Kendrick's 'Not Like Us' hits two-year
- Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us” quietly hit its two-year mark on May 4, and the bigger story is that the song still gets used as a live taunt. - Cleveland leaned into that on May 4, blasting the track while closing out Toronto in Game 7, then posting an “Iceman” jab at Drake. - That matters because the record stopped being just a diss long ago — it became a reusable bit of cultural shorthand.
“Not Like Us” turned two on May 4. But this isn’t really an anniversary story. It’s a story about what happens when a diss record escapes the rap battle that made it and turns into a public meme, a victory lap, and basically a button anyone can press to say one side won. That’s why the Cleveland Cavaliers moment mattered. Late in Game 7 against Toronto on May 4, the arena played Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us” as the Raptors were getting bounced. Then the Cavs’ social team piled on with an “Iceman” joke aimed at Drake’s coming album rollout. ### Why does the two-year mark matter? Because “Not Like Us” came out on May 4, 2024, in the hottest stretch of the Kendrick-Drake feud, less than a day after “Meet the Grahams.” At the time it felt like the knockout punch. Two years later, the point is that people still treat it that way. ### What made the song different? A lot of diss tracks get praised and then filed away as rap history. This one crossed over fast. It was produced by Mustard, built like a West Coast club record, and easy to chant in a room full of people who didn’t need the whole backstory to understand the energy. That made it unusually portable — from streaming to parties to arenas. ### Did it really become bigger than the beef? Yes — that’s the key thing. The song hit No. 1 on the Hot 100, then kept stacking records on rap charts, including a record run atop Billboard’s Hot Rap Songs chart. It also turned into a major awards record, sweeping key rap categories and taking Song of the Year and Record of the Year at the 2025 Grammys of the defining hit records of the year, full stop. ### Why was the Cavaliers moment such a clean example? Because sports crowds love shorthand. They don’t need a paragraph of explanation. Toronto means Drake in the popular imagination. “Not Like Us” means Kendrick won. So when Cleveland played it during a Game 7 closeout, the joke landed instantly. It worked like a meme with a bassline. ### Is this still helping Kendrick now? Pretty clearly. The song kept feeding his larger run after 2024 instead of staying frozen in that feud. It remained a chart force, became a Grammy monster, and kept resurfacing in big public moments. That kind of afterlife is rare — most battle records age like screenshots. This one still behaves like a living pop object. ### What about Drake? The awkward part is that the song still shadows him whenever culture wants an easy punchline. Billboard tied the Cavs troll directly to Drake’s “Iceman” imagery, which shows how the record keeps getting redeployed whenever his name, Toronto, or a competitive loss enters the frame. Two years later, he still doesn’t fully control the context. ### So what changed this week? Not the song itself. Its job changed. In 2024, “Not Like Us” was a weapon in a rap fight. In 2026, it’s a reference people use to signal dominance, embarrassment, and a settled verdict — even outside music. That’s a much weirder kind of longevity, and probably the more important one.
