What Do Kendrick Lamar's "Not Like Us" Lyrics Really Mean?

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A guide to the hit diss track’s cryptic (but scathing) lyrics
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“Not Like Us” is one in a long line of diss tracks exchanged between Kendrick Lamar and Drake in the spring of 2024, but it’s widely considered Lamar’s most impressive, with its cutting lyrics and bouncy DJ Mustard-produced beat. But what exactly is Lamar singing about in “Not Like Us” with lines like “I see dead people” and “Tryna strike a chord and it's probably A-Minorrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr”? There’s a lot to unpack here (like… so much), but we took a deep dive into the song’s lyrics, the music video’s many Easter eggs, and the history of the rappers’ years-long beef because we wanted ALL the tea. Keep scrolling for the full scoop.

“Not Like Us” at a Glance

“Not Like Us” is Kendrick Lamar’s fifth diss track against Drake in their ongoing feud, released less than a day after his previous diss track, "Meet the Grahams." “Not Like Us” attacks Drake for his use of AI in his music, accuses him of sexual misconduct, questions his place in the rap industry, and challenges his cultural identity.

Section 1 of 4:

“Not Like Us” Lyrics Deepdive

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  1. Drake and Kendrick Lamar have been beefing for years, but their feud really ramped up in early 2024, when they exchanged a flurry of diss tracks over the span of a few months, often releasing songs within the same day. “Not Like Us” is Lamar's fifth official diss track against Drake. The song has been duly praised for its precise and scathing lyrics, in as well as its beat produced by DJ Mustard (but the song's success really comes as no surprise, considering Lamar was the first rapper to win the Pulitzer Prize for music). [1]
    • The song starts out with Lamar whispering “Psst, I see dead people”—a reference to Shyamalan’s The Sixth Sense , but also a subtle threat to Drake.
      • It’s also a callback to Lamar’s spring 2024 diss track “euphoria,” in which he accused Drake of using A.I. and ghostwriters to write his lyrics and references actor Haley Joel Osment (but confuses him—probably intentionally—with televangelist Joel Osteen), who starred in both The Sixth Sense and A.I. : “Am I battlin' ghost or AI? / N***a feelin' like Joel Osteen, / Funny, he was in a film called A.I. / And my sixth sense tellin' me to off him.”
  2. Arguably the most talked-about lyric from “Not Like Us” is “Tryna strike a chord and it's probably A-Minorrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr”—which Lamar holds out for 5 seconds (we counted) and is a reference to both Drake’s over-reliance on the musical key, as well as to his…um…rumored predilection for other types of minors. If you catch our drift.
    • If not, the lyric “Certified lover boy? Certified pedophile” probably clears things up. ( Certified Lover Boy is also the name of Drake’s 2021 album.)
    • Drake has been eyeballed over the years for his seemingly close relationships with very young girls, notably then-teen Stranger Things ’s Millie Bobby Brown, though the two have always denied anything inappropriate ever occurred. [2]
