Kendrick Lamar continued his increasingly personal musical battle with Drake on Saturday evening, releasing his third song in 36 hours, “Not Like Us.” The song is posted on Lamar's official YouTube channel, which essentially guarantees authenticity in an age where AI deepfakes are always a consideration, and features an aerial shot of Drake's mansion outside Toronto.
Built around a simple keyboard loop, “Not Like Us” features Lamar rapping in a comically exaggerated Southern accent and begins with him whispering, “Wait a minute: I see a dead man,” another lengthy series of personal attacks on Drake. Start. The Canadian rapper's controversial comments about dating younger women.
“Tell me Drake, I heard you like it when you’re young / You better not have to go to Cell Block One,” he begins before delving into the title of Drake’s 2021 album. “‘Certified Lover Boy’? Certified Pedophile” — and ends the segment with a musical pun: “Why are you trolling like a motherfucker, aren’t you tired? Trying to strike a chord and it’s probably minor.”
As always, there are so many lyrics that I'll leave the detailed analysis to the experts. But there's not much mystery about the Atlanta-themed line that closes the song (among other connections to the city, Drake was a theme in 2018). The episode (of Donald Glover's hit TV series) ends with a dig at another song, “God's Plan.”
“You run to Atlanta needing a few dollars / You’re not a fellow, you’re a damn colonist / The family issues and the truth of the matter / It was God’s plan to show you a liar.”
The song fades out with Lamar leading the female choir in chanting “O-vee-ho” (a play on Drake's company, OVO) and mocking his hit “Toosie Slide” again.
In the past 36 hours, Lamar released a diss track titled “6:16 in LA” on Friday morning, and both rappers took turns releasing response tracks on Friday evening, with Drake releasing “Family Matters” and Lamar releasing response tracks in turn. announced. ‘Meet the Grahams’ is released. See here for more details.