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Not Like Us
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Date Aired
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July 27, 2024
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Running Time
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26:36
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Previous Review
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Website
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Todd plays "Not Like Us" on the piano
KENDRICK LAMAR - NOT LIKE US
A pop song review
Todd: Yeah, we're still talking about this.
Clip of NBC news story explaining the feud
Host: A war of words turning into a full-blown feud between two of the biggest names in rap.
Todd (VO): This will be my second video covering the Drake-Kendrick feud of 2024. Uh, I wasn't going to since I released the first one right as it effectively ended. Right after Kendrick delivered the song "Not Like Us", which we can now definitively call the killshot. Once he released that, the feud was over.
Todd: Kendrick was victorious and the fight was done. It is done, it's been done for quite a while now.
Clip from Marvel vs. Capcom with Kendrick's face pasted over Iron Man
Todd (VO): Two months ago, Kendrick hit Drake with the finishing move.
"Not Like Us" plays as Kendrick finishes the other character
One thing we've learned in the past two months is that finishing moves can last quite a while. [clip of the NBC story] It was obvious within a few days of release that "Not Like Us" was gonna stick around, but...
Todd: ...I thought Kendrick was just gonna take the W.
Clip of Kendrick Lamar - "Not Like Us"
Todd (VO): Instead, I am making this video in the wake of Kendrick dropping a fucking music video for "Not Like Us". Which is, again, a song that he released two fucking months ago as part of a feud that he definitively won two fucking months ago!
Kendrick Lamar: Tryna strike a chord, and its probably A Minorrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
At some point during this, Kendrick declared himself "the biggest hater", but... Pft! I- I don't know if I understood what that meant until now. He's gonna win a Grammy for calling Drake a sex predator, he's gonna adapt "Not Like Us" [image from the music video with a comic book filter and text "Not Like Us, Story by K.Dot"] into a graphic novel, and then he'll adapt that graphic novel into [image of a mock title card for Not Like Us in the Game of Thrones font] an HBO series, and then he'll adapt that series [image of a stage musical cast] into a Broadway musical.
Todd: He's going to win an EGOT for "Not Like Us"!
Todd (VO): Which is fine with me, I've thought about basically nothing else since it happened and I've wanted the excuse to discuss it further, so... You know, thanks Kendrick for dropping a video and rocketing this song back up to number 1.
Todd: The fact that there's a music video should not be surprising.
Todd (VO): It's a big hit song, it should get a music video if for no other reason than to make it easier for YouTubers to make videos about it. [text appears: *glares at Beyonce*] Ahem.
Todd: But it was still surprising to me for two reasons.
Todd (VO): One, despite the party vibes coming off of it, this is still a mean, ugly song in one of the ugliest feuds we've ever seen.
Todd: And two, Kendrick, for the most part, was a ghost during this entire battle. [image of a quote from Drake's Instagram] Drake was constantly providing updates on social media and making appearances, [image of NFR Podcast video "Where is Kendrick Lamar?"] while Kendrick was radio silent except for the handful of diss tracks he dropped.
Clip of Drake ft. J. Cole - "First Person Shooter"
Todd (VO): This feud has basically been a one character drama because Kendrick keeps himself so private, and because Kendrick basically designed it that way, to be a referendum on Drake. [clip of "Family Matters" by...] Drake is the protagonist of this story, Drake is the antagonist. When they make the movie about this, it should be told entirely from Drake's perspective...
Todd: ...and Kendrick shouldn't show up a single time.
Clip from...
Todd (VO): Like the Germans in Dunkirk. [clip from The Exorcist] Or maybe he, like- He appears out of the corner [Kendrick's face briefly appears when the lights turn on] of Drake's eye sometimes.
Todd: Like, Kendrick is a phantom, Drake is front and center.
Clip of "Family Matters"
Todd (VO): In fact, he was the first one to drop a music video while the feud was happing, which... Pft, that just blows me away, I am in awe of the hubris. Like, he crushed the good kid, m.A.A.d. city van, and he went to New Ho King and everything, and he was showing off his chain, which is, you know, a point of contention in the feud for some reason, I don't know. The point is that he wanted this to be an event. He pulled out all the spotlights and cameras an everything. [clip from Rocky IV] Like Apollo Creed coming out to "Living in America" with James Brown and all the dancing girls, and then immediately being killed.