    • Kendrick’s drawn-out “A-Minorrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr” also mimics Drake’s delivery of “Dave Freeeeeeee’s” in his diss track “Family Matters” (which he released right before “Not Like Us”) in which he suggests one of Lamar’s children was fathered by Dave Free, who’s directed many of Lamar’s music videos.
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  3. Lamar attacks Drake’s incorporation of AI in his song “Taylor Made Freestyle,” released earlier in 2024, with lyrics like “You think the Bay gon' let you disrespect Pac?” In “Taylor Made Freestyle,” Drake uses AI-generated vocals meant to resemble Tupac Shakur and Snoop Dogg. After Shakur’s estate threatened legal action, Drake removed the song from all platforms. [3]
    • “The industry can hate me, f*ck 'em all and they mama, / How many opps you really got? I mean, it's too many options” signifies Lamar’s refusal to back down from his fight with Drake even if there are professional consequences. The lyric “F*ck ’em all and they mama” is a callback to a line from 2Pac’s 1996 diss track “Hit ’Em Up” : “F*ck you and yo’ motherf*ckin’ mama.”
  4. Lamar addresses Drake’s dual heritage—his father is African American and his mother is Jewish Canadian—and accuses Drake of being a “colonizer” who exploits Black trauma and Atlanta’s music scene to boost his image and for financial gain. [4] As Ime Ekpo puts in it Forbes , “Ideally, practitioners of hip hop are members of [African American and African diaspora] communities who not only shape the unique experience associated with hip-hop but also carry the responsibility of curating its customs and trends.”
    • In contrast, Lamar hails from Compton, California, a mainly Black and Hispanic area heavily affected by the crack epidemic, and his music often takes inspiration from his upbringing. [5]
    • When Lamar chants “They not like us” in the song’s chorus, he’s questioning Drake’s cultural identity and whether he’s of Lamar's caliber—especially given what Lamar sees as a proclivity to rip off other hip hop artists to boost his own career and his alleged sexually predatory behaviors. [6]
    • Meanwhile, Drake has talked about the challenges of growing up biracial in his own music (like his 2023 song “Wick Man”) and in interviews like this one with The Jewish Chronicle : “I went to a Jewish school, where nobody understood what it was like to be black and Jewish. When kids are young it’s hard for them to understand the make-up of religion and race.”
  5. Lamar doesn’t stop with Drake, also taking issue with others involved with OVO—that is, October’s Very Own, Drake’s record label, which Lamar ridicules as “OV-ho”—including rappers PartyNextDoor and Baka Not Nice and OVO’s head of security Chubbs:
    • “Chubbs the only one that get your hand-me-downs” implies Drake doesn’t take care of his actual family, only the guys in his entourage.
    • “Party at the party playin’ with his nose now” is a reference to PartyNextDoor’s alleged drug use.
    • “Baka got a weird case, why is he around?” alludes to the 2014 sex trafficking charges against Baka Not Nice. [7] Lamar is curious why Drake still associates with Baka.
    • The “Not Like Us” album art is an aerial photo of Drake’s mansion with 13 red markers overlaying the mansion, similar to the ones used on maps marking the locations of sex offenders, the implication being that Drake’s entire entourage is full of sexual predators. [8]
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Section 2 of 4:

