USA - 2024
West Coast Hip Hop, Ratchet Music, Hyphy
In every hip hop feud lies two questions. The first one is simple: who will win? But the second one is trickier : what will we remember? Most of the time, and especially here between Drake and Kendrick Lamar, beefs’ climaxes happen in the blink of an eye. Two weeks. That’s how much it took between Kendrick’s verse on Like That and Drake’s last diss track The Heart Part 6.
When fans follow such a feud, it’s an everyday engagement. You start looking for clues, checking up informations, watching how the tracks are received, what they are hiding between the lines. It all happens fast, the song are first released on social media, then eventually on streaming services but all in all it’s instantaneous. There’s no clear thinking of a posterity. No matter the quality of the songs, we can’t say Euphoria and 6:16 in LA will be remembered as some of Lamar’s most impactful tracks. Same goes for Drake. Even a song as brutal as meet the grahams won’t have the impact in the forthcoming years as it had the day it was released. That’s because most of diss tracks relies on shock value. The harsher the words, the darker the allegations, the better.
But something odd happened on May 4th. Without even waiting for Drake’s answer to meet the grahams, Lamar released another track, Not Like Us. And this time, it’s not about instantness, it’s about posterity. For many reasons, this is the track everyone will remember.
More than ever before, Kendrick Lamar’s music is linked to his roots, the West coast rap bastion, Compton. Thanks to DJ Mustard producing the song, Lamar pays tribute to the whole city and its community. Mustard also comes from Compton and is well known for this « hyphy » beat he gave Not Like Us and that also shaped most of the hits born in Northern California.
But the cultural aspect doesn’t stop here. The second line from the song is « Deebo any rap nigga, he a free throw ». The « Deebo » Lamar mentions is a fictional character from the 1995 film Friday played by Compton actor Tommy Lister Jr. Friday was a hit when it was released, also featuring Ice Cube and directed by F. Gary Gray who also directed music videos for Ice Cube, Dr Dre, OutKast, Cypress Hill and many more.
Lamar doesn’t only cements his song into the current culture, he draws a line to the past, honoring the ones who came before him, understanding his legacy and recognizing it. Culturally speaking, Compton is one of the most important city of the last three decades. And if the music video for Not Like Us was also shot in Compton, featuring many people born there, it’s only to highlight this powerful community. Not Like Us is a song enscribed in a cultural history. Lamar made it with his family, his peers, it’s an anthem for many. And that’s what makes him so different from Drake.
The song’s second line might be about Compton’s legacy, but the first one is about family. Very simply : « Ay Mustard on the beat, ho ». This could go unnoticed, but when you’re making a diss track, the first thing you think about as your opening punchline is usually something that will shock, here it’s not the case. Lamar chose to put the spotlight on his peers, the culture he belongs to. Not Like Us wasn’t made by Lamar himself, it was made by a whole community going to war against Drake and what he represents, against an ideology.
« You think the Bay gon’ let you disrespect Pac, nigga? ». After Drake released Taylor Made Freestyle where he used AI-generated vocals for Tupac, he got a whole coast on his back. With Not Like Us, Lamar becomes the West Coast’s shield while Drake pictures himself as the disrepectful enemy, not even trying to pay tribute to the ones who preceeded him. But if the hip hop culture is Lamar’s family, who’s Drake family ?
« They tell me Chubbs the only one that get your hand-me-downs / And Party at the party playin’ with his nose now / And Baka got a weird case, why is he around? / Certified Lover Boy? Certified pedophiles ». All these names are people working at Drake’s label OVO, this is his family. Not only they are all portrayed as criminals, but they are also all related to an economic family : the label. Drake’s family is the money, and from this systemic criminality rises criminal music. How’d he called Certified Lover Boy again ?
The other reason why Not Like Us will be remembered as the feud’s main highlight is because it is symptomatic of the cultural war that has lingered between Lamar and Drake since the 2010’s. If most allegations made were very personal, the song’s third verse takes everything higher, the perspective widens. « Once upon a time, all of us was in chains / Homie still doubled down callin’ us some slaves / […] The settlers was usin’ towfolk to make ‘em richer / Fast-forward, 2024, you got the same agenda ».
