Kendrick Lamar has unveiled the highly anticipated music video for his Drake diss track, ‘Not Like Us’, which has taken the hip-hop world by storm since its release in May.
Co-directed by Lamar and Dave Free, the video dropped on July 4th and features a host of West Coast icons, including cameos from Tommy the Clown, producer Mustard sporting a Toronto Blue Jays cap, and former Toronto Raptor DeMar DeRozan. The video was filmed across iconic Compton locations such as Compton City Hall, Enterprise Park, and Nickerson Gardens, with over 1,000 fans in attendance, as well as artists like Steve Lacy, Roddy Ricch, YG, and Thundercat.
In the video, Lamar takes aim at Drake’s label OVO, declaring “no Ov-Hoes were harmed in this video” while destroying an owl piñata, referencing the label’s logo. The video concludes with Lamar staring down an owl in a cage before walking away into darkness. Near the end, Lamar also dances with his partner Whitney Alford and their two children, seemingly pushing back against Drake’s accusations of infidelity and family mistreatment.
‘Not Like Us’ has become a record-breaking success for Lamar since its release, becoming his fourth Billboard Hot 100 Number One single and the most streamed hip-hop song per day on Spotify, with 6.8 million plays in a single day and over 440 million total streams on the platform. The track’s success follows Lamar’s feature on Future and Metro Boomin’s ‘Like That’, which ignited his feud with Drake earlier this year.
At his recent ‘The Pop Out: Ken & Friends’ Juneteenth concert special in Los Angeles, Lamar performed the diss track five consecutive times, bringing out Dr. Dre as a special guest to deliver the opening line: “Pssst, I see dead people”. During the show, Lamar also included a new verse calling for Drake to return the ring Tupac wore at the 1996 MTV Video Music Awards, which the Canadian artist had seemingly purchased at an auction.
The Recording Academy CEO, Harvey Mason Jr., recently stated that ‘Not Like Us’ would be eligible for the Grammy Awards, citing Lamar’s impressive track record with the awards, having won 17 Grammys to date, despite diss tracks not being commonly nominated.
Leave a Reply