Duke (Tony Burton): Throw the damn towel!
Todd: In the past month or so though...
Clip from The Pop Out concert
Todd (VO): ...Kendrick finally moved into the protagonist role. Starting officially with his first public appearance since the whole thing started with a one-off concert in L.A. on Juneteenth.
Kendrick: My left stroke just went viral
And this was a true celebration of Kendrick. Kendrick united warring street gangs, and then he performed "Not Like Us" six times!
Kendrick: They not like us, they not like us, they not like us, ayy
Todd (VO): And then a week ago, he put out a video.
Clip of "Not Like Us"
Kendrick: They not like us, they not like us, they not like us
I live in L.A. so I was, like, seeing and hearing tons of reports on where he was and what he was filming. And since this video has come out, I have heard this song blasting out of other people's cars and scooters whenever I go outside.
Kendrick Lamar: Sometimes you gotta pop out and show ni**as
Todd (VO): The radio edit for this is hilarious by the way. If you haven't heard it, like, half the song is missing, including all the best lines. Probably because it's defamatory to the point of legal liability.
Kendrick: Tryna strike a chord, and its probably [Cease and Desist]
(And its probably, and its probably, and its probably)
They censor everything.
Todd: I swear to God, they bleep out the word "jabroni"!
Kendrick: What's up with these ******* *** ****** tryna see Compton?
Todd (VO): Was that a curse word? I didn't realize.
Todd: Like, this is not a new observation here, but it's worth repeating how tactically brilliant Kendrick's moves were. Because...
Clip of...
Todd (VO): ...Drake's big song "Family Matters" could have easily dominated the conversation and ruined Kendrick's reputation. Like, there are some very dark accusations in there. But before that could take root, Kendrick had [audio clip of Kendrick Lamar - "meet the grahams"] immediately stopped the momentum by releasing his own even darker song.
Todd: And then after we all went to bed confused an unsettled...
Clip from The Pop Out concert
Todd (VO): ...Kendrick released a party song to send the momentum back in the opposite direction. [clip of "Family Matters"] In fact, we should stop and reflect on how many bad moves Drake has made here versus how perfectly Kendrick played every move. [clip of Dreamville 2024 performance from...] Like, Drake recruits J. Cole who is less than useless in a fight.
J. Cole: And I got my ni**as like, "What you gonna do, Cole?"
Yeah, might as well just stick a live grenade down your pants. [clip of "Family Matters"] And then Drake went with really dirty low blows after and made serious accusations. Even though Kendrick warned him repeatedly that he knew what Drake was gonna do as if he wasn't obviously gonna be prepared for it.
Clip from Patton
Gen. Patton (George Scott): You magnificent bastard, I read your book!
Clip from The Pop Out concert
Todd (VO): But now that Kendrick has finally taken center stage, I think it's worth asking: who exactly is Kendrick in this? There's an old interview from 2014 floating around where [clip of "We Up" ft. Kendrick Lamar by...] 50 Cent was asked what it was like working with Kendrick, and he had this to say.
Clip of interview with 50 Cent
50 Cent: Kendrick is always gonna be a media dog. He has the ability to make you believe he had no idea this was gonna happen. Cause he'll be like "Yo! Like, wow!", like, that energy's there. You knew what the f- You was working. You worked on it and it paid off, don't act like you didn't know it was gonna happen.
Yeah, and- and that's kinda colored my perception of "Not Like Us".
Todd: Remember, Kendrick started this.
Clip from The Pop Out concert
Kendrick: Motherfuck the big three
Ni**a it's just big me, ni**a bum
Todd (VO): Or at the very least, he's the one who dragged it into public, he's the one who threw the first public shots. Remember, he is responding to this line.
Clip of "First Person Shooter"
J. Cole: Love when they argue the hardest MC
Is it K.Dot, is it Aubrey, or me?
Which, one, [zooms in on J. Cole] didn't come from Drake.
Todd: And two, is not an insult.
Clip of "Not Like Us"
Todd (VO): Even granting that Kendrick was deeply, personally wronged by the motherfucker and he had it coming, Kendrick is supposed to be, like, the activist, right? The artist. [clip from The Pop Out concert] Why is he doing this? Why is a Pulitzer winner taking the stage on Juneteenth to do six encores where he does nothing but shit on a professional rival? Like, "Drake touches kids" seems like a, a weird Juneteenth message to me. Especially in an election year, like, we got nothing better to talk about than one guy who sucks?
