The truth behind Kendrick Lamar song ‘Not like Us’ aside from Drake
Legendary rapper Kendrick Lamar’s ‘Not Like Us’ was released in the summer of 2024 with the weight of a cataclysmic event. The headlines made it out to be the final nail in his coffin in his feud with Drake, which is true, but too narrow a focus. The song did not get its effect just by belittling a competitor.
The video was released on July 4th – a date that was intentionally selected. Kendrick was not simply celebrating independence, but cultural self-possession. The image of Compton, friends, families and familiar spots in Los Angeles had made the point before the lyric could fall to the page.
The sound, the action, the people around him said ownership. This was not a performance for the industry. It was a broadcast from inside the community, by someone who still lives and breathes it. It was not that I beat him, but that we don’t need him.
Kendrick has stated directly that ‘Not Like Us’ was the result of self-definition. He wrote that it represents “the energy of who I am”, not a score-settling petty dispute. In the interview with SZA, he discussed values, accountability, and standing by something other than following what the public is feeling.
He is positioning himself as a man who makes mistakes, holds himself to a standard and sticks to it. The track isn’t so much about dominating, as it is ironing out principles around it.
The hook “they not like us” is not aimed at just one opponent, it is more particular a separation of those who are within the culture from those who are feeding on its aesthetics from abroad. Kendrick depicts Drake as a cultural tourist, someone who speaks the language of hip hop but does not live in its context. The word is “coloniser” raising an important question not of style, but of ownership and meaning.
The West Coast framing is very important. The video is saturated with Los Angeles. Court house stairs, the wall paintings, the native dancers, Top Dawg faces, friends from home. These are not for show, but for going. They are anchors.
All in all, the song sits squarely in a California school. DJ Mustard’s production is a hyphy bounce, the whistles, the rolling basslines and handclap percussion like block parties and car parks in warm night air. The beat leads with bodies and then lets the bars fall.