Kendrick Lamar - Not Like Us" - Breaking Records and Breaking Drake

A New Era of Hip-Hop Supremacy chronicles how "Not Like Us" became a cultural phenomenon. Released in May twenty twenty-four, the diss track aimed at Drake debuted at number one and stayed there for twenty-one consecutive weeks, breaking the previous record. The episode traces the decade-long tension between Kendrick and Drake from the twenty thirteen "Control" verse through years of subliminal shots. It deconstructs the song's devastating lyrics, DJ Mustard's production, and Kendrick's deadpan delivery. The episode explores why a diss track resonated beyond hip-hop fans, the legal battles that emerged, and how streaming and social media sustained its historic chart dominance.
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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Let yvon here and before we dive into what might
be the most significant moment in hip hop in the
past decade. I need to be straight with you. I
may I now before you click away thinking this diminishes
what I'm about to tell you, understand why that actually
matters for this particular story. The Kendrick Lamar and Drake
feud generated thousands of social media posts, dozens of distracks,

(00:23):
countless think pieces, and more hot takes than any human
could possibly track and synthesize. I can access every lyric
from every track both artists released in twenty twenty four,
every interview they gave, every social media post, every chart
position week by week, every critical review, and hold all

(00:43):
of that information in my head simultaneously. Now, let's talk
about how a distrack became the song of the year
and redefined what's possible in hip hop. May seventh, twenty
twenty four, That's the date everything changed. Kendrick Lamar released
Not Like Us, and the track debuted at number one

(01:04):
on the Billboard Hot one hundred. Now that alone would
be significant. It was Kendrick's third number one single overall,
but his first to debut directly at the top spot.
But what happened next is what made history. The song
stayed at number one for twenty one consecutive weeks twenty
one weeks. To put that in perspective, it surpassed the

(01:28):
previous record held by Lolmazex's Old Town Road, which had
dominated the charts for twenty weeks in twenty nineteen. Let
me be clear about what this means. In the streaming era,
where attention spans are measured in seconds and songs get
hot and then disappear within weeks, maintaining the number one
position for even a few weeks is remarkable. Songs that

(01:50):
stay at number one for ten weeks are considered massive hits.
Twenty one weeks is almost unheard of. And this wasn't
just any song. This was a disc track, a song
where Kendrick Lamar directly confronted his rival Drake, addressing years
of tension, competition, and subliminal shots. A distrack became the

(02:13):
biggest song of the year, stayed there for over five months,
and broke records that will likely stand for years, if
not decades. How did this happen? How did a track
rooted in hip hop beef, a format that's usually niche
and appeals primarily to hardcore fans who followed the drama
become a cultural phenomenon that dominated mainstream charts for half

(02:33):
a year. That's what we're going to unpack today. We're
going to trace the history of the Kendrick and Drake rivalry,
break down the song itself and what made it so devastating,
Examine the aftermath, including legal battles in industry fallout, and
understand why Not Like Us represents something bigger than just
two rappers going at each other. But before we can
understand Not Like Us, we need to understand how we

(02:56):
got here. Because the Kendrick Lamar and Drake rivalry didn't
started to four. It's been building for over a decade,
simmering beneath the surface of hip hop, occasionally bubbling up
in subliminal dishes and competitive posturing before finally exploding into
open warfare. Let's go back to twenty thirteen. Kendrick Lamar
appeared on Big Sean's track Control, and he dropped a

(03:19):
verse that said shockwaves to hip hop. In that verse,
Kendrick called out a bunch of rappers by name Big Sean, Jay, Electronica,
Walle Pusha, T, Meek, mill, AACP, Rocky Tyler, the creator,
Mac Miller, and Yes Drake, and basically said he was
trying to murder them all. Metaphorically speaking, he said he

(03:41):
had love for them, but he was coming for the crown.
He was the king of New York, even though he
was from Compton, and he was better than all of them. Now,
the kind of competitive energy is part of hip hop's DNA.
Rappers are supposed to claim they're the best. But what
made the control Verse different was how direct it was,
how many names Kendrick dropped, and how seriously he seemed

(04:02):
to mean it. This wasn't playful competition. This was a
declaration of war. Drake's response to the control Verse was interesting.
He didn't release a disc track, he didn't go on
the offensive. Instead, he gave interviews where he seemed to
downplay the verse, suggesting it was a marketing ploy, saying
he was above responding to that kind of thing. But