This might be the most precise accusation made during this feud. Lamar makes one big statement, that Drake isn’t making hip hop music and doesn’t belong to the culture, that he just capitalizes on it. « No you’re not a colleague, you a fuckin’ colonizer ». If Kendrick wanted to kill Drake’s entire credibility, there was no more accurate way than this one. Drake built his whole persona as an entertainer, but this « entertainment » is seen differently by Lamar. In his view, it becomes a way to anesthesize minds. But with Not Like Us, Kendrick proves it’s possible to make a highly political song that will remain in clubs for years.
« The family matter and the truth of the matter / It was God’s plan to show y’all the liar ». The Compton rapper is playing on Drake’s own field, using his references, his community, and owning them for four minutes. But where in most feuds, us listeners are just people watching from the sidelines, Lamar’s master-move has been to include us inside the song. With Kendrick by our side, we become actors.
With its infectious chorus, « They not like us, they not like us », Kendrick makes us sing with him. This is a club anthem, it gets in your mind, playing with echolalia and sing along patterns. This is the same thing that happens with the most famous and savage line of the song : « Tryna strike a chord and it’s probably A minooooooor ». On meet the grahams, we were all shocked to hear Kendrick Lamar’s calling Drake a pedocriminal. But on Not Like Us, he makes us sing it with him. It even becomes playful : the shape of a joke with the content of a serious accusation.
Twice, Lamar also requires our attention and talks directly to the listeners : “Let me break it down for you”, “Bear with me for a second, let me put y’all on the game”. During this demonstration, Kendrick Lamar is our guide. He’s also our host, taking our hand and bringing us inside Compton’s culture. We become a part of the feud. And as the song ends, all that remains is the sing along : “Let me hear you say OV-ho / Say OV-ho”.
Rarely a song has embraced the feud aesthetic and subverted it as much as Not Like Us does. It was released in a context where everyone was startled by the violence of the words, but in the end what stays is not the victory of a man, but the victory of an idea. Despite the disconcerting allegations, hip hop and its community came out of this feud proudly while Drake dug his own grave on The Heart Part 6. You can’t do nothing when you face someone backed by 50 years of history.
When fans follow such a feud, it’s an everyday engagement. You start looking for clues, checking up informations, watching how the tracks are received, what they are hiding between the lines. It all happens fast, the song are first released on social media, then eventually on streaming services but all in all it’s instantaneous. There’s no clear thinking of a posterity. No matter the quality of the songs, we can’t say Euphoria and 6:16 in LA will be remembered as some of Lamar’s most impactful tracks. Same goes for Drake. Even a song as brutal as meet the grahams won’t have the impact in the forthcoming years as it had the day it was released. That’s because most of diss tracks relies on shock value. The harsher the words, the darker the allegations, the better.
But something odd happened on May 4th. Without even waiting for Drake’s answer to meet the grahams, Lamar released another track, Not Like Us. And this time, it’s not about instantness, it’s about posterity. For many reasons, this is the track everyone will remember.
More than ever before, Kendrick Lamar’s music is linked to his roots, the West coast rap bastion, Compton. Thanks to DJ Mustard producing the song, Lamar pays tribute to the whole city and its community. Mustard also comes from Compton and is well known for this « hyphy » beat he gave Not Like Us and that also shaped most of the hits born in Northern California.
But the cultural aspect doesn’t stop here. The second line from the song is « Deebo any rap nigga, he a free throw ». The « Deebo » Lamar mentions is a fictional character from the 1995 film Friday played by Compton actor Tommy Lister Jr. Friday was a hit when it was released, also featuring Ice Cube and directed by F. Gary Gray who also directed music videos for Ice Cube, Dr Dre, OutKast, Cypress Hill and many more.
Lamar doesn’t only cements his song into the current culture, he draws a line to the past, honoring the ones who came before him, understanding his legacy and recognizing it. Culturally speaking, Compton is one of the most important city of the last three decades. And if the music video for Not Like Us was also shot in Compton, featuring many people born there, it’s only to highlight this powerful community. Not Like Us is a song enscribed in a cultural history. Lamar made it with his family, his peers, it’s an anthem for many. And that’s what makes him so different from Drake.
