lettherebehouse wrote: ↑Tue Jun 25, 2024 10:23 am
AlaskaHawks wrote: ↑Tue Jun 25, 2024 5:47 am
More or less he's claiming Drake is a cornball brotha and not part of the culture since he's mixed and grew up in a soft suburban life.
It's deeper but if you haven't listened to all the back and forth that's about it. Lots to unpack in the beef though. It's well worth a dive IMO. I enjoyed it
I get that Drake’s corny af but the phrase “they not like us” seems to run deeper than just Drake or this little beef. It’s been co-opted by an entire movement of FBAs to distinct themselves not just from whites, but from any black not considered FBA but we’ll save that for another day. They want to distinct themselves, how would that go over if Kenny Chesney wrote some stuff like “they’re nothing like us” in a beef with Hootie & The Blowfish or some shit, that every whiteboy would hashtag or bring up in their shining moments?
SAS yesterday said white ppl can’t chime in on the JJ Redick podcast w Lebron. No white person keeps their job after saying something like this. Zero exceptions. Not even Ernie. They’re entitled to “black spaces” free from white contamination cause “we not like them”. I’m tellin you, something’s up when black ppl can get away with such in your face racism that no other race could get away with. Kendrick’s phrase, seems to have centered this movement, and white ppl like in the op’s video are cheering it on.
From Genius.com
They not like us, they not like us, they not like us
They not like us, they not like us, they not like us
Genius Annotation
9 contributors
Kendrick comments on how Drake (and the people he surrounds himself with) are “not like us,” saying that anybody that Kendrick surrounds himself with would not replicate the behaviours that he refers to within the track, a contrast of pgLang and Top Dawg Entertainment with OVO Sound in terms of moral fibre, values and its ability to fit into Black American culture.
This theme of racial consideration has also likely been directed at Drake’s biracial background and the issues of acceptance that come with it, both from himself or from others. This subject has come up multiple times in Drake’s career, on his own tracks, such as November 2023’s “Wick Man”:
Black America love to remind me what my mama look like
As if I’d ever fuckin' forget
I’m never enough
And on other people’s songs too, such as Pusha T’s 2018 diss track “The Story of Adidon”:
Confused, always felt you weren’t Black enough
Afraid to grow it ‘cause your ‘fro wouldn’t nap enough
This can also be seen throughout the plethora of recent diss tracks between Drake and his opponents, including on Rick Ross’s “Champagne Moments”, where he would rap:
White boy, I see you, I see you
In reference to his White Jewish mother’s ethnic heritage and his suburban upbringing, linking back to the line with Kendrick pointing out that Drake’s childhood was unlike many of Black Americans that he attempts to fit in with. Alongside this, we can also analyse the track’s cover art, which sees an unknown White man’s yearbook photo that quickly became a meme in 2022 after it was identified that he comically resembled the Canadian rapper.
Above: the aforementioned cover art of Rick Ross's Champagne Moments
and Kendrick Lamar’s “euphoria”, on which he would state:
I even hate when you say the word “*****,” but that’s just me, I guess
Some shit just cringeworthy, it ain’t even gotta be deep, I guess
[…]
We don’t wanna hear you say “*****” no more
We don’t wanna hear you say “*****” no more
Stop
To even further increase the gap between the two, highlighting how he feels uncomfortable with his usage of the N-word as he doesn’t acknowledge him as a Black person.
Finally, it can also be found that Kendrick and Drake’s careers took off at around the same time. “They not like us” may allude to Kendrick’s commitment to authenticity and lyricism (the heart and soul of hip hop), in contrast to Drake’s catchy yet vapid songs. Here, Kendrick continues to differentiate himself from Drake not only on the basis of race, but also in terms of true commitment to the craft and its Black origins.
"The idea is not to block every shot. The idea is to make your opponent believe you might block every shot."
Bill Russell
"I'm just 'bout that action, boss"
L.O.B. = Love our Brothers.