Todd: But you gotta be careful saying shit like that about Kendrick.
Clip of Kendrick Lamar - "Bitch Don't Kill My Vibe"
Todd (VO): I said on Twitter once that my very favorite Kendrick songs aren't the ones about deep issues, it's the ones about drinking too much and wanting to be left alone.
Kendrick: Sometimes I need to be alone
You know, very me songs.
Todd: And then a bunch of Kendrick stans got on me.
Clip of Kendrick Lamar - "Swimming Pools (Drank)"
Todd (VO): Like, "Oh, you don't get it, those songs were actually very deep about the culture of alcoholism and its effects on the-" bleh, bleh, bleh- [mutters] God, Kendrick fans are so corny.
Todd: But you know, they have a point, he is Kendrick Lamar, he's earned the benefit of the doubt.
Clip of "Not Like Us"
Todd (VO): So let's see what he's saying here, starting with how he nullified Drake's attacks.
Todd: Like, since this whole thing has broken out, I've thought a whole lot about how I'd handle a rap beef with Kendrick Lamar.
Clip of "That's How I Beat Shaq" by...
Todd (VO): In a lot of the same way that Aaron Carter used to dream of beating Shaq at basketball.
Todd: But if I were in the unenviable position of battling Kendrick, like, if I were Drake in this position, I'd have two moves.
Clip of "Family Matters"
Todd (VO): Neither of which were making receiptless accusations about his personal life for the record.
Todd: Do not do that. Ok, but here's what I'd do: One, you make him look like a phony and a hypocrite.
Clip of Kendrick Lamar, SZA - "All The Stars"
Todd (VO): Like, "You're calling me a popstar. You're the pop star, Mr. Marvel soundtrack. [clips of "Bad Blood" ft. Kendrick Lamar by...] Making songs with Taylor Swift, and The Weeknd, and Sia, [...and Sia ft. Kendrick Lamar - "The Greatest"] and SZA and whoever." And Drake did try to punch in that direction, but...
Todd: Uh, he completely fucked it up.
Clip of "Family Matters"
Todd (VO): His whole line of attack is that Kendrick is a little bitch who has to do what his label tells him to do.
Drake: Top would make you do features for change
Get on pop records and rap for the whites
No, you moron, that's what Kendrick wants you to think! That works in his favor. [clip of Kendrick's Grammy performance with...] That lets him explain why he's out here collaborating with Imagine Dragons. Like "Oh, the label made him do it." And since he broke free of his contract, he has not done any of that. So there you go, you gave him an out you dummy!
Todd: So if that's not how you're gonna take it, then you can try the other tactic I thought of, which is use being a pop star to your advantage.
Clips of Drake - "Hotline Bling"...
Todd (VO): He makes you look like a corny sellout, [...and Kendrick Lamar - "N95"] you make him look like a pretentious snob.
Todd: It doesn't have to be true necessarily, it just has to be true enough.
Clip of Kendrick Lamar - "HUMBLE."
Todd (VO): Like, Kendrick is a guy who gets up on his high horse about Photoshop and plastic surgery, he was on his last album lecturing his fans about liking him too much.
Todd: There's an opening there is what I'm saying. And Drake did attempt this also.
Clip of "Family Matters"
Drake: Always rapping like you 'bout to get the slaves freed
Kendrick just opened his mouth, someone go hand him a Grammy right now
Todd: That's what made "Not Like Us" such a brilliant move, it neutralized that completely.
Clip of "Not Like Us"
Todd (VO): He made a song that sounds like... fucking "Lean Back", and there are lines in it where he flows like Chingy or somebody.
Kendrick: Say Drake, I hear you like 'em young
You better not ever go to
Brief clip of Nelly ft. Kyjuan, Ali & Murphy Lee - "Air Force Ones"
Nelly: Air force ones
You know, just a perfect demonstration to Drake that, you know, I can do what you do, you can't do what I do. So that's why Drake never landed that knockout blow.
Todd: But again, this is supposed to be about Kendrick, and Kendrick had two lines of attack of his own.
Todd (VO): The first is that Drake sucks as a person.