(04:23):
you could tell it bothered. Drake's entire career has been
built on being the biggest rapper in the world, the
most commercially successful, the most culturally dominant. And here was
Kendrick who just released Good Kid Meeters Dot a d
City the year before and was getting crazy critical acclaim
saying he was better than everyone, including Drake. Over the

(04:44):
next few years, both artists took subtle shots at each other.
Drake would drop bars that seemed aimed at Kendrick without
mentioning him by name. Kendrick would do the same. It
was the kind of subliminal beef that hip hop fans
loved to dissect, looking for hidden meanings and referenceferences, but
it never quite exploded into open conflict. Both artists were

(05:04):
too smart, too calculated, too focused on their careers to
let it get messy. The industry dynamics made the rivalry
even more interesting. You had West Coast versus Toronto, which
carried echoes of the old East Coast West Coast beef
from the nineties without being quite that serious. You had
Kendrick signed to Top Dog Entertainment and aftermath Doctor Drey's

(05:26):
protege A carrying the torch for West Coast hip hop.
And you had Drake with Ovio Sound and Young Money,
based in Toronto but with deep connections to the American
hip hop scene. More significantly, you had two completely different
approaches to being a rap superstar. Kendrick was all about
lyrical depth, complex themes, conceptual albums that required multiple listens

(05:50):
to fully appreciate. He prioritized critical acclaim and artistic respect.
His albums were events, carefully crafted statements that advanced hip
hop as an art form. Drake, on the other hand,
was about commercial dominance. He made hit songs, catchy hooks,
music designed to be played in clubs and on the radio.
He was just as talented, just as successful, but his

(06:13):
approach was different. He wanted to be the biggest star,
and he achieved that to a combination of rapping and singing,
through collaborations with pop artists, through understanding and exploiting what
would work commercially not. Their approach is inherently better than
the other, but they represent different philosophies about what a
rapper should be, and that philosophical difference is at the

(06:34):
heart of their rivalry. Kendrick sees Drake as too commercial,
too willing to chase trends, not committed enough to the
art form. Drake sees Kendrick as pretentious, acting like he's
above mainstream success, unable to make the kind of universal
hits that Drake cranks out regularly. Why Does this feud
matter to hip hop culture because it's fundamentally a debate

(06:57):
about what hip hop should be in the modern era.
Should the most successful rapper be the one with the
best bars and the most artistic vision, or should it
be the one who makes the catchiest songs and dominates
the charts? Can you be? Both? Kendrick and Drake represent
the two sides of that debate, and their rivalry forces
fans and critics to take sides on that question. By

(07:18):
twenty twenty three and early twenty twenty four, the tension
had been building for years. There had been subliminal disses,
industry gossip, social media speculation. Fans were hungry for these
two to finally go at each other directly. The powder
keg was ready, It just meted a spark. That spark
came in the spring of twenty twenty four. I'm not

(07:40):
going to give you a comprehensive timeline of every disc
track release because frankly, that would take an entire episode
by itself. But the short version is this. A series
of tracks were released by both camps, featuring Drake and
his associates on one side, and Kendrick and his associates
On the other the shots became less subliminal and more direct.

(08:03):
Personal information started getting aired, Allegations were made, family members
were mentioned. Things got ugly fast. Social media amplified everything.
Every time a new track dropped, Twitter and Instagram and
TikTok exploded with reactions. Fans analyzed every bar, created memes, picksides,

(08:23):
Hip hop media outlets provided commentary and analysis. Other artists
weighed in, some supporting Drake, other supporting Kendrick, many trying
to stay nottral. The beef became the biggest story in music,
drowning out everything else happening in hip hop and even
pop culture more broadly. And then on May seventh, Kendrick
dropped not Like Us and the game was over. Let's

(08:47):
talk about the song itself, because understanding why it was
so devastating requires breaking down what Kendrick did technically, lyrically,
and strategically. The production was handled by DJ Mustard, who
gave the track this bouncing West Coast field that was
simultaneously modern and classic. The beat was built around a
simple but infectious loop with heavy bass and minimal melodic elements,

(09:10):
putting the focus squarely on Kendrick's vocals. This was intentional.
This wasn't a track where the production was trying to
do too much. This was about the bars and the
pars man. The bars were vicious. Kendrick came with this
focused intensity, addressing Drake directly and dismantling him piece by piece.
He questioned Drake's authenticity, suggesting Drake was a culture vulture

(09:33):
who appropriated different regional styles without truly belonging to any
of them. He called out Drake's use of writers and collaborators,
implying Drake wasn't really writing his own raps. He made
allegations about Drake's personal life that were shocking and, if true,
deeply problematic. He suggested Drake was more concerned with being
famous than being great at the actual craft of rapping.

