Kendrick Lamar is celebrating the Fourth of July by dropping the anticipated music video for his Drake diss track, “Not Like Us.”
The video is stock full of cameos, including one from Tommy the Clown, who also made an appearance at his recent Pop Out concert in Inglewood. The Compton rapper also uses the visual to celebrate his hometown, dancing with producer DJ Mustard (who is not-so-coincidentally wearing a Toronto Blue Jays cap) and a gathering of fans at locations like City Hall and Tam’s Burgers. Even Lamar’s fiancé, Whitney Alford, and their two kids appear in the video.
In a clear nod to Drake, the music video is heavy on owl imagery, with Lamar whacking an owl-shaped piñata, while a disclaimer flashes across the screen reading, “no OVHoes were harmed during the making of this video.” Later, Lamar stands with a live owl perched on his arm, and the final shot is of an owl in a cage.
The video was reportedly shot just days after the rapper’s Juneteenth show, during which he played “Not Like Us” five times. “Y’all ain’t gonna let nobody disrespect the West Coast, huh?” Lamar asked the crowd before running through the track again and again, with each performance of the song growing in fervor.
The rap war between Lamar and Drake had been going strong for several months but seemed to slow down in recent weeks — that is until this video dropped. Since Lamar took aim at Drake with his verse on Future and Metro Boomin’s “Like That” in March, the Compton and Canadian rappers have traded dozens of verses. In May, Rolling Stone declared Lamar the ultimate victor, noting that “overall, Lamar’s shots hit harder.
However, the highlight of the video comes towards the end of the nearly six-minute clip when Kendrick poses with his fiancé Whitney Alford and their two kids before all of them break into dance. It’s a clear refutation to the allegations made by Drake in his song “Family Matters” where he claimed, among other things, that Alford and Lamar were separated and that he did not regularly see his children.
It’s hard to imagine the song getting a second wind as it’s still dominating the cultural conversation, but this video may just extend its runway.
By Rolling Stone