A Brief Timeline of Lamar and Drake’s Feud

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  1. 1
    2011-12: Lamar and Drake collaborate. Drake invites Lamar to collab on “Buried Alive Interlude” for his album Take Care . The following year, Drake and Lamar collaborate on Lamar’s “Poetic Justice.” [9]
    • Lamar accompanies Drake on his 2012 Club Paradise Tour.
  2. 2
    2013: Lamar (unintentionally?) disses Drake on Big Sean’s “Control.” Lamar sings in reference to rappers Drake, Mac Miller, J Cole, Meek Mill, Pusha T and a slew of others, “I got love for you all, but I'm trying to murder you.” He claims it’s meant as friendly rivalry, but it ignites a competition between the two rappers that will last more than a decade—though the two artists publicly dismiss claims that they are feuding in the early years of their beef.
    • Drake responds to “Control” in a Billboard interview, saying, “I didn't really have anything to say about it. It just sounded like an ambitious thought to me. That's all it was…. I know good and well that [Lamar]'s not murdering me, at all, in any platform. So when that day presents itself, I guess we can revisit the topic.” [10]
  3. 3
    Halloween 2023: Drake releases diss track “First Person Shooter” with J. Cole. While the beef between the two rappers has been pretty subtle up until now, “First Person Shooter” kicks things off again. Drake and Cole discuss their place in the rap industry, with Cole singing, “Love when they argue the hardest MC / Is it K-Dot [i.e. Kendrick Lamar]? Is it Aubrey [i.e. Drake]? Or me? / We the big three like we started a league.” [11]
  4. 4
    March 22, 2024: Lamar releases “Like That” in response. In the track—a collaboration with Future and Metro Boomin for their album WE DON’T TRUST YOU — Lamar disses both Drake and Cole: “Yeah, get up with me, f*ck sneak dissing / ‘First Person Shooter,’ I hope they came with three switches…. Think I won’t drop the location? I still got PTSD / Motherf*ck the Big Three, n***a, it’s just big me.” [12]
    • Cole reacts to "Like That" with his own diss track against Lamar, “7 Minute Drill,” on April 5, 2024, but apologizes within a week following its release and removes the song from streaming platforms.
  5. 5
    April 2024: Drake releases “Push Ups” and “Taylor Made Freestyle.” Drake responds to Lamar’s diss “Like That” with “Push Ups,” which targets not only Lamar but also Rick Ross, The Weeknd, Metro Boomin, Future, and others.
    • When Lamar doesn’t immediately respond, Drake releases “Taylor Made Freestyle,” incorporating AI-generated vocals meant to resemble 2Pac and Snoop Dogg—two of Lamar’s major influences—to express disappointment in Lamar’s failure to react.
    • Drake removes “Taylor Made Freestyle” from social media after the estate of Tupac Shakur threatens legal action against Drake.
  6. 6
    April 30: Lamar releases “euphoria.” “euphoria” claps back by questioning Drake’s fashion sense and his hip-hop skills and calling him out for using the N-word in his music.
  7. 7
    May 3: Lamar releases “6:16 in LA.” Less than 36 hours later, Lamar releases his second official diss track to social media. In “6:16 in LA,” Lamar suggests there’s a mole in Drake’s OVO entourage spilling info on him. [13]
  8. 8
    14 hours later: Drake responds with “Family Matters.” In this song, Drake accuses Lamar of being a domestic abuser and insinuates that one of Lamar’s kids was actually fathered by Dave Free.
  9. 9
    A few minutes later: Lamar releases “Meet the Grahams.” Lamar shoots back at Drake in "Meet the Grahams" by accusing him of being a sexual predator, being involved in sex trafficking, and having a secret child.
  10. 10
    Later that day: Lamar releases “Not Like Us.” On May 4, 2024, less than a day after “Meet the Grahams,” Lamar releases “Not Like Us,” further accusing Drake of being a sexual predator, a pedophile, and a culture vulture.
    • “Not Like Us” debuts at number one on the Billboard Hot 100. [14]
  11. 11
    May 5: Drake responds with “The Heart Part 6.” Drake uses this song to deny Lamar’s allegations and accuse him of relying on false information.
  12. 12
    Juneteenth: Lamar performs “Not Like Us” 5 times in concert. At Lamar's June 19th Pop Out: Ken & Friends concert at the Kia Forum in Inglewood, California, Lamar performs his diss tracks live for the first time, including “Not Like Us,” which he performs 5 times total throughout the night. [15]
    • LA dancer Tommy the Clown makes a surprise appearance at the concert; Tommy the Clown also makes an appearance in the music video for “Not Like Us.”
  13. 13
    July 4: The music video for “Not Like Us” is released. Lamar waits until Independence Day to drop his eagerly-anticipated music video for “Not Like Us,” directed by Dave Free.
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Section 3 of 4:

The Making of “Not Like Us”

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  1. DJ Mustard had been really gunning to work with Lamar and had been sending him 5 sample beats a day for 3 months. He created the beat for “Not Like Us” in 30 minutes, with contributions from Sounwave and Sean Momberger, after imagining what it would be like if Dr. Dre created a beat for Lil Jon. [16]
    • Though Lamar had told Mustard (whose real name is Dijon Isaiah McFarlane) that the beat was "fire," Mustard only heard the final product when the rest of the world did. "I didn’t know [Lamar] was gonna gas that beat like that,” he said. [17]
    • The song samples Monk Higgins' 1966 "I Believe to My Soul."
Section 4 of 4:

