Six weeks ago, the Drake and Kendrick Lamar feud felt like it had turned the corner from a fun dream matchup of lyrics and wit to a nasty, joyless fight based on accusations, dark songs and discomfort. Drake dropped “Family Matters,” which accused Lamar of domestic violence. Minutes later, Lamar released “Meet the Grahams,” a brooding, hateful track claiming Drake had fathered a secret child. While the move gave Lamar the upper hand in the battle, it felt like we’d all lost some joy that we’d gained from the prospect of rap’s two biggest stars putting out their most driven music to prove who was the best.
Less than a day after “Meet the Grahams” hit the internet, Lamar dropped “Not Like Us,” and everything changed. The song was the final knockout blow to Drake. And on Juneteenth when he performed it five times to end Wednesday’s “The Pop Out: Ken and Friends” show, presented by Amazon Music, turning a track — and a moment — centered on his disdain for a rival rapper into a moment of unity. And love.
When it was announced that Lamar would host a concert in the Kia Forum in Inglewood, California, fans immediately began speculating about what Kung Fu Kenny would do at the show. After all, his dissection of Drake had been so strategic, calculated, and relentless that anything was possible. Would he drop a new song? Would he parade out every rapper who’s ever dissed Drake? Would there be a release of some new, devastating information about Toronto’s very own?
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Lamar did none of those things. Instead, he performed his Drake disses interspersed between some of his biggest hits to create a show that rivaled any we’ve seen in rap and the best rap concert I’ve ever enjoyed through a TV screen.
But don’t get it twisted: He started with the Drake stuff. Namely, opening his set with the full six-minute version of “Euphoria,” his first full song in the battle. Artists usually don’t perform rap songs this long, especially those that are mostly just bars, at concerts. And they definitely don’t have the audience belting out every word. But “Euphoria” is different. It’s one of the greatest diss tracks ever released and full of lines like “what is it, the braids?” that are endlessly quotable. Lamar’s breath control during the show allowed him to articulate every line of the song with perfect inflection. And while “Euphoria” includes an endless barrage of Drake jabs, if you looked at the fans as they rapped along, they were screaming out lyrics with pure joy on their faces. Because Lamar’s concert was about more than a vicious round of attacks on an enemy. It was a celebration.
Most of the show’s body was a trip down Lamar’s memory lane. He reminded us that he has always had hits and anthemic songs like “Money Trees” and “Humble.” The former came with a guest appearance from Jay Rock with the rest of Black Hippy, Schoolboy Q and AB-Soul, jumping in and out of songs for a long-awaited group reunion. Finally, we got a shock Dr. Dre appearance, which was the show’s only blemish as it’s another example of alleged abusers being platformed in moments that are supposed to promote ideas of Black unity, again putting all of us, especially Black women, in a place of having to overlook harm to get to the enjoyment.
After Dr. Dre exited the stage, it was time for the main event: “Not Like Us.”
When Lamar dropped the song a few weeks ago, there was that dark cloud over the battle. If “Euphoria” was Lamar as rap’s big, bad boogeyman, “Not Like Us” was him as a gentle but dangerous giant putting the entire West Coast on his back, crushing anything in his way.
With one infectious, silly, playful song, Lamar turned the feud into a moment of joy. Yes, the song includes some of the most pointed and ferocious lyrics of the battle — besides asserting that Drake tried to colonize the Atlanta sound, Lamar also straight-up calls him a pedophile. But it’s also become something more than a track about Drake.
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“Not Like Us” is a rebuke of culture vultures. It’s a song about reclaiming Black American culture from people who dive in, glean what they want from it, and try to steal it for themselves. It’s a song that evokes pride and joy beyond a simple one-on-one rap squabble. Yes, Drake was the bomb’s target, but the shrapnel of “Not Like Us” can land on anyone within a five-mile ideological radius. When the song was released, viral clips showed parties full of Black people joyously singing along, dancing and embracing. “Not Like Us” became a No. 1 hit and the song of the summer.
Lamar understood the cultural impact of the song. So he finished his set with five performances of “Not Like Us.” The first three seconds of the first rendition took the roof off the Forum as fans erupted having heard the song they showed up to sing along to — but Lamar stopped after the first verse. Then he started the song over and was silent as the entire crowd rapped every word. May I remind you, the song is 6 weeks old. The third time, he rapped the song with producer DJ Mustard on stage.
He did it again as the stage began to fill up with as many luminaries from all walks of West Coast life, from NBA ballers Russell Westbrook and DeMar DeRozan to rappers YG and Schoolboy Q and, yes, even Tommy the Clown. Lamar made it a point to mention that the stage was full of people from different sections of the LA area, representing different gangs, some of them rivals, all coming together peacefully and celebratory for a Juneteenth party. Then we got the song again. And again.
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Even though Lamar was rapping about Drake, it didn’t feel like Drake was anywhere near the song anymore. Instead, the lyrics “they not like us” were a rallying cry for maintaining culture and identity in the face of those who try to take it away. It was a moment of triumph in a city where some of the biggest streaming events of the past few years were funerals for rapper Nipsey Hussle and Los Angeles Lakers legend Kobe Bryant. It felt like a balm for a whole region.
The Pop Out concert, especially the ending, was a moment for Kendrick and the entire West Coast to remind us that they are bigger than their tragedies. They’re resilient in their peace. Unyielding in their happiness. They’re unwavering in their love of the culture and unabashed in their willingness to dance when joy is at their feet. These are the things they popped out and showed us.
Five times.
Five performances of a song that is the unofficial Juneteenth ’24 anthem. “Not Like Us” is a defining West Coast song that will never go away. It’ll be remembered for how it closed out Lamar’s victory lap over Drake. It’ll be remembered for the unforgettable moments and the dancing we saw on stage Wednesday night. But it’ll also be remembered as the song that turned a battle of negativity into a chance to remind ourselves that we are dope.
As Lamar and about 50 of his closest friends exited the stage at the Kia Forum, “Not Like Us” played one last time. It reminded us that while the song’s initial goal was to put the final nail in Drake’s proverbial coffin, Drake’s destruction is now a byproduct of a song that united, restored and reminded.
This is how a battle based on hate turned into an anthem that showed us love.
David Dennis Jr. is a senior writer at Andscape, and the author of the award-winning book “The Movement Made Us: A Father, a Son, and the Legacy of a Freedom Ride.” David is a graduate of Davidson College.
