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After weeks of teasing an official music video for his extremely successful No.1 diss track, Kendrick Lamar finally dropped the visuals for Not Like Us on June 4, 2024. As of writing this feature, the video has garnered over 11 million views since it was uploaded 11 hours ago.
The music video was directed by K-Dot and his manager Dave Free, who was called out several times during the Kendrick vs Drake beef. The OVO CEO had dropped several controversial allegations of infidelity between Lamar's partner Whitney Alford and Free.
Dave Free took to Instagram after the visuals were released wishing his followers a "happy 4th" of July in the caption for Not Like Us's announcement post. The post also featured several stills from the music video.
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All the Easter Eggs and References you might have missed in Kendrick Lamar's Not Like Us music video
Kendrick's video for Not Like Us has a runtime of almost six minutes and is filled with visual easter eggs. It also has cameo appearances from Whitney Alford, DJ Mustard, NBA star DeMar DeRozan, and more. Dot also previewed a surprise new verse before the song starts, which could hint at an upcoming record.
"I am reincarnated / I was stargazing / Life goes on, Honey, all my babies (Gyah, Gyah) / Woke up, lookin' for the broccoli / Hot key, keep a horn on me, that Kamasi / IP ownership, the blueprint is by me / Mister get off, I get off at my feet," he raps in the preview.
This feature will catalog every major reference, sneak diss, and easter egg witnessed in the visuals for Not Like Us. Check out the full music video for Kendrick Lamar's No.1 diss track below.
Disclaimer: Themes and lyrics referenced here are rated explicit. Reader's discretion is advised.
1) A love letter to Compton and Los Angeles
Given the song's production and lyricism are bustling with West Coast energy, Kendrick Lamar stands with his hometown of Compton and the City of Los Angeles.
Dot shows love to his people by shooting a significant portion of the video around major attractions in the Hub like Compton's city hall. It is featured as a still shot right at the beginning of the music video and returns later packed with hundreds of fans rapping along with Kendrick to the song's infectious hook.
2) Tommy the Clown's return
Thomas Johnson, better known as Tommy the Clown is a Detroit native and dancer. He is credited for inventing the "clowning" dance style in 1992, which later evolved to be known as Krumping.
After a surprise appearance at Kendrick Lamar's Pop Out concert, in June, where Tommy conducted a significant portion of the second set with several of his dancers putting on raging Krump-fueled performances on stage, the clown returned to play a major character in the music video for Not Like Us.
Tommy is one of the first individuals viewers are introduced to, seemingly acting as a Dance Master for a secret class of dancing clowns sporting Not Like Us merch. Individuals appear to need a password to enter, hence fans see Dot utter the now-famous intro to his diss track (i.e. "I see dead people") before Thomas allows him into the class.
3) Kendrick Lamar is a "Certified Boogeyman"
As Kenny raps the following lines, the visuals in the music video transition to find the rapper in a dark room along with another individual wearing a "Compton" hat crip walking to the track.
Dot is then menacingly approached by a masked individual who immediately gets thrown into the air and repelled backward, with Lamar remaining stoically still.
"Certified boogeyman, I'm the one that up the score with 'em / Walk him down, whole time, I know he got some ho in him / Pole on him, extort s--t, bully Death Row on him" - Kendrick Lamar raps on 'Not Like Us'.
4) Kendrick Lamar references Drake's first diss track Push Ups
The music video proceeds to find Kendrick alone in a room, wearing a white jumper, doing multiple push-ups on cinder blocks while calling out Drake for allegedly having a predatory nature towards younger women.
These visuals appear to take shots at Drizzy for making fun of Dot's affinity to work out as well as referencing the viral 2023 video of Kendrick Lamar doing "prison push-ups", amongst other callouts and allegations on the diss track humorously titled Push Ups.
"Extortion baby, whole career, you been shook up / 'Cause Top told you, "Drop and give me fifty," like some push-ups, huh" - Drake raps on Push Ups.
5) K-Dot destroys an OVO piñata
Later in the video, toward the end of Kendrick's first verse, viewers are introduced to a comical recreation of Drake's OVO mascot as a piñata. Dot proceeds to completely destroy the owl by beating it with a stick in a celebratory fashion.
During these visuals, a mock disclaimer flashes on the screen which reads:
"NO OVHOES WERE HARMED DURING THE MAKING OF THIS VIDEO"
6) Kenny plays hopscotch
Although this scene is easily overlooked, the tiles Kendrick skips over during this sequence count from one to ten, which alludes to a later bar where he suggests he was prepared to drop a total of 10 Drake-aimed diss tracks.
"How many stocks do I really have in stock? Ayy / One, two, three, four, five, plus five, ayy" - Dot raps on Not Like Us.
