At four minutes and 34 seconds, “Not Like Us” sonically is a model for tasteful simplicity in rap. Consider Lamar’s ingredients in cooking this head bobbing banger: A solid supporting beat mostly made up of a kick drum and trap-tinged hi-hat on repeat, paired to a sparse but reverberating bassline, a brass-like sample that accents beats one and two, and fingersnaps on the counter to accent the three and four beats. Then a two-bar soul horn motif marks segues into the beginning (and end) of some of the slickest bars Kendrick Lamar has ever committed to tape, or rather, a digital audio workstation.

Words and phrases pop out, and though intricate Lamar’s vernacular may seem to the average listener, the gist is clear: this is a diss track. And a friggin’ really good one at that. I already feel sorry for the guy who’s at the receiving end of it. And it didn’t take long to figure out for whom it’s directed at. Yep, we’re lookin’ at Drake here. 

Lamar goes, “Drake, I hear you like ‘em young / you better not ever go to cell block one / to any b*tch that talk to him and they in love / just make sure you hide your lil’ sister from him.” Yep, Lamar Kendrick just said that Drake “like(s) ‘em young.” And called his former collaborator in so many words and directly, a pedophile. And that’s just a warm up as Lamar still had some of his most stinging rebuke of Drake and his clapbacks reserved as the song went, a sample of which goes, “why you trolling like a b*tch? Ain’t you tired? / tryna strike a chord and it’s probably A-minor.” Get it? A minor? 

Kendrick Lamar is brilliant. And he’s got the awards to back it up, in fact he took home five Grammy’s last week including Best Rap Song, Rap Performance and Best Music Video thereby  sweeping all his categories. And to think that he did it with a diss track is even more impressive, and truth be told, hilarious. Drake is an accomplished rapper too, but this is about Kendrick Lamar winning Record and Song of the Year at the 67th Grammy Awards. For a clapback track with an exclamation point. 

An interesting tidbit: Kendrick Lamar also released an album called “GNX” last November 2024 but was overshadowed by the more popular “Not Like Us,” which was in turn released earlier in May of 2024 and is just a single. Lamar’s “GNX” album was a surprise album that Lamar dropped late last year and probably didn’t make the Grammy screening cut-off; hence, it’s no-show at the recently concluded music awards show (besides, it was the time for Beyonce’s “Cowboy Carter”). “GNX” (a reference to a Buick Grand National Experiment car model) will probably be eligible next year at the Grammy’s, and we’ll probably hear more from this album in the coming months. 

In the meantime, expect Kendrick Lamar to perhaps perform a new single from this album and his biggest hits that include “All The Stars” (with SZA), “Money Trees,” “Humble” and “Not Like Us” to name a few in his halftime performance at the (59th) LIX Superbowl between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles. As a newly converted football fan, my money’s on Kendrick Lamar winning big in the Superbowl.