(09:56):
But what made the song truly devastating wasn't just what
Kendrick said, It was how he said it. His delivery
was calm, controlled, almost conversational at times, which made the
content hit even harder. When you're screaming and aggressive in
the disstrack, there's a desperation to it, but Kendrick sounded confident,
like he was just stating facts. The deadpan delivery of

(10:20):
absolutely brutal lines created this cognitive dissonance that was incredibly effective.
The song also worked on multiple levels. On the surface,
it was a direct attack on Drake, but it was
also a broader statement about authenticity and hip hop, about
the difference between being popular and being respected, about what
it means to truly be part of the culture versus

(10:41):
just exploiting it for commercial gain. People who weren't even
particularly invested in the Kendrick Drake beef could listen to
Naught like Us and connect with those themes. The cultural
references throughout the song demonstrated Kendrick's deep knowledge of hip
hop history and culture. He positioned himself as someone who
understood the lineage, who recved affected the pioneers, who was

(11:01):
carrying on traditions, and he positioned Drake as an outsider,
someone who never paid his dues, who never struggled, could
been manufactured by the industry, rather than earning his place
through cure, skill and authenticity. Why did the song resonate
beyond just being a distrack because it articulated something a
lot of people in the hip hop community had been

(11:23):
feeling but hadn't quite been able to express. There was
a sense that Drake's dominance had been built on formula
and marketing rather than genuine artistry. That's not to say
Drake isn't talented. He absolutely is, but there's a difference
between being talented and being an artist, between making hit
songs and advancing the culture. Kendrick was giving voice to

(11:44):
that distinction, and people responded. The chart dominance of Not
Like Us was unprecedented. Debuting at number one is always impressive,
but maintaining that position requires sustained interest, repeated listening, word
of mouth, culture penetration, beyond just the initial buzz. Let
me walk you through what twenty one weeks at number

(12:05):
one actually means. Week one, the song debuts at number
one with massive streaming numbers. This is expected. The anticipation
had been building, Fans were hungry for Kendrick's response, and
everyone wanted to hear what he had to say. But
usually even massive debuts see a drop off. In week two,
people have heard the song, the initial curiosity is satisfied,

(12:28):
and attention moves to the next thing. Not Like Us
didn't drop off. It stayed at number one, week three,
Week four, still at number one. By now, the song
has become more than just a disk track. It's a
cultural phenomenon. People who don't normally follow hip hop beefs
are hearing about it. Mainstream media is covering it. The
song is being played at parties, in cars, in gyms everywhere.

(12:52):
The balance of the beat makes it work as a
club track, even though the content is so aggressive that
crossover appeal is part of White's stained. Week five through
week ten, the song is just dominant. Nothing else can
knock it off the top spot. Other artists are releasing
music trying to compete, and not like us, just stays
planted at number one. Chart analysts are starting to write

(13:16):
articles about whether it can beat Old Town Roads twenty
week record. That kind of speculation creates its own momentum,
with people continuing to stream the song just to be
part of the historical moment. Week eleven through twenty the
song is approaching and then surpassing the record. There's a
collective sense in the culture that this is history being made.
Kendrick doesn't even need to promote the song anymore. It's

(13:38):
promoting itself through sheer cultural weight. TikTok is full of
videos using the song, creating dances, making memes, discussing the beef.
Every time someone thinks interest might be waning, something happens,
a new development in the feud, a celebrity weighing in
a new interpretation of the lyrics that reignites attention. Week

(14:01):
twenty one, the song finally gets knocked off the top spot,
but by then it doesn't matter. The record is broken,
history is made, and Not Like Us has cemented itself
as not just a great disk track, but one of
the most significant songs in hip hop history. The role
of TikTok and social media and sustaining that momentum can't