Kendrick: Fucked on Wayne girl while he was in jail, that's connivin'
In fact, all of the diss tracks hammered that one. [clip of "Knife Talk" ft. 21 Savage and Project Pat by...] This hit a lot harder than Drake's attempts to do it to Kendrick, because Drake demonstrably does suck as a person, and I think that's just something we could all kinda sense. [screenshot of article "Why Is Everyone Beefing With Drake?"] Like, I had some kinda misplaced sympathy for the guy because everyone was ganging up on him.
Todd: But what I should have been asking is...
Clip from The Boondocks
Thugnificent: Man, what did he do to make them ni**as that mad?
Todd: Like, what is he like...
Clips of Future ft. Drake - "Life Is Good"...
Todd (VO): ...in real life that everyone, including [...and Drake ft. Rick Ross - "Money in the Grave"] his closest collaborators all hate his guts?
Todd: Like, this line right here.
Audio clip of Drake - "Push Ups"
Drake: You ain't in no big three, SZA got you wiped down
Travis got you wiped down, Savage got you wiped down
Todd: SZA's not a rapper!
Clip of SZA live performance
Todd (VO): Could he really not think of, like, a third guy he's on good enough terms with to name drop?
Todd: And of course, Kendrick's biggest thing during this was to amplify the rumors that... You know, Drake is trolling around high schools looking for girls.
Clip of "Not Like Us"
Todd (VO): [sighs] Now, I said this in the first video, but I'm not super comfortable with this. Floating accusations of a crime this serious without any receipts to back it up, man, I- I don't know about that.
Todd: On the other hand, I am a firm believer in turnabout being a fair play.
Clip of "Family Matters"
Todd (VO): Drake was the one to open that can of worms, he went low first, he was the one who started throwing accusations around. [clip from...] I think I heard something once about a rule in Looney Tunes that Bugs Bunny had to get smacked three times before he'd retaliate.
Bugs Bunny: Of course, you realize this means war.
You know, so he never looks like a bully. [clip of "Not Like Us"] That's exactly the move Kendrick pulled, he played it perfectly.
Todd: Uh, and the worst part was that Drake was not really able to...
Clip of the NBC news story
Todd (VO): ...issue a convincing denial. Which I find...
Todd: ...very troubling.
Audio clip of Drake - "The Heart Part 6"
Drake: If I was fucking young girls, I promise I'd have been arrested
I'm way too famous for the shit you just suggested
Todd (VO): Like, you accuse me of trolling around underage girls, like... Pft, my denial does not sound like that, fuck you!
Todd: He doesn't sound like he believes it, so like, I- I would not bet money at this point that there's no fire behind that smoke.
Clip of "Falling Back" by...
Todd (VO): And also, Drake has just been demonstrably weird about women for a long time.
Todd: But the point remains that there's no actual hard evidence, we're all sitting here with no receipts, no accuser. If he has done anything, it's locked behind [images of a castle...] a thirty foot high fortress [...and a non-disclosure agreement] of NDAs.
Clip of "Not Like Us"
Todd (VO): And if it turns out there's nothing at all behind it and we're all just calling an innocent man a child predator because it's funny, we're all gonna feel real, real bad.
Todd: So even though that's the most serious accusation, I actually don't find it as interesting as the second main attack that Kendrick pulls, which is that Drake sucks as an artist.
Kendrick: That something? B-Rad stands for bitch and you Malibu most wanted
Todd (VO): That's very interesting to me. Like, there have been a lot of shots about how Drake isn't real hip hop, and Kendrick goes into a lot of detail about it.
Kendrick: Tell the pop star quit hiding
Now, I personally am not equipped to talk about "real hip hop". But I come at this from a pop perspective, and as a pop critic...
Todd: ...this kinda hit something for me.
Todd (VO): I made a stray comment about this in the first video, but um, I wanna expand on it here, so let's roll way back.
Todd: For the last 20 years, music criticism has been shaped by a movement called [graphic for...] "Poptimism".
Clip of *NSYNC - "Pop"
Justin Timberlake: What's the deal with this pop life?
Todd (VO): Which existed in opposition to...
Todd: ..."Rockism".
