Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us” Music Video Has Dropped Online, and a Victory Lap Has Never Looked So Sweet

I used to be in the course of a 4th of July barbecue when my phone began vibrating incessantly. I checked my phone and the primary message I saw was a message in all caps: “KENDRICK RELEASED A MOVIE!” One day Kendrick Lamar dropped a music video for his megahit Drake diss record “Not Like Us.”

Since I used to be in the course of a blissful event, I believed I’d watch the video later that evening, but my phone kept buzzing. Words and phrases like “Drake must be so mad” and “brooooo” were a part of several group chats. When I finally watched the video — this morning — I laughed to myself. Drake had probably completely forgotten about Kendrick and “Not Like Us” at this point; I doubt he even cares anymore. The dirt has already been kicked up on his hip-hop grave. Drake is sensible enough to know that. So to me, the “Not Like Us” video is not a lot about Drake because it is about him being petty and faking it for Compton and Los Angeles.

And Kendrick is actually having a good time.

That’s what I used to be considering throughout the movie. It’s a victory lap; Kendrick has taken a bunch of L.A. culture and put it within the movie. For a guy whose catalog borders on seriousness, he appears to be having a really good time. I mean, he put an OVO piñata (Drake’s October’s Very Own label) within the movie and smashed it. I bet he and Dave Free (Kendrick Lamar’s creative partner and co-director of the movie with Lamar) had a blast storyboarding the movie. There’s clowning and crumping, and Tam’s Burgers (a Compton location) and Kendrick doing what looks like a backyard workout in L.A. with cinder blocks, which jogs my memory of each ’90s L.A. movie. There’s DeMar DeRozan and DJ Mustard, Kendrick’s former TDE label mates, and a lot of individuals from different neighborhoods. Oh, and Kendrick’s longtime girlfriend and mother of his children, Whitney Alford, who was at the middle of a few of Drake’s accusations against Kendrick, is within the video C-walking with him and their kids. And an owl in a cage — oh boy, an owl in a cage.

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It’s such a hit and looks so fun you could’t help but realize what a good spring and summer Kendrick is having. This video was the primary in a very long time that made me watch it and think Kendrick was really having fun with all of it. I suppose I’d have rejoiced too if I played all of it as smartly as he did.

Think about it: While Drake is a larger artist and will remain one, Kendrick has completely taken his cool and then shown how culturally saturated he’s in Los Angeles and hip-hop. At every turn, he’s used each his artistry and the machine behind him (not every artist could throw an Amazon Prime-sponsored diss record concert) to create a real hip-hop moment. I teach a class on opinion writing at Howard University; when classes start in August, I’ll definitely use Kendrick’s summer as a talking point to assist my students understand how you can form and defend their opinions. I’ll use Kendrick Lamar’s 2024 to show an instructional course. It’s crazy. But it’s also how good 2024 is.

The video for “Not Like Us” looks like that to me. Since Kendrick’s albums are largely conceptual (and are likely to be pretty ambitious, which might be a mixed bag), you may forget that he’s a rapper from Compton who’s thinking about each hip-hop and L.A. culture. It was a reminder. When he had the possibility to look in each, he did so in a big, big way. He found a technique to mix culture with promoting, and it worked perfectly. There are videos of little kids singing along to “Not Like Us.” My 3-year-old son ran across the house saying “OV-Hoe” (I’m not happy with that; I told his brothers to stop letting him watch TikTok videos!). Kendrick executed your entire moment well, with a song you might have to play in every single place and a visual that’s as enjoyable because it is intentional.

Kendrick won the battle and on this video he’s having fun with the victory.