When Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us” was announced as the “Song of the Year” at the 2025 Grammy Awards, Beyoncé and Taylor Swift danced to the song as the entire crowd sung in unison, “A-minorrr.”
The catchy lyric rapped by Kendrick Lamar is at the heart of a lawsuit filed by Drake that alleges Universal Music Group committed defamation by releasing and promoting “Not Like Us.”
According to the lawsuit, “‘Not Like Us’ was intended to convey the specific, unmistakable, and false factual allegation that Drake is a criminal pedophile, and to suggest that the public should resort to vigilante justice in response.”
The lawsuit also pulls several other lyrics from Kendrick’s “Not Like Us,” a perplexing move considering that rap lyrics in court became key in Young Thug’s YSL trial in Atlanta, an artist who Drake supports. And he claims that UMG artificially inflated the streaming numbers of “Not Like Us” in an attempt to disparage.
But the 2025 Grammy Awards served as a testament of Kendrick’s ability to turn a rap diss into a work of art. The song takes aim at Drake’s vulnerabilities while also providing a history lesson on Atlanta.
Kendrick raps, “Once upon a time, all of us was in chains, Homie still doubled down callin’ us some slaves, Atlanta was the Mecca, buildin’ railroads and trains, Bear with me for a second, let me put y’all on game.”
“Not Like Us” features layered lyricism, an unforgettable hook, and hypnotic production from DJ Mustard who sampled Monk Higgins’s “I Believe to My Soul.” Kendrick swept all categories and walked away with five Grammy Awards, taking another jab at Drake by accepting his awards in a Canadian tuxedo.
The irony of Kendrick’s success with “Not Like Us” is that it never had to occur. “Not Like Us” is a response, not an initiation to a rap beef.
On April 19, 2024, Drake initiated the rap beef with Kendrick by releasing the full-length diss track, “Push Ups,” where he joked about Kendrick’s height and shoe size; and his lack of creative freedom in his record contract with Top Dawg Entertainment.
Drake followed by releasing a second diss, “Taylor Made Freestyle,” mocking Kendrick with the help of A.I.-assisted voices of Snoop Dogg and 2 Pac. Drake’s body guard Chubbs even took to social media, taunting Kendrick as “scared to drop.”
Kendrick would respond by releasing one of the most impactful songs in rap history, sweeping the Grammy Awards one week away from performing at the Super Bowl.
“Not Like Us” will not just be remembered as more than a diss record, it’s the most ironic moment in rap history.
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