"The OVO owl piñata is diabolical"— Fans react to Kendrick Lamar beating Drake's owl logo-shaped piñata with a bat in Not Like Us teaser photo

On July 3, 2024, Kendrick Lamar released four promotional stills from his highly-anticipated music video for the hit Drake diss Not Like Us. While the video's release date is yet to be announced, the promo stills have caused quite the buzz as fans eagerly rushed online to dissect them.

One particular image that caught people's eyes was Kendrick Lamar swinging what appears to be a bat at an owl-shaped piñata. Netizens quickly inferred that the owl symbolized the logo of Drake's label, October's Very Own, aka OVO.

Kendrick Lamar had previously mentioned OVO in his diss tracks several times, even mocking coining the term "OV-Ho" in Not Like Us. The picture also included the disclaimer:

"No OVOH**s were harmed in the making of this video."

The owl piñata picture was met with varied reactions online, with one person tweeting:

"The OVO owl piñata is diabolical."

More fans took to X to voice their opinions, calling the concept "crazy".

"The OVO Owl pinata is crazy," tweeted one person.

"Piñata with the OvO owl has me screaming," added another fan.

"Not him beating the OVO owl piñata. yikes lmaooo," commented someone else.

"How many swings to get to the center of a OVO Owl," wrote one person.

Others commended Kendrick Lamar on his humor for using the owl piñata.

"Kendrick is so funny bro LMFAO the owl piñata is diabolical HHFKSMS," added a fan.

"The f*cking piñata owl. Thank you Kendrick. Signed, fellow Drake hater since the beginning," said someone else.

"Kendrick prolly did the pinata owl sh*t as bait to get that canadian to stop being a p**sy and say his name so he can drop them other 5 tracks," tweeted another fan.

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Kendrick Lamar posed with his fiancée and their two children for a promo still

The rap battle between Drake and Kendrick Lamar dominated the hip-hop industry from April, with both rappers throwing serious allegations at each other. However, many concurred that Lamar emerged as the clear winner as the rapper performed Not Like Us six times to a crowd of over 17,000 people at 'The Pop Out - Ken & Friends' on June 19 at The Forum, Inglewood.

Among the allegations Drake implied in his diss tracks, the standout ones included Kendrick Lamar's longtime partner and fiancée, Whitney Alford. In Family Matters, Drake alleged that Lamar's frequent collaborator, Dave Free, was the biological father of the couple's son. In the same song, he also implied that Lamar physically abused Alford.

Neither Lamar nor Alford responded to the allegations, however, Alford was seen at her fiance's Juneteenth show with their two children. On July 3, a new promotional picture with Lamar's family was released to seemingly put the allegations to rest.

The other two promotional pictures showed a Black Hippy reunion, with rappers Jay Rock, Ab-Soul, and ScHoolboy Q flanking Kendrick Lamar. The trio had previously joined the rapper for his Juneteenth show as well.

Another well-known face in the picture was Anthony Tiffith, the founder and CEO of Top Dawg Entertainment, which Lamar was previously signed to before moving to his independent record label, pgLang. Drake had previously invoked Top Dawg's name in his diss track Push Ups, alleging Lamar had to split his profits evenly with the music mogul.

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According to a Complex article published in June 2024, the music video for Not Like Us reportedly began filming on June 22, in Kendrick Lamar's hometown of x, California. Snippets of the shooting that circulated online also showed DJ Mustard, who produced the track, tagging along with Lamar.

The track, which came out on May 4, 2024, debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and smashed several streaming records, including the fastest rap song to surpass 100 million streams in nine days. At present, the song has over 108 million views on YouTube and is ranked No. 3 on this week's Billboard Hot 100.