The song’s second line might be about Compton’s legacy, but the first one is about family. Very simply : « Ay Mustard on the beat, ho ». This could go unnoticed, but when you’re making a diss track, the first thing you think about as your opening punchline is usually something that will shock, here it’s not the case. Lamar chose to put the spotlight on his peers, the culture he belongs to. Not Like Us wasn’t made by Lamar himself, it was made by a whole community going to war against Drake and what he represents, against an ideology.
« You think the Bay gon’ let you disrespect Pac, nigga? ». After Drake released Taylor Made Freestyle where he used AI-generated vocals for Tupac, he got a whole coast on his back. With Not Like Us, Lamar becomes the West Coast’s shield while Drake pictures himself as the disrepectful enemy, not even trying to pay tribute to the ones who preceeded him. But if the hip hop culture is Lamar’s family, who’s Drake family ?
« They tell me Chubbs the only one that get your hand-me-downs / And Party at the party playin’ with his nose now / And Baka got a weird case, why is he around? / Certified Lover Boy? Certified pedophiles ». All these names are people working at Drake’s label OVO, this is his family. Not only they are all portrayed as criminals, but they are also all related to an economic family : the label. Drake’s family is the money, and from this systemic criminality rises criminal music. How’d he called Certified Lover Boy again ?
The other reason why Not Like Us will be remembered as the feud’s main highlight is because it is symptomatic of the cultural war that has lingered between Lamar and Drake since the 2010’s. If most allegations made were very personal, the song’s third verse takes everything higher, the perspective widens. « Once upon a time, all of us was in chains / Homie still doubled down callin’ us some slaves / […] The settlers was usin’ towfolk to make ‘em richer / Fast-forward, 2024, you got the same agenda ».
This might be the most precise accusation made during this feud. Lamar makes one big statement, that Drake isn’t making hip hop music and doesn’t belong to the culture, that he just capitalizes on it. « No you’re not a colleague, you a fuckin’ colonizer ». If Kendrick wanted to kill Drake’s entire credibility, there was no more accurate way than this one. Drake built his whole persona as an entertainer, but this « entertainment » is seen differently by Lamar. In his view, it becomes a way to anesthesize minds. But with Not Like Us, Kendrick proves it’s possible to make a highly political song that will remain in clubs for years.
« The family matter and the truth of the matter / It was God’s plan to show y’all the liar ». The Compton rapper is playing on Drake’s own field, using his references, his community, and owning them for four minutes. But where in most feuds, us listeners are just people watching from the sidelines, Lamar’s master-move has been to include us inside the song. With Kendrick by our side, we become actors.
With its infectious chorus, « They not like us, they not like us », Kendrick makes us sing with him. This is a club anthem, it gets in your mind, playing with echolalia and sing along patterns. This is the same thing that happens with the most famous and savage line of the song : « Tryna strike a chord and it’s probably A minooooooor ». On meet the grahams, we were all shocked to hear Kendrick Lamar’s calling Drake a pedocriminal. But on Not Like Us, he makes us sing it with him. It even becomes playful : the shape of a joke with the content of a serious accusation.
Twice, Lamar also requires our attention and talks directly to the listeners : “Let me break it down for you”, “Bear with me for a second, let me put y’all on the game”. During this demonstration, Kendrick Lamar is our guide. He’s also our host, taking our hand and bringing us inside Compton’s culture. We become a part of the feud. And as the song ends, all that remains is the sing along : “Let me hear you say OV-ho / Say OV-ho”.
Rarely a song has embraced the feud aesthetic and subverted it as much as Not Like Us does. It was released in a context where everyone was startled by the violence of the words, but in the end what stays is not the victory of a man, but the victory of an idea. Despite the disconcerting allegations, hip hop and its community came out of this feud proudly while Drake dug his own grave on The Heart Part 6. You can’t do nothing when you face someone backed by 50 years of history.