(14:22):
be overstated. In the streaming era, virality on social platforms
directly translates to chart success. Not Like Us became a
sound that people used for all kinds of content, not
just music related videos. The hook was catchy, the beat
was hard, and the cultural moment was so big that
using the song in your content was a way of

(14:44):
participating in something larger. Now, let's talk about the aftermath,
because the Kendrick Drake feud didn't end with Kendrick Drake
Not Like Us. If anything, it escalated. The song was
so successful and so devastating that Drake felt compelled to respond,
which led to more disk tracks, which led to more responses,

(15:04):
and the whole thing spiraled into something bigger and messier
than just musical competition. Legal disputes emerged from the feud.
There were allegations of defamation, with lawyers getting involved to
determine whether certain claims made in the songs crossed the
line from artistic expression into legally actionable territory. This was
new ground for hip hop. This tracks have always involved

(15:26):
talking trash and making claims about opponents, but usually both
sides understand its part of the game. When lawyers get involved,
it suggests someone believes the line has been crossed from
competitive sport to actual harm. There were accusations of streaming manipulation.
Drake's camp suggested that Kendrick's label or team had used

(15:47):
bots or other artificial means to inflate the streaming numbers
for NAT like us trying to explain how the song
could possibly stay at number one for so long. These
accusations were investigating and ultimately dismissed, but they revealed the
desperation Drake must have felt watching Kendrick dominate the charts
with the song that was explicitly about how Drake wasn't

(16:09):
as good as everyone thought. Label involvement complicated things. Both
artists assigned to major labels with significant resources and industry connections.
The beef wasn't just between two individuals. It was between
two corporations with financial interests in their artists. Winning that
meant more was at stake than just bragging rights. This

(16:29):
was about future album sales, touring revenue, brand partnerships, streaming deals.
The business of hip hop collided with the art of
hip hop, and things got complicated. The controversy affected both
artist's reputations, but in different ways. For Kendrick, the success
of Not Like Us validated his claim to being the

(16:51):
best rapper alive. He'd gone at the biggest artist in
hip hop and not only held his own but dominated him.
His reputation as a lyricist and an artist was enhanced.
For Drake, the situation was more difficult. He built his
career on being untouchable, the biggest star who couldn't be challenged.
Having Kendrick dismantle him so thoroughly and publicly was damaging.

(17:14):
Drake tried to respond with his own tracks, but the
general consensus was that Kendrick had won decisively, so who
won the beef. From a critical perspective, the answer is
pretty clear Kendrick. The quality of his distracts, particularly Not
Like Us, was superior. His bars were sharper, his arguments
were more convincing, his delivery was more effective. Hip hop

(17:36):
purists and critics overwhelmingly sided with Kendrick. From a fan perspective,
things were more divided, but still leaned toward Kendrick. Drake
has a massive fan base, and many of them defended
him and argued his responses were better than people gave
him credit for. But even among Drake fans, there was
an acknowledgment that Not Like Us was a moment that

(17:56):
Kendrick had landed some devastating blows. The impact on both
artist's careers are still playing out, but initial indications suggests
Kendrick benefited more than Drake was her. Drake is so established,
so commercially successful, that one lost beef isn't going to
end his career or significantly diminish his audience, but his

(18:17):
aura of invincibility is gone. He's been proven beatable. Kendrick,
on the other hand, enhanced his reputation as the most
skilled rapper in the game, someone who can deliver both
critically acclaimed albums and chart topping hits when he wants to?
How will Not Like Us be remembered as one of
the greatest diss tracks in hip hop history, certainly as

(18:39):
a song that broke records and dominated charts in unprecedented ways.
As the moment when Kendrick Lamar definitively established his claim
as the best rapper of his generation. The song will
be studied by future hip hop historians as a perfect
example of how to dismantle an opponent lyrically while also
creating something that works as a piece of music independent
of the beef context. Let's put this in broader context,

(19:01):
because hip hop beefs have been a driving force in
the genre's history since the beginning. The Kendrick Drake feud
takes its place alongside legendary rivalries like Tupac and Biggie,
jay Z and naz Ll cool J and Cannabis fifty
Cent and Ja Rule. Each of these beefs produced memorable
diss tracks and helped define their respective eiras. The Tupac

