' words in Reagan family
- Arizona man connected to 2022 Australian terrorist attack indicted on threat counts
- Senators probe private equity hospital deals following CBS News investigation
- Say Anything announces 20th anniversary concert tour for '...Is a Real Boy' album
- The Daily Money: Spending more on holiday travel?
- MLB Winter Meetings: Free agency updates, trade rumors, Shohei Ohtani, Juan Soto news
- Soda for your dog? Jones releases drink catered to canines (and 'adventurous' owners)
- MLB Winter Meetings: Free agency updates, trade rumors, Shohei Ohtani, Juan Soto news
- Kourtney Kardashian Cradles 9-Month-Old Son Rocky in New Photo
- UK says Russia’s intelligence service behind sustained attempts to meddle in British democracy
Ranking
- Scoot flight from Singapore to Wuhan turns back after 'technical issue' detected
- UNLV shooting suspect dead after 3 killed on campus, Las Vegas police say
- Families had long dialogue after Pittsburgh synagogue attack. Now they’ve unveiled a memorial design
- A survivor is pulled out of a Zambian mine nearly a week after being trapped. Dozens remain missing
- Sonya Massey's family keeps eyes on 'full justice' one month after shooting
- Former Jacksonville Jaguars employee charged with stealing $22 million from team
- Gaza protests prompt California governor to hold virtual Christmas tree-lighting ceremony
- Proposal to create new tier for big-money college sports is just a start, NCAA president says
Recommendation
PHOTO COLLECTION: AP Top Photos of the Day Wednesday August 7, 2024
Indonesian maleo conservation faced setbacks due to development and plans for a new capital city
They're not cute and fuzzy — but this book makes the case for Florida's alligators
J Balvin returns to his reggaeton roots on the romantic ‘Amigos’ — and no, it is not about Bad Bunny
Video shows dog chewing cellphone battery pack, igniting fire in Oklahoma home
A nurse’s fatal last visit to patient’s home renews calls for better safety measures
British poet and political activist Benjamin Zephaniah dies at age 65
10 Wisconsin fake electors acknowledge actions were used to overturn 2020 election