YouTube/Kendrick Lamar
Kendrick Lamar‘s “Not Like Us” video has finally been released and the new visual includes several easter eggs pointing back to Drake‘s diss lyrics.
The video was released Thursday evening (July 4) and amassed over 2 million YouTube views within just one hour. Before going into the hit single, the former TDE rapper teases what may be a new song, rapping just six new bars.
In addition to the scenes filmed in Compton just days after Lamar’s historic Juneteenth concert in Inglewood, the clip finds the rapper beating a piñata shaped like the head of an owl; as well as a scene in which his partner Whitney Alford and the couple’s two children dance along.
And as a final call back to Drake’s accusations against Kendrick during their 10-song long back and forth, Dave Free serves as the video’s co-director alongside his pgLang partner.
K. Dot filmed the visual for his chart-topping Drizzy diss in his hometown of Compton late last month, bringing out an army of friends, collaborators and locals for the shoot.
Hours before releasing the official “Not Like Us” music video, Kendrick Lamar teased some of the imagery from the clip with a handful of photos that made their way online on Thursday morning.
The photos included the particularly spicy image of Kendrick hitting an owl piñata, a nod to Drake’s OVO logo. The pgLang rapper appears in another photo next to his fiancée Whitney Alford and two children, an apparent act of defiance after the 6 God dragged his family into the beef.
On “Family Matters,” Drake accused Kendrick of beating his longtime partner and suggested that one of the couple’s kids actually belongs to Lamar’s manager Dave Free.
A fourth picture shows Kendrick posted up in the hood alongside his former TDE family including label founder Anthony “Top Dawg” Tiffith, ScHoolboy Q, Jay Rock and Ab-Soul, as well as presidents Terrence “Punch” Henderson and Anthony “Moosa” Tiffith Jr.
“Not Like Us” producer Mustard was also spotted at the video shoot wearing a Toronto Blue Jays cap, sparking speculation that he, too, was trolling Drake.
In an interview with Big Boy, however, the multi-platinum producer denied the claim, saying: “I wasn’t trolling. I really wasn’t trolling. I bought a lot of hats that I like. I bought an STL hat, an Angels hat, a Braves hat. I put Faith of a Mustard Seed [the title of his new album] on all of them.
“I sweated out two of my hats at ‘Pop Out’ [Kendrick Lamar’s Inglewood concert] and that was the last hat that I had with Faith of a Mustard Seed on it. It just happened to be a Toronto Blue Jays hat.”
Mustard also explained that the cap was a nod to Baldwin Village, the notorious South Los Angeles neighborhood known as “the Jungles” where he grew up.
