To call Kendrick Lamar's beef with Drake a feud would be inaccurate. A feud implies a rivalry among equally matched competitors. K. Dot versus Drizzy was a prolonged, one-sided beatdown in favour of the former. Round after round, Lamar verbally decimated and lyrically embarrassed Drake in a landslide victory.
Of course, the coup de grâce was Lamar's 'Not Like Us', a vicious knowkcout blow that has already entered the pantheon of legenderay diss tracks alongside Nas' 'Ether' and Tupac's 'Hit 'Em Up'.
Recently, Lamar spoke to Grammy Award-winning R&B singer SZA as part of his cover profile in the Harper’s Bazaar 2024 November Voices Issue. During the wide-ranging conversation, the Compton rapper went in-depth into the meaning behind his chart-topping hit.
"Not like us? Not like us is the energy of who I am, the type of man I represent," Lamar said. "Now, if you identify with the man that I represent ... This man has morals, he has values, he believes in something, he stands on something. He's not pandering."
The Pulitzer Prize-winning artist continued, "He's a man who can recognize his mistakes and not be afraid to share the mistakes and can dig deep down into fear-based ideologies or experiences to be able to express them without feeling like he's less of a man. If I'm thinking of 'Not Like Us,' I'm thinking of me and whoever identifies with that."
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Elsewhere in the interview, SZA asked Lamar whether his music comes from an angry place, and he denied that it does. "I don't believe I'm an angry person," he said. "But I do believe in love and war, and I believe they both need to exist. And my awareness of that allows me to react to things but not identify with them as who I am. Just allowing them to exist and allowing them to flow through me. That's what I believe."
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