Clip of Bob Seger performing "Old Time Rock and Roll"
Bob Seger: Still like that old time rock and roll
Todd (VO): Which uh... It's rock supremacy basically. [images of Urban Dictionary definition of "rocksim"...] And it was a big criticism of all the big [...and a Rolling Stone cover] journalists and gatekeepers of music at that time. [clip of "Dirrty" by...] Before this, the idea that we would talk about, like, Christina Aguilera as, like, a real serious artist, it- it was a joke. She wasn't [brief clip of a live performance from...] a real musician like Eric Clapton or whoever. [image of Pitchfork's review of Fever by...] In 2002, Pitchfork wrote a joke review of Kylie Minogue.
Todd: What's the joke, you're asking? That is the joke. The joke is that Pitchfork reviewed Kylie Minogue.
Clip of Kylie Minogue - "Love At First Sight"
Todd (VO): The idea that this would be funny is so dated, it might as well be written in hieroglyphics. [clip of Ariana Grande - "yes, and?"] The joke doesn't make any sense at all these days when everyone, including Pitchfork, treats Ariana Grande with the same weight and gravity that they used to cover Radiohead with. [clip of Kylie Minogue - "Can't Get You Out of My Head"] That's what Poptimism was all about, dismissing all the snobbery that said, "We would never review someone as shallow as Kylie Minogue." [clip of Rolling Stones live performance] Like, we wrote all that off as tedious boomer shit coming from gatekeeping old white guys. [clip of Beyoncé - "Naughty Girl"] Drop your preconceptions about authenticity or whatever, sometimes you just wanna dance. Sometimes you just wanna listen to something catchy, and that's ok. And more than ok, it's worthy of praise, we all decided.
Todd: Nowadays, we respect pop. [beat] Or do we?
Clip of Lady Gaga - "Poker Face"
Todd (VO): Despite how the discourse has been shaped by quote, unquote "Poptimism", "pop" is still an insult when you apply it to genres other than pop music. [clips of Vanilla Ice - "Ice Ice Baby"...] Pop rap is still an insult, [...Bebe Rexha ft. Florida Georgia Line - "Meant to Be"...] pop country is still an insult. [...and "My Universe" ft. BTS by...] If you called Coldplay pop, you would understand that as an insult because they're supposed to be an alternative rock band, allegedly. So being called pop cheapens them. [clip of live performance from...] That's why the criticism of Drake hits weird for me. Like, I hear all the shit people say, you know, "It's shallow, he's superficial, it's all image, it's music for girls, he doesn't even write it himself."
Todd: These are all things I heard said about...
Clip of "Oops!...I Did It Again" by...
Todd (VO): ...Britney Spears and The Backstreet Boys before Poptimism existed. And I always kinda wondered what it would look like if...
Todd: ..."Pop Raptimism" existed.
Clip from The Pop Out concert
Kendrick: Ain't twenty-v-one, it's one-v-twenty
If I gotta smack ni**as that write with you
Todd (VO): Like, this shit about ghostwriters, who cares? [clip of "Nuthin' but a 'G' Thang" ft. Snoop Dogg by...] Like, it's been an open secret that Dr. Dre doesn't necessarily write all his own stuff, he's still one of the greats. [clip from The Pop Out concert] I mean, there he is standing with Kendrick right there. [back to "Nuthin' but a 'G' Thang"] And Snoop uses ghostwriters now too, [image of headline "Snoop Reveals He Has Ghostwriters"] he's admitted it, he's not one bit ashamed of it. [clip of live performance from...] He cited Diana Ross, one of the greatest ever pop stars as his reason.
Todd: So like, what if?
Clip of Will Smith - "Gettin Jiggy Wit It"
Todd (VO): What if pop rappers were given any respect? What if the "Big 3" were [brief clips of "Good Feeling" by...] Flo Rida, [..."International Love" ft. Chris Brown by...] Pitbull, [...and "Fergalicious" ft. will.i.am by...] and Fergie?
Fergie: Fergalicious definition, make them boys go crazy
It sounds ridiculous, right?
Todd: We don't think that way, Kendrick proved it.
Kendrick: You run to Atlanta when you need a few dollars
No, you not a colleague, you a fuckin' colonizer
Todd (VO): "Not Like Us" is one of the most stunning defeats of Poptimism I've ever seen. Like, the chorus is "Not like us".
