Kendrick Lamar wants to make it clear to Drake that ‘Not Like Us’ is now the only track that matters in their public shot-for-shot battle.
On Thursday, the 37-year-old Compton rapper dropped the highly anticipated music video for the song that has stemmed from his beef with the 37-year-old Canadian rapper. The song has become one of the most popular of the summer and a general major hit, reaching No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.
On June 19, Lamar took the opportunity at his ‘The Pop Out: Ken & Friends’ concert to perform “Not Like Us” six times in a row in his native Los Angeles where he also brought out a team of musicians like Dr. Dre, YG, Tyler the Creator, Schoolboy Q and more. Afterwards, he was documented in Compton with an entire community ready to back him up for a West Coast victory lap.
Directed by the Lamar and Dave Free, the video features several cameos from prominent West Coast figures, including the hit song’s producer Mustard, who is also wearing a Toronto Blue Jays cap in one of the more obvious jabs at Drake.
The video begins with Tommy the Clown letting Lamar into a metallic room before the rapper does push-ups on cinder blocks, a nod to Drake’s track “Push Ups,” after Drake referenced an image of Lamar doing the exercise as part of its rollout.
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The two most overt visual digs at Drake involve an owl, which the “God’s Plan” musician uses as a logo for his music label, OVO Sound.
Fans have also already taken note that Lamar’s fiancée, Whitney Alford, and their two children appear dancing in a living room in the video. Alford was a talking point in one of Drake’s diss songs, “Family Matters,” where the “In My Feelings” rapper claimed that the video’s co-director and Lamar’s longtime associate, Dave Free, fathered one of Lamar’s children with his fiancée.
Overall, it seems as though, with this music video, there might be no need for Drake to make an explicit concession. Perhaps he should just ‘Laugh Now, Cry Later.’