Kendrick Lamar released “Not Like Us,” his third song in less than 36 hours, early on Saturday night, escalating his increasingly intimate musical conflict with Drake. The song, which incorporates an overhead picture of Drake’s estate outside of Toronto with sex-offender map marks on it, is available on Lamar’s official YouTube channel, therefore guaranteeing its legitimacy in a time when one must always be wary of AI deepfakes.
“Not Like Us,” which is built around a straightforward keyboard loop, begins with Lamar whispering, “Pssst: I see dead people.” Then, he launches into another lengthy tirade against Drake, which begins with the Canadian rapper’s contentious remarks regarding dating younger women. Lamar raps in a hilariously exaggerated Southern accent.
He starts up, “Say Drake, I hear you like ’em young / You better not have to go to Cell Block One,” before making fun of the album title “‘Certified Lover Boy’? A musical pun was used to end that section, “Certified pedophile,” asking, “Why you trolllin’ like a bitch, ain’t you tired? Probably a minor chord that I’m trying to hit.
The song’s closing lines, which have an Atlanta theme and list several A-town rappers Drake has collaborated with (Future, 21 Savage, Lil Baby), are not particularly mysterious. As usual, the song contains so many lyrics that we’ll leave the in-depth analysis to the experts. The song also makes fun of Drake’s diss track against Kendrick Lamar (“Family Matters”) and his 2018 song “God’s Plan.”
“You flee to Atlanta in times of need for money. You are not a coworker; rather, you are a fuckin’ colonizer. The truth about the situation and the family are important. It was God’s plan to expose your deceit.”
As the song ends, Lamar leads a chorus of women in screaming “O-vee-ho,” a reference to Drake’s business, OVO, and parodying his popular song “Toosie Slide” once more.
Anyone keeping score has experienced a whirlwind throughout this quickly intensifying duel. Lamar lashed back at Drake and J. Cole on “Like That” after they mentioned their “First Person Shooter.” Since then, the fight has grown quickly, encompassing everyone from Metro Boomin and Rick Ross to Future and The Weeknd.
Within the last twenty-four hours, Lamar dropped a diss track called “6:16 in LA” on Friday morning. Later that day, both rappers released reaction songs, Drake dropping “Family Matters” and Lamar dropping “Meet the Grahams.”