Kendrick: They not like us, they not like us, they not like us
That's literally gatekeeping, that's- I mean, that's the literal definition of gatekeeping. Kendrick attacks Drake for being a pop star, Kendrick destroys Drake for being a pop star. And it kinda makes me wonder what "Poptimism" has actually meant. Like, what is it- what was the meaning behind this?
Todd: And my conclusion is... It means the gay like it. [throws hands up] Right? That's all it means?
Clip a news story from the '90s about a pride parade
Todd (VO): Poptimism is, I think, inextricable from the rise of gay rights as a mainstream movement. And once the gays became widely understood as a marginalized demographic worth respecting, [clips of Robin S - "Show Me Love"...] so too did quote, unquote "gay music". One of the big attacks on Rockism was being homophobic, [...Village People - "Y.M.C.A."...] and one of the first major moves of Poptimism was a re-evaluation of disco. [...and Troye Sivan - "Rush"] That's why shitting on pop music now gets you the same dirty looks that shitting on rap music does, because of all those concrete ties to a respectable social movement. So for all that Poptimism has replaced Rockism...
Todd: It- it kinda just feels like it's just the same thing with a coat of pink paint on it.
Montage clips of a rock music festival; Public Enemy - "Fight The Power"; Kylie Minogue live performance; Drake - "Toosie Slide"; Grandmaster Flash - "The Message"; "Hotline Bling"
Todd (VO): Rock fans were so pretentious about rock because it was the sound of rebellion and youth, and hip hop is the sound of the disenfranchised, and now pop has its movement. Genre respect is still tied to its social importance. And this is why Drake as a pop rapper seems to have no respect at all anymore. Rap music was already connected to something culturally important, it has been since its inception. Being pop here means nothing, because there's...
Todd: ...not really a whole lot aesthetically gay about any of this.
Clip from The Pop Out concert
Kendrick: I believe you don't like women, it's real competition
Todd (VO): Kendrick said some things during this feud that get kinda borderline homophobic, [image of lyrics from "Auntie Diaries"] has a whole song about being late to the party on this issue.
Todd: And Drake said things that were just homophobic straight up.
Clip of "Family Matters"
Drake: Weeknd music gettin' played in all the spots
Where boys got a little more pride
Todd: In fact, Kendrick straight up admitted [image of the lyric from "euphoria" about...] that he liked Drake: The pop star, not the rapper. Making pop connects you to something important, making pop rap disconnects you from it.
Clip of "Not Like Us"
Todd (VO): And Kendrick just lays all that out in devastating detail.
Kendrick: Once upon a time, all of us was in chains
Homie still doubled down callin' us some slaves
You'd think if anyone was gonna make the case for pop rap as a worthy genre, [clip of "Headlines" by...] it'd be Drake, who's been playing both sides of the hits/credibility divide for a long time. Like, he was one of the "Big 3", he was respected.
Todd: But it turns out he was the absolute worst person to make a case for pop rap.
Clip of Drake ft. Future and Young Thug - "Way 2 Sexy"
Todd (VO): His shit hasn't been good in years! And it's all sucked for the same reason pop music in general sucks; the shallowness, the trend riding, the numbers chasing, [clip of Drake ft. Sexxy Red and SZA - "Rich Baby Daddy"] the callow attaching himself to whatever hot newcomer pops up in the scene.
Clip of "Not Like Us"
Kendrick: 21 gave you false street cred
Thug made you feel like you a slime in your head
The Drake phenomenon has- has become painfully hollow. And all that pretentious shit about authenticity we're told doesn't matter anymore, it does matter. It matters a lot.
Kendrick: No, you not a colleague, you a fuckin' colonizer
Todd (VO): Kendrick managed to make Drake the first black person cancelled for cultural appropriation. In this case, being a Canadian leeching off of, like, the Southern hip hop scene. [clip of "Way 2 Sexy"] You don't have to be up on all the intricacies of regional hip hop to notice the empty feeling. You can call it mutual respect or a cross-cultural connection I guess, but it sure doesn't feel like that. Especially considering how many of his closest collaborators hate his guts.
Todd: By the way, I love that "Not Like Us", Kendrick's...
Todd (VO): ..."club song", includes a little mini lecture about the history of Atlanta.
