Kendrick Lamar is already the agreed-upon winner of the feud between himself and Drake. “Not Like Us” sealed the deal, reaching number one on the Billboard Hot 100, and the success of Lamar’s live-streamed show “The Pop Out,” wherein he performed the track six times, further solidified its legend. Drake has since bowed out of the beef, but Lamar won’t let that stop him from driving the knife in even further with a new music video for the song.
The Drake/K.Dot war has been simmering for a decade (GQ has a comprehensive guide), but went full boil earlier this year when Lamar was featured on Future and Metro Boomin’s track “Like That.” Drake responded with “Push Ups” and “Taylor Made,” the latter of which featured verses with the A.I. voices of Snoop Dogg and 2Pac. Kendrick came back with “Euphoria” and “6:16 in LA.” Then Drake dropped “Family Matters,” in which he alleged that Lamar’s creative partner Dave Free was secretly the father of one of Lamar’s kids, and that Lamar abused his partner Whitney Alford. Lamar responded immediately with “Meet The Grahams,” which took shots at Drake’s own family. Then he dropped “Not Like Us,” a cultural smash that overshadowed Drake’s final entry “The Heart Part 6,” which dismissed Lamar’s allegations (including calling Drake a “certified pedophile”) and reiterated that the rapper was estranged from Alford and their family.
That brings us to the video, which is a dancey, celebratory victory lap that visually ties together much of the feud narrative. There are nods to Drake’s “Push Ups” (Lamar literally doing push-ups) and “Family Matters,” with a cameo from Alford and their two children. The video is co-directed by Lamar and Free, so Lamar is clearly waving off all of Drake’s familial disses.
What Lamar won’t take lying down is any disrespect to West Coast rap; the song defends 2Pac’s honor, and the video features some California legends to drive the point home. That includes Tommy the Clown, Anthony “Top Dawg” Tiffith (the founder of Lamar’s former label TDE, who was name-dropped on Drake’s “Push Ups”), “Not Like Us” producer Mustard (wearing a Toronto Blue Jays cap in reference to Drake’s hometown), and NBA All-Star DeMar DeRozan, Lamar’s fellow Compton native and a former Toronto Raptor. Imagery of owls—the symbol of Drake’s OVO record label—crops up throughout the video, including a scene where Lamar beats an owl-shaped piñata with a bat with the text: “Disclaimer: No OVHoes were harmed during the making of this video.”
The real death blow of the video, however, is the joyful crowds singing along to the song throughout. Like the hyped-up audience at “The Pop Out” or the viral clips of packed clubs bumping the beat, Lamar proved once again that fans are more than willing to jump on the hate train with him. The video opens with a tease of some new Lamar track, and it’s unclear whether that song will also tie into the feud. But it ends with Lamar in the middle of a huge horde of folks all happily hollering his lyrics. That’s the winning image, and the one that will be remembered when the dust settles: Drake, the populist rapper, beaten at his own game.