Kendrick Lamar held nothing back in his vicious rap battle with Drake earlier this year, but he claims he's not angry in his heart. In his first profile since the controversy that defined the year, K. Dot covered it Harper's Bazaar 2024 November Voices Issue on Monday (October 21), which had him in conversation with his former Top Dawg Entertainment bandmate SZA.
Lamar explained during the conversation how he doesn't think he's an angry person, but how the duality of love and war create the need to exist.
“I don't think I'm an angry person,” Lamar said. “But I believe in love and war, and I believe both should exist. And my awareness of this allows me to react to things but not identify with them as who I am. I just allow them to exist and let them flow through me. That's what I believe.”
While “Not Like Us” proved pivotal in his feud with Drake, Kendrick defined what the phrase means to him culturally, and it's far bigger than anything related to OVO.
“Aren't they like us? It's not like us the energy of who I am, the type of man I represent,” he said. “Now, if you identify with the man I represent . This man has morals, he has values, he believes in something, he stands for something. He does not disdain.”
Lamar continued, “He's a man who can admit his faults and isn't afraid to share them, and he can dig deep into fear-based ideologies or experiences to be able to express them without feeling like he's less of a man. If I think of 'Not Like Us,' I think of me and anyone who identifies with it.”
“Not Like Us,” Drake's scathing diss paired with Mustard's Cali bounce, became the longest-running No. 1 on the Hot Rap Songs chart earlier this month when it spent a 21st week at the top of the chart to surpass “Old Town” by Lil Nas X. Road.”
The “Not Like Us” train doesn't seem to be stopping anytime soon, and the diss track could make its presence felt at the 2025 Grammy Awards when the nominations are revealed in November.
Check out Kendrick's cover Harper's Bazaar below:
from our partners at https://www.billboard.com/music/rb-hip-hop/kendrick-lamar-not-like-us-definition-sza-interview-1235806842/