Kendrick: Atlanta was the Mecca, building railroads and trains
Bear with me for a second, let me put y'all on game
The settlers was using townfolk to make 'em richer
Yes, of course Kendrick, who is not from Atlanta, [clip from a documentary about...] knows all about the Western and Atlantic railroad that founded the city. [title care appears: "Atlanta: A Film by Kendrick Burns"] Remember, just cause you're calling a guy a child predator...
Todd: Doesn't mean you can't learn a little something too.
Clip of Drake - "Started from the Bottom"
Todd (VO): And I bet if the cities were reversed, he could do a lecture about the history of racism in Toronto too. [clip of "Not Like Us"] Like, he's just too good at this. And to be clear, Kendrick didn't win the fight by calling Drake a fake, Drake lost the fight by being fake.
Todd: "Family Matters", Drake's big attempted kill shot does not hold up to me at all.
Clip of "Family Matters"
Todd (VO): Cause it all hinges around this accusation of domestic abuse, and he just doesn't seem to actually believe it, you know, the whole tone is just "Nee-ner, Nee-ner, Nee-ner". [clip of "Not Like Us"] Versus Kendrick, who seems to really believe what he's saying about Drake and is genuinely disgusted by it.
Kendrick: That name gotta be registered and placed on neighborhood watch
The most brutal insult of "Not Like Us" is the title.
Kendrick: They not like us, they not like us, they not like us
Todd (VO): "Not like us, you're not one of us". Rhetorically, it cuts Drake off from any support from anybody. Or anybody that matters at least. One of the more brilliant moves of the music video is showing Kendrick as a man of the people, which is as much a diss of Drake as the lyrics are. I mean, look at how much everyone loves him. [clip of...] The last time Drake did something like that was the "God's Plan" video, which was the last time he was even remotely likeable. [clips of "Toosie Slide"...] But more often, Drake's videos emphasize how rich he is, [..."Started from the Bottom"...] or he'll do, like, joke videos where he's just a regular [..."Life Is Good"...] schlub with a 9-to-5 [...and "Rich Baby Daddy"] and a shitty apartment in a way that's become really obnoxious. Like, "Ha ha, imagine me, Drake, [clips of "Life Is Good"] working a job like you." [...and "Started from the Bottom"] Like, almost all rappers flex their wealth, but it doesn't feel right the way he does it.
Clip of "Not Like Us"
Kendrick: They not like us
He's not! He's not one of them. Kendrick is from the streets, [clip from Degrassi] Drake is a showbiz kid. [clips of Kendrick accepting...] Kendrick has a Pulitzer, [...and clips from...] Drake hosted the 2011 Juno Awards.
Drake: So many incredible people with us tonight. Bryan Adams is here, Sarah McLachlan is here. I mean, give it up for Broken Social Scene! [singing] Informer, ya' no say daddy
Todd (VO): What the fuck am I watching? This is one of the "Big 3"!?
Todd: I mean, I've liked tons of Drake songs, but...
Clip of "Not Like Us"
Todd (VO): The more this feud has gone on, the more I agree with Kendrick. Like, fuck the "Big 3", what are we talking about, how did we ever group these two people together?
Todd: Like, Kendrick was not, like, perfect during this whole thing, he got away with things a lesser rapper would not have. [image of the lyric from "euphoria" about...] Like, he got Joel Osteen confused with Haley Joel Osment, and he just played it off on the next song.
Kendrick: I see dead people
Todd (VO): Or how he ends "Not Like Us", I d- I don't get it at all.
Kendrick: Freaky-ass ni**a, he a 69 god
Freaky-ass ni**a, he a 69 god
[stammers] I don't get it, like, sex position god?
Todd: That's a compliment. Thank you? [text appears: *When I previewed this video on Patreon, I got a lot of comments offering different explanations of this line to me, none of which I found very convincing. You can leave a comment explaining why this is brilliant wordplay that I'm clearly too stupid to get but I'd prefer that you didn't.]
Todd (VO): And yet, this still goes down as one of the most thorough and flawless victories that's ever happened. Like, when Drake lost the Pusha T battle, he wasn't the villain, he was just the loser; he's the villain now, though. Like, I don't know how many times in the past few years I've seen [screenshot of Reddit post titled "Drake is the most overrated rapper/singer ever"] comments calling Drake the worst artist alive and a guy who's made zero good music. I think he's made good music, a lot of it, but it-it's getting pretty damn far in the past by this point.