The five records where Kendrick took shots at Drake during their iconic 2024 beef are listed below:
- Like That
- Euphoria
- 6:16 in LA
- Meet The Grahams
- Not Like Us
7) Kendrick Lamar visits Compton's "Tam's Burger's" with DJ Mustard
As Kendrick opens on the second verse of the track, the music video cuts to the rapper cruising down Compton's Rosecrans Ave with DJ Mustard, who produced Not Like Us.
Both artists are seen driving down the bustling neighborhood area in a black Ferrari before stopping at Tam's Burgers. It is a family-style drive-thru fast food restaurant, where each picks up an order and then starts dancing outside the outlet.
8) Kenny reignites predatory allegations he dropped against Drake
As the second verse reaches its climax, where Dot claims Drake to be a pedophile and alleges that all of Drizzy's OVO affiliates are registered s-x offenders, viewers are taken to a shipping port where Kendrick is found dancing in front of large containers while dressed in a suit.
The shipping port is a subtle reminder of Dot doubling down on these predatory allegations, as s-x trafficking trades have been found to use these containers to hide and illegally smuggle migrants into a new country.
9) DeMar DeRozan's cameo appearance
The 6-time NBA all-star, DeMar DeRozan, briefly appears in the music video while Kendrick shouts him out in the song. This highlights DeRoz's support for Lamar, during the Drake beef.
"I'm glad DeRoz' came home, y'all didn't deserve him neither" - Kendrick Lamar raps on 'Not Like Us'.
The bar suggests how DeMar's skill and ability were never fully realized or appreciated while he was playing for the Toronto Raptors, Drizzy's home team where he acts as the Global Ambassador.
Dot expresses his satisfaction with DeRozan finally returning to play for an American team instead, referring to the NBA all-star's 2018 trade to the Chicago Bulls.
10) Kendrick stands alongside Anthony “Top Dawg” Tiffith and members of Black Hippy
Later in the video, Kendrick Lamar can be seen standing alongside the CEO of TDE and close friend, Anthony “Top Dawg” Tiffith, as well as all the members of his former hip-hop collective Black Hippy which includes Ab-Soul, Jay Rock, and ScHoolboy Q.
Black Hippy reunited for the first time at Dot's Pop Out concert, marking the first time all four rappers have performed together since February 2022, which was when the group disbanded and Kendrick Lamar officially left TDE to start pgLang.
11) Whitney Alford dances with Kendrick
Whitney Alford played a major role in the Kendrick vs Drake beef, with Drizzy claiming she had been unfaithful to Lamar several times and even alleging that one of Dot's children was fathered by Dave Free. The OVO CEO also alleged that Kenny had been physically abusive in his relationship with Alford.
The music video finds Kendrick Lamar standing alongside his partner and both their children, before breaking out into a playful dance during Not Like Us' bridge, seemingly putting an end to all the allegations that were dropped against their relationship.
12) The God's Plan reference
In Drake's music video for his 2018 smash hit God's Plan, the rapper performs the intro to his second verse along with hundreds of students on the campus of a Miami high school. The song mutes for viewers to hear the crowd singing out the catchy lines, alongside Drizzy, before the production kicks back in.
Similar to God's Plan, Kendrick Lamar performs the diss track's hook in the middle of an extremely large crowd gathered in Compton's Courthouse, with the song's original audio mixing in chants from the hundreds of fans singing along with Kenny. Throughout the video fans can be seen holding up album art from Dot's discography, as well as the famous "Pop Out concert stage picture".
Kendrick's Not Like Us also surpassed God's Plan commercially by becoming the fastest hip-hop record to cross 100 million streams on Spotify, with the diss track currently sitting at over 440 million streams on the platform. Besides the visual reference to Drake's 2018 hit, Lamar directly calls out the track when he raps:
"No, you not a colleague, you a f--kin' colonizer / The family matter and the truth of the matter / It was God's plan to show y'all the liar"
13) The OVO owl trapped in the cage
The music video ends with a final Drake diss, where Kendrick Lamar stares down an owl in a cage before walking away, symbolizing his perception of Drizzy.
The duality of the scene highlights how Dot believes Drake to be a trapped artist, not having the same freedom that he and other traditional hip-hop artists have achieved. The track's final beat ends with the owl staring into the camera before cutting to black.
Kendrick Lamar's Not Like Us was followed up with Drake's response on The Heart Part 6, which was released on May 6, 2024, on Drizzy's official YouTube channel, marking the final diss track delivered during the 2024 hip-hop feud.
For a complete recap of K-Dot and Drake's beef, the total number of diss tracks that were released, lyrical easter eggs, and more, click here.
