Kendrick Lamar has fans on the edge of their seat for new music following the release of his video for “Not Like Us.” On Friday (July 5), Lamar finally dropped off the highly-anticipated visual to his latest hit song. Paying homage to his Compton roots, the rapper gives fans an inside look at life in LA. YG, Steve Lacy, and NBA player DeMar DeRozan were just a few of the surprise guests featured. In under 24 hours, the video has reached over 25,000,000 views.
Despite the well-produced, glossy video, fans still want more. An upcoming album has been rumored to be in the works. As a result of the symbolism of the video, social media users circulated conspiracy theories. One in particular, focused on a specific type of jacket Kendrick Lamar was sporting. Many people thought the numbering on the front was related to a possible release date. However, nothing has been confirmed by Lamar or his camp. Check out the video for “Not Like Us” below.
Kendrick Lamar’s Victory Lap
“Not Like Us” has broken several streaming records and has been hailed as the song of the summer. A new album, which will most likely feature this track will have a significant impact. The Pulitzer Prize-winning rapper’s previous album, Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers, was released in May 2022. This album marked his first release under PGLang — his creative company with Dave Free— and his final project with both TDE/ Aftermath. Although it’s unclear what initially caused the tension between the two, as time passes, their ongoing beef continues to fester.
It appears the issue between Kendrick Lamar and Drake kicked off following the release of Future and Metro Boomin’s “Like That,” which featured a fiery rap from Lamar, where he took multiple shots at Drake. The “Headlines” rapper quickly fired back with “Push Ups,” where he not only called out Lamar, but Rick Ross and The Weeknd. He then followed that up with “Taylor Made Freestyle.” However, the track was removed from social media after threats from Tupac Shakur’s estate, amid the rapper using AI-generated voices of Pac and Snoop Dogg. Later, Kendrick fired back with two more diss tracks, “6:16 in LA” and “Not Like Us.” The rapper recently partnered with Amazon Prime for a “pop-out” event in LA at the Kia Forum.