Todd: Will he come back from this? I don't know.
Clip of "They Don't Care About Us" by...
Todd (VO): Accusations ruined Michael Jackson's career and he did have hits after that, but it wasn't ever the same. [screenshot of Instagram post from...] Drake has been limping around like a beaten dog since this ended. [visualizer for "HOT UPTOWN" ft. Drake by...] Camila Cabello got a feature from him, which I think was supposed to put her back on the charts. Instead, Drake's relying on Camila to get him back on the charts now, that's insane! [clip of "Not Like Us"] But one point Kendrick made that really started to make me wonder is that [image of the "euphoria" lyric about...] he kept calling Drake a manipulator.
Todd: Cause you look at the situation, who was manipulating what here?
Todd (VO): Who's the one who looked completely in charge of the situation at all times? Cause from here, it looked like Kendrick played Drake like a fiddle!
Todd: And all that talk of how Drake's the only one who likes being famous.
Clip from The Pop Out concert
Kendrick: I'm allergic to the lame shit, only you like being famous
Clip of "Not Like Us"
Todd (VO): Does this look like a guy who doesn't wanna be famous to you? I mean, I do feel like I'm looking at Kendrick very differently at this point. Like, Kendrick's last album was a huge downer, [clip from The Pop Out concert] and I see him here, he looks so happy. I kinda suspect he did want the big pop success like Drake has, he just didn't wanna sacrifice his integrity to do it. And... He found a way so, you know, who can judge him for that?
Todd: I mean, there's your Poptimism. [image of Billboard article "Kendrick Lamar's 'Not Like Us' Returns to No. 1 on Billboard Hot 100"] Kendrick is the voice of the people, number 1 with a bullet, baby!
Todd (VO): So when I look at this and ask what this is a victory lap for exactly... Uh, the correct answer is, of course: the culture. The culture that Drake isn't a part of and has been exploiting.
Todd: But I'm not part of that culture, so I can't share in that victory. [arrow appears pointing to Todd, reading "this guy: also not like us"]
Todd (VO): What I see when I look at this is a victory for, just, shit mattering in general. [clip of "Not Like Us"] Kendrick is essentially a music critic and a better one that I am. And he... You know, I agree with him; yes, authenticity does matter, artistry does matter.
Todd: It's not just about chasing numbers and streams.
Clip of Jack Harlow - "Lovin' On Me"
Todd (VO): After all this blew up, I heard that awful Jack Harlow song come on the radio, and it already sounded like an ancient relic. I already didn't like it, but, like... Who the fuck can stand to listen to this shit now!? Now that shit matters.
Clip from The Pop Out concert
Kendrick: Let me hear you say "O-V-Ho"
I got issues with "Not Like Us". Like, whatever my misgivings about this, this is also just one of the greatest events in music history. I am glad to be alive to witness this, what an amazing thing. You-you'll tell your kids about this. [image of Drake with clipart of a lollipop] If only to explain to them why they shouldn't let Drake give them candy.
Todd: [puts hands up] Allegedly! [gets up and leaves] Allegedly, allegedly, allegedly.
Video for "Not Like Us" ends
Todd: And, one last thing; The Beatles.
Clip from Yoko and The Beatles
Todd (VO): You know, The Beatles. Well, Lindsay Ellis is back, and she's made a great video about The Beatles. And why they broke up, and why it wasn't Yoko's fault, and why everyone blamed Yoko anyway. Starring me as the voice of Mark David Chapman, the role of a lifetime. Anyway, if you wanna know why Yoko is innocent, you can watch the full, uncensored version on Nebula.
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Todd: For as long as both you and Nebula exist on this Earth, you're in.
Todd (VO): Or, if you wanna do just the regular monthly subscription, you can sign up with my link. Not only will you get access to the entire Nebula library, but you will get it for only 2 dollars and 50 cents a month.
Todd: And you'll also be helping me out specifically, which I would appreciate.
Todd (VO): So click the link in the description and check it out below.
Todd: Thank you, and good night.
Closing Tag Song: Oingo Boingo - "Little Girls"
THE END
Drake is owned by Kendrick Lamar
This video is owned by me
THANK YOU TO THE LOYAL PATRONS!!