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Just weeks after his massive Juneteenth Pop-Out concert, Kendrick Lamar has released the highly-anticipated music video to Drake diss and summer anthem, “Not Like Us.”
Filmed in his native Compton, “Not Like Us” features several easter eggs that only those who’ve been following the feud closely will catch.
While there are also symbols that just about anyone can recognize — the presence of owls being one — this list will break down the other visual clues K. Dot and co-director Dave Free dropped in reference to his feud with the Toronto rapper.
Check out easter eggs from “Not Like Us” by Kendrick Lamar below.
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Lyrics From Unreleased Track
Image Credit: YouTube Kendrick teases a new song to kick off the video, rhyming, “Woke up looking for broccoli, high-key, keep a horn on me, that Kamasi. IP the ownership, the blueprint is by me, Mr. Get Off, Get off at my feet.”
K. Dot’s boss talk about ownership is a way of addressing Drake‘s claim that he was stuck in a bad deal with TDE, with Anthony “Top Dawg” Tiffith — according to Drake on “Push Ups” — taking at least half of Kendrick’s profits and forcing him to do pop features. Lamar initially denied the claim on “Euphoria”, and is apparently doubling-down on this unreleased record.
Also, Kendrick is no longer signed to TDE, and currently co-owns media communications company pgLang (including its IP) with business partner Dave Free, so even if what Drake said was once true, it doesn’t matter much moving forward.
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Dave Free
Image Credit: YouTube Drake claimed on “Family Matters” that Dave Free could possibly be the father to one or both of Kendrick Lamar‘s children with longtime partner, Whitney Alford. This would imply there’s some kind of tension between the two men.
Welp! Apparently, that’s not the case, as Free not only appears in the video, but co-directed the clip alongside K. Dot.
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Whitney Alford and the kids
Drake also suggested that K. Dot is abusive to partner Whitney Alford, and implied that the couple may have quietly separated, as Kendrick purchased a penthouse in Brooklyn in 2023 while Alford and their children remained in Southern California.
Alford’s joyful presence in the video — along with their children — is a clear response to the accusations. Now, is it possible they’re simply attempting to save face as a couple by presenting a united front? Sure. But, considering the accusations leveled at the pair and Kendrick’s victory in the face of such accusations, seeing the family harmoniously enjoy the biggest record of the battle is powerful imagery that will stick with lovers of the infectious track for years to come.
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Independence Day release
Like his massive Pop-Out concert that took place on Juneteenth, Kendrick dropping the “Not Like Us” music video on July 4th was no coincidence.
One angle he took with Drizzy during their back-and-forth was of the Canadian being a “colonizer” and outsider who inauthentically used Black American culture as the blueprint for his success. Dropping on Independence Day was a way of acknowledging American pride against the Toronto kid, just as Juneteenth acknowledged the end of American slavery and Drake‘s assertion that K. Dot raps “like he’s trying to get the slaves free’d,” as if that would be a bad thing.
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Red, White, And Blue
Image Credit: YouTube We also see K. Dot reference American iconography via costumes, as many of his dancers are clad in red, white, and blue. Red and blue are also obvious references to Bloods and Crips, with dancers tying red and blue flags together, signifying the unity Kendrick is bringing to Los Angeles gang culture.
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"Family Matters" Lighting reference
In one scene, Kendrick finds himself in a black room with dim lighting, shot similarly to the second verse of Drake‘s “Family Matters” video, where he attempts to destroy the good kid, m.A.A.d city van. Both shots also feature a vehicle with the high beams glaring.
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Shiesty Masked Figure
Image Credit: Kendrick Lamar video. Within the same scene, a man wearing all black and a shiesty mask menacingly walks up behind Kendrick with clear intentions to do harm. This is a reference to Drake‘s Dark Lane Demo Tapes cover, where he rocks the same look. Drake also wore the glorified ski-mask in his “Toosie Slide” video and in various social media photos.
Within the clip, the masked man is snatched back by unseen forces before he can attack the Compton rapper. This likely represents both God protecting the MC, as well as the Hip-Hop community largely having his back throughout the battle.
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"Cellblock 1"
Image Credit: Kendrick Lamar video. As Kendrick raps, “Say Drake, I hear you like ’em young,” we move to a set that appears to be modeled after a (very comfortable) prison cell. We remain here while Dot speaks of PartyNextDoor allegedly doing illegal drugs, Baka Not Nice having a “weird case” and their crew welcoming “pedophiles,” all things one could be locked up for.
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Push-ups after "Push Ups"
Image Credit: Kendrick Lamar video. Within the same scene, K. Dot does push-ups, an easy reference to Drake’s diss record of the same name, as well as viral footage of Kendrick doing push-ups to old school R&B that circulated the internet earlier this year.
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Owl Piñata
Image Credit: Kendrick Lamar video. The most obvious easter egg within the video would be the huge owl piñata Kendrick destroys, as most know the nocturnal bird as the mascot for Drake‘s OVO collective.
Piñatas are also popular at children’s parties, leaning into Kendrick’s assertion that Drake has an inappropriate attraction to young women. Owls are also predators…so there’s that.
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Hop-Scotch
Image Credit: Kendrick Lamar video Like the piñata, hop-scotch is widely considered a children’s activity, with Kendrick hammering home his “A-minooooooor” line with the image of him playing a childhood game and further trolling Drake‘s alleged attraction to, well, minors.
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DeMar DeRozan
Image Credit: Kendrick Lamar video. NBA star DeMar DeRozan is name-dropped on “Not Like Us” — I’m glad DeRoz’ came home, y’all didn’t deserve him neither — due to the Compton-bred athlete playing in Drake‘s native Toronto before being traded to the San Antonio Spurs in 2018.
DeRozan also appears in the video, eight years after covering Slam with Drake and Kyle Lowry.
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'Nothing Was The Same' backdrop
Image Credit: Kendrick Lamar video. This dancer is seen crip-walking a tightrope in front of a background resembling the cover of Drake‘s 2013 album, Nothing Was The Same, perhaps indicating nothing will be the same for Drizzy following this battle with the west coast MC.
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Mustard's Toronto Blue Jays hat?
Image Credit: Kendrick Lamar video. Producer Mustard was spotted shooting the “Not Like Us” video with Kendrick while wearing a Toronto Blue Jays hat, a move many assumed to be a troll of Drake and his native city’s team. While this would be a fair assumption considering the track, the beatsmith has denied that it was an intentional move to set off the Canadian MC.
“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 on all of them,” he told radio legend Big Boy after the video shoot.
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Caged Owl
Image Credit: Kendrick Lamar Just to drive home that he won the battle, Lamar ends the clip (before giving us BTS shots) watching over an owl he’s put in a cage, symbolizing him silencing Drake, who threw in the towel after the lackluster reception of his “The Heart Pt. 6.”