(19:25):
and Biggie beef in the mid nineties was tragic, ending
with both artists dead and a permanent stain on hip
hop's history. The jay Z and Nas Beef in the
early two thousands was more contained but produced some incredible music,
including Jay's Takeover and NAS's Ether, which is often considered
the greatest dis track ever made. The Kindrick Drake Beef

(19:45):
is different from both its intense and personal like Tupac
and Bigie, but without the violence. It's focused on lyrical
skill and artistic credibility like jay Z and Naz, but
with way bigger commercial stakes given how dominant both artists are.
What makes a great diss track In twenty twenty four,
the fundamentals haven't changed. You need effective insults, clever wordplay,

(20:08):
a beat that knocks, and delivery that makes the bars hit.
But there are new considerations in the streaming and social
media era. You need to create something that works as
a meme that people will clip and share. You need
quotable lines that will become tweets and Instagram captions. You
need to generate conversation that extends beyond just the music.
Not like Us succeeded on all these levels. The role

(20:31):
of social media and modern hip hop conflicts is massive.
In the nineties and early two thousands, Beasts played out
through songs released on albums or mixtapes, through interviews on
radio or magazines. There was time between volleys. Now a
distrack can drop at any moment, and within minutes, the
entire Internet is reacting. Fans dissect every line in real time,

(20:53):
Memes are created immediately, other artists wayh in on Twitter.
The beef becomes a participatory event, with millions of peace
feeling like they're part of the story. This amplification makes
modern beefs more intense, but also potentially more exhausting. The
Kendrick Drake Beef generated so much content, so many think pieces,
so many social media arguments that by the time Not

(21:15):
Like Us had been at number one for weeks, some
people were ready to move on. Beef fatigue is real
in the modern era, but the quality of Not Like
Us and its historic chart run kept people engaged despite
that fatigue. Looking at the Kendrick Drake Beef from a distance,
what it really represents is a battle for the soul
of hip hop in the twenty twenties. Is the most

(21:36):
important rapper the one who makes the most money and
has the biggest hits, or is it the one with
the best bars and the most artistic vision. Kendrick's victory,
at least in terms of the music and the critical consensus,
suggests that hip hop culture still values artistry and skill
above pure commercial success. That's significant. It means hip hop

(21:56):
hasn't been completely taken over by commercial interests, that the
culture still has standards and still rewards artists who prioritize
the craft. Not Like Us as more than a diss track.
It's a statement about what matters in hip hop. It's
a twenty one week number one reminder that if you
come with the best bars, the most authentic voice, and
the deepest connection to hip hop culture, you can beat anyone,

(22:19):
even the most commercially successful artist of the past decade.
That's a lesson that will resonate for years. As we
close this episode, I want you to think about what
you just heard. A song that was fundamentally about two
rappers arguing over who's better became the biggest song of
the year, broke records dominated culture for months. That's only

(22:41):
possible in hip hop. That's only possible because hip hop
fans care deeply about skill, about authenticity, about the art.
For the success of Not Like Us is a victory
for everyone who believes hip hop should be more than
just catchy hooks and commercial appeal. Next episode, we're going
to talk about what Kendrick did after Not Like Us

(23:02):
dominated the charts for five months. In November twenty twenty four,
he dropped the surprise album called g NX, and that
album debuted at number one, with three hundred nineteen thousand
equivalent album units in its first week. It was his
fourth consecutive number one album, and three songs from it
simultaneously occupied the top ten on the Billboard Hot one hundred.

(23:25):
The success continued, the dominance continued, and Kendrick proved that
Not Like Us was in a fluke. He was entering
a new phase of his career, one where he could
do anything and everything returned to Gold. Thanks for listening
to this deep dive into one of the most significant
moments in modern hip hop history. If you want to
understand not just what happened, but why it matters, subscribe

(23:46):
for the next two episodes where we explore Kendrick's album
success and his historic Super Bowl performance and Grammy sweep.
This has been brought to you by Quiet Please Podcast Networks.
For more content like this, please go to Quiet Please
Dot Ai Until next time. Remember that in hip hop,

(24:06):
the best bar still win, authentic voices still matter, and
twenty one weeks at number one is just the beginning
of the story. This is leny Vonn and not like
us will be studied for decades as the moment when
Kendrick Lamar proved beyond any doubt that he's the King. Quiet,
please dot ai hear what matters.