The most anticipated video of the year so far has finally dropped.
“Not Like Us,” Drake's gleeful Kendrick Lamar diss track that topped the Billboard Hot 100 and stayed on the chart for eight weeks, enjoyed a legendary run. It's been played in clubs and sports arenas, recorded kids' birthday parties, and inspired a… interesting opening number at this year's BET Awards.
But despite the song dominating the airwaves for two months and Kendrick performing it multiple times at the end of his Juneteenth concert, “The Pop Out,” fans were still hoping for P. Lang captain would send an official visual. Confirmation that a video was on the way came shortly after the Amazon Prime broadcast, when Kendrick went to his hometown of Compton and brought the entire city to participate in the production.
And, after a series of stills from the video leaked last night, Kendrick and Pg. Lang delivered the official video this afternoon. Directed by Kendrick and Dave Free (who also makes a quick cameo), the video matches the energy of the fun, yet catchy record with many of Lamar's lyrics coming to life. For example, there's a scene where he hits an owl-shaped piñata with a stick, and another where he's given a Bible that he stuffs into his jacket.
However, the highlight of the video comes towards the end of the nearly six-minute clip, when Kendrick poses with his fiancee Whitney Alford and their two children before everyone breaks out into the dance. It's a clear rebuttal to the claims Drake made in his song “Family Matters,” where he claimed, among other things, that Alford and Lamar had split up and that he didn't see his kids regularly.
It's hard to imagine the song getting a second wind as it continues to dominate the cultural conversation, but this video might just expand its runway.
Watch the video below.
from our partners at https://www.billboard.com/music/rb-hip-hop/kendrick-lamar-not-like-us-video-1235725069/