"Not Like Us" is the diss track of all diss tracks by Kendrick Lamar, amidst a back and forth feud between Lamar and Canadian rapper Drake. It was released on May 4 2024 as the fifth diss track in the feud, with the prior track 'Meet the Grahams' released just 24 hours before in direct response to Drake's targeted track 'Family Matters'.
In a feud that took over the internet, the tracks aimed at Drake garnered widespread attention across social media, claiming a level of pettiness to be admired, and with immediate commercial success. 'Not Like Us' was the victory lap for Lamar, breaking the record for the biggest single-day streams of a hip hop song in Spotify history, earning about 12.8 million streams on May 11 2024 and becoming the fastest rap song to surpass 100 and 200 million streams on Spotify, taking only 9 days. Ironically, most of these records were previously held by Drake.
The accompanying music video for "Not Like Us" is a visually captivating four and a half minutes with complex symbolism, innuendos, euphemisms, double entendres and easter eggs, offering fans the chance to dissect, interpret and bake different meanings. Gaining 13 million views within 24hours on Youtube, the music video is another win for Lamar in the ongoing feud.
While each part of the music video is incredibly clever and layered, we're just here for the visuals at this point. Enjoy.
Kendrick Lamar “Not Like Us”
Directed by Dave Free & Kendrick Lamar
Production Company: pgLang / project3
Executive Producers: Kendrick Lamar, Dave Free
Producers: Sam Canter, Jack Begert, Jamie Rabineau, Cornell Brown, Anthony Saleh, Jared Heinke
Associate Producer: Charm La’Donna
Director of Photography: Xiaolong Liu