Editor’s note: The following article is an op-ed, and the views expressed are the author’s own. Read more opinions on theGrio.
In late March of 2025—just over a month ago—I was asked to DJ a birthday party for a newly minted 7-year-old. When I asked the boy’s mother if there were any special requests for songs, the only one she could think of was Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us,” a song that I think will indisputably go down in history as the song that defines 2024. There was a time in my life when a Kendrick Lamar song being requested by (all of the) kids might surprise me, but on the day that I’m writing this, my 10-year-old woke up and got dressed to the clean version of “Squabble Up,” from Lamar’s latest album, “GNX,” an album the rapper is currently touring throughout the United States and Canada with SZA to sold-out stadiums. Kendrick Lamar is one of the biggest artists on the planet right now.
In May 2024, my kids only knew Lamar by name; now they know his catalog and argue about who can name the most songs in it. A year after Lamar dropped “Not Like Us,” one of the most scathing and danceable diss records of all time, anything is possible for Lamar. For Drake, the recipient of that scathing and danceable diss record…eh, not so much. Who would have thought it?
“Not Like Us” was released on May 4, 2024, and wasn’t even the only song released by Lamar on that day. What started, more or less, with Lamar’s guest verse on Future and Metro Boomin’s “Like That,” (March 22) led to Drake releasing “Push Ups”(April 13) and then “Taylor Made Freestyle,” (April 19) which was followed by what I believe is the actual best record in the entire back-and-forth, “Euphoria” (April 30). Then came the flurry: Kendrick dropped “6:16 in LA” on May 3, followed by Drake releasing “Family Matters” later that day.
Very shortly after Drake dropped that record, Kendrick shot back with “Meet the Grahams” (in the wee hours of May 4) the absolute darkest record of the bunch, before dropping his now chart-busting record, “Not Like Us” later that day. What a difference a day makes. Drake would then drop “The Heart Pt. 6” but honestly, nobody cared. The damage was done; Kendrick out-Draked Drake with “Not Like Us,” a catchy bop with quotables lines, wildly repeatable accusations and a call-and-response section that, I mean, if you need a blueprint for how to diss one of the biggest acts on the planet, Kendrick popped out and showed (folks).
That song, led to a whole concert, streamed on Amazon, called “The Pop Out: Ken & Friends” on Juneteenth (June 19, 2024) where Drake had an entire night dedicated to his evisceration, aided by Dr. Dre and most L.A.-centric celebs, that also doubled as some sort of Los Angeles unity show.
On July 4, the video for “Not Like Us” dropped, taking the “Pop Out” theme to new, Compton-heavy levels. That video has more than 330 million views, which seems…low. The success of the same song got him a slot performing at the Super Bowl…in February 2025. You saw it. I saw it. It’s the most watched Super Bowl halftime show in history. And even if you didn’t watch it in real-time, you definitely watched the video replay; performance on the NFL’s YouTube page currently has over 120 million views.
I think it’s safe to say that “Not Like Us” changed everything. Sure, prior to this beef with Drake (we’ll get to him shortly), Kendrick was already one of the most respected artists in hip-hop, much less music. He is the only rapper to be awarded a Pulitzer Prize (so far), he’s won 22 Grammy Awards—five of which he won in 2025 for “Not Like Us”—there are, at least, two separate books written about him from an analytical perspective by two very respected journalists, and his song “Alright” is the song of the Black Lives Matter movement…and on and on. He’s successful beyond most rappers’ wildest imaginations, but “Not Like Us” turned Kendrick into a phenomenon in a different way.
“Not Like Us” turned him into a pop-star whose songs live at the top of the Billboard charts; currently his song “Luther” with SZA is the number one song in the country and has been for 10 weeks. Kendrick is doing things that Drake used to do, except doing it without making songs that are obviously about to hit the top of the charts. To quote Jay-Z from his 1999 song “Come and Get Me,” Kendrick didn’t crossover, he “brought the suburbs to the hood.” A year later, Kendrick Lamar is popping up in Gatorade commercials, a move that wouldn’t have seemed shocking a year ago, but seems obvious nowadays. His back-and-forth with Drake and eventually releasing a song that took over the entire conversation leading to an album that has become an instant classic has turned Kendrick, a year later, into a certified pop sensation. Kendrick was always a transcendent artist, but now he’s in the rare air of being both transcendent and a commercial sure thing.
Then there’s Drake, who I believe is still now and will always be one of the most marketable artists on the planet. He’s having a down…year; much longer than I think he (or anybody) anticipated, but he’ll bounce back. But for Drake to have his back against the wall for this long and in such a non-hip-hop way has been illuminating. Shortly after Lamar’s “GNX” dropped, Drake set in motion proceedings that would end up with him suing his own record label—Universal Music Group (UMG)—alleging that they effectively inflated “Not Like Us” for profit at the expense of Drake. Mind you, Drake and Kendrick are on the same label.
In a move that a year ago that never seemed plausible to me from the Teflon Canadian, he now feels like hip-hop’s biggest Karen, and the very interloper that Kendrick accused him of being, a costume he can’t seem to shake (yet). I’ve never had a problem with Drake’s music because Drake has always made hits and like Kendrick, I like Drake that makes me dance in the club. But now I actually don’t like Drake as a human; he seems small and petty and like a sore loser. I am not alone in this. Drake’s cool is long gone. What remains is a guy who can release music — an album with PartyNextDoor on Valentine’s Day that even he would have to admit hasn’t hit the same — but doesn’t move the needle anymore. He’s Drake with all the accolades, none of the cultural footprint. He is, in essence, not like us anymore.
I don’t know what’s next for Kendrick Lamar. Right now, he’s on the longest victory lap of all time, reaching heights I’ll bet even his own team didn’t realize were available to him. Right now, he’s Barry Bonds with the home run record; he was already going into the Hall of Fame, but now he’s in the conversation with the best to ever do it, leapfrogging some of those who believed their slots were cemented. It’s all subjective and that’s what hip-hop is for, to argue about and to analyze and to enjoy and to dance to. No matter how you slice it, I’ll bet nobody could have predicted how that one song could have made Kung Fu Kenny’s career look a year later.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I must run an errand while my son requests “TV Off” over and over in the car, not just because he loves yelling “MUSTAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRD” but because he loves rapping, “All I ever wanted was a black Grand National, bump being rational, give ‘em what they ask for! Uh…it’s not enough.”
What a difference a year makes.
Panama Jackson is a columnist at theGrio and host of the award-winning podcast, “Dear Culture” on theGrio Black Podcast Network. He writes very Black things, drinks very brown liquors, and is pretty fly for a light guy. His biggest accomplishment to date coincides with his Blackest accomplishment to date in that he received a phone call from Oprah Winfrey after she read one of his pieces (biggest) but he didn’t answer the phone because the caller ID said “Unknown” (Blackest).