“Not Like Us” Music Video Analysis

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  1. The music video , directed by Dave Free, was released on Independence Day, which Vinson Cunningham identifies in The New Yorker as a calculated move to draw a “bright line” between the U.S. and Drake’s Canada (not like U.S.?) [18]
    • Cunningham also suggests that the idyllic shots of Lamar’s family posing with Grant Wood’s classic painting American Gothic signify an “Edenic” new type of American iconography.
  2. Push-ups? An owl piñata? A reference to “OV-hoes”? The video is crawling with subtle and not-so-subtle hits against Drake and his crew. [19]
    • Lamar does push-ups on cinder blocks, a response to Drake’s “Push Ups,” in which he challenges Lamar to “drop and give me fifty.”
    • The owl symbolizes October’s Very Own, Drake’s record label, the logo for which features an owl. Lamar beats an owl pinata with a bat early in the video; at the end, he’s circling a cage containing a live barn owl that’s staring him down, symbolizing Drake himself.
    • At the bottom of the screen during the pinata scene, text reads, “NO OVHOES WERE HARMED DURING THE MAKING OF THIS VIDEO.” “OV-hoes” is Lamar’s insulting nickname for those in Drake’s OVO entourage.
  3. The video starts out with a shot of the Compton Courthouse overlooking the Martin Luthor King, Jr. Memorial, and includes cameos from Compton residents, including Compton-born basketball player DeMar DeRozan, who previously played for the Toronto Raptors, and LA’s Tommy the Clown. Lamar and DJ Mustard drive through Compton, stopping at Tam’s Burgers #21—which has seen a major uptick in business since the video’s release, unsurprisingly. [20]
    • Lamar’s appreciation of the left coast is further evident in his accusations of Drake exploiting East Coast rappers like Future, Lil Baby, 21 Savage, Young Thug, Quavo and 2 Chainz in lyrics like, “You run to Atlanta when you need a check balance.”
    • LA is also home to Snoop Dogg, whom Drake sought to emulate using AI-generated vocals on “Taylor Made Freestyle.”
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      References

      1. ↑ https://www.npr.org/sections/therecord/2018/04/16/602948758/kendrick-lamars-damn-wins-historic-pulitzer-prize-in-music
      2. ↑ https://pagesix.com/2024/05/06/entertainment/drake-denies-liking-underage-girls-in-kendrick-lamar-diss-track/
      3. ↑ https://www.nbcnews.com/pop-culture/pop-culture-news/drake-pulls-taylor-made-freestyle-tupac-estate-threatens-action-appare-rcna149592
      4. ↑ https://variety.com/2024/music/news/kendrick-lamar-another-drake-diss-track-not-like-us-1235992254/
      5. ↑ https://www.theguardian.com/music/2012/dec/08/kendrick-lamar-good-kid-maaad-city
      6. ↑ https://www.forbes.com/sites/imeekpo/2024/05/07/how-kendrick-lamar-challenged-drakes-cultural-identity-in-not-like-us/
      7. ↑ https://torontosun.com/2015/05/12/drake-entourage-member-guilty-of-assaulting-woman
      8. ↑ https://thedirect.com/article/not-like-us-cover-explained-kendrick-meaning
      9. ↑ https://www.billboard.com/lists/drake-kendrick-lamar-beef-timeline/
      1. ↑ https://www.billboard.com/lists/drake-kendrick-lamar-beef-timeline/
      2. ↑ https://www.complex.com/music/a/andre-gee/ranking-big-3-kendrick-drake-j-cole-every-year-2010
      3. ↑ https://www.billboard.com/music/rb-hip-hop/kendrick-lamar-like-that-diss-drake-j-cole-1235639356/
      4. ↑ https://www.billboard.com/lists/drake-kendrick-lamar-beef-timeline/may-3-2024-kendrick-goes-back-to-back-with-second-diss-616-in-la/
      5. ↑ https://www.billboard.com/lists/drake-kendrick-lamar-beef-timeline/may-3-2024-kendrick-goes-back-to-back-with-second-diss-616-in-la/
      6. ↑ https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/music-news/kendrick-lamar-juneteenth-pop-out-drake-diss-not-like-us-five-times-1235927600/
      7. ↑ https://www.billboard.com/music/rb-hip-hop/mustard-not-like-us-kendrick-lamar-album-rihanna-collab-1235719917/
      8. ↑ https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/music/story/2024-06-20/dj-mustard-kendrick-lamar-not-like-us-beat
      9. ↑ https://www.newyorker.com/culture/on-television/kendrick-lamars-freedom-summer
      10. ↑ https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/kendrick-lamar-not-like-us-video-explained-1235056140/
      11. ↑ https://ktla.com/entertainment/l-a-eatery-sees-big-boost-thanks-to-kendrick-lamars-not-like-us-music-video/

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