Kendrick Lamar continued to ramp up his increasingly personal musical battle with Drake by releasing “Not Like Us,” his third song in 36 hours, early Saturday evening. The song is posted on Lamar’s official YouTube channel — which essentially guarantees its authenticity in an era when an AI deepfake must always be considered — and features an aerial view of Drake‘s mansion outside Toronto.
Based around a simple keyboard loop, “Not Like Us” features Lamar rapping in a comically exaggerated Southern accent and opens with him whispering “Pssst: I see dead people” before he launches into another long series of personal attacks on Drake, starting off with the Canadian rapper’s controversial comments about dating younger women.
“Say Drake, I hear you like ‘em young / You better not have to go to Cell Block One,” he begins before a dig at the title of Drake’s 2021 album — “ ‘Certified Lover Boy’? Certified pedophile” — and concluding that segment with a musical pun: “Why you trolllin’ like a bitch, ain’t you tired? Trying to strike a chord, and it’s probably a-minor.”
As usual, there are so many lyrics that we’ll leave the deep analysis to the experts, but there’s not much mystery about the Atlanta-themed lines that close the song, which lists a number of the A-town rappers Drake has worked with (Future, 21 Savage, Lil Baby) and finishes with a dig at both Drake’s diss track against Lamar (“Family Matters”) and his 2018 song, “God’s Plan.”
“You run to Atlanta when you need a few dollars/ You not a colleague, you a fuckin’ colonizer/ The family matter, and the truth of the matter/ It was God’s Plan to show you’re a liar.”
The song fades out with Lamar leading a female chorus chanting “O-vee-ho” — a play on Drake’s company, OVO — and making fun of his hit “Toosie Slide” again.
The rapidly escalating battle has been a whirlwind for anyone who’s been keeping score. It started when Lamar fired at Drake and J. Cole on “Like That” for words on their “First Person Shooter.” The beef has since progressed at a rapid pace, involving everyone from Rick Ross and Metro Boomin to the Weeknd and Future.
In just the past 36 hours, Lamar released a diss track titled “6:16 in LA” on Friday morning, then both rappers dropped response tracks, one after the other, on Friday evening, with Drake putting out “Family Matters” and Lamar releasing “Meet the Grahams.”