Kendrick Lamar explains what “Not Like Us” means to him

Kendrick Lamar‘s “Not Like Us” was released amid his feud with Drake and has become a viral song known to bring people together, but there is more to the song than what people seem to understand. Speaking to Harper’s Bazaar for its November 2024 Voices Issue, K. Dot tells SZA what the record means to him.

“Not like us? Not like us is the energy of who I am, the type of man I represent,” he says. “Now, if you identify with the man that I represent  … This man has morals, he has values, he believes in something, he stands on something. He’s not pandering.”

He continues, “He’s a man who can recognize his mistakes and not be afraid to share the mistakes and can dig deep down into fear-based ideologies or experiences to be able to express them without feeling like he’s less of a man. If I’m thinking of ‘Not Like Us,’ I’m thinking of me and whoever identifies with that.”

Lamar disagrees with fans who think he may be an angry individual. “I don’t believe I’m an angry person. But I do believe in love and war, and I believe they both need to exist,” he says. “And my awareness of that allows me to react to things but not identify with them as who I am. Just allowing them to exist and allowing them to flow through me. That’s what I believe.”

Elsewhere in the story, Kendrick discusses his mental health, his self-transformation, his driving force and the last time he cried. “I would say the last time I cried was probably on Mr. Morale [& the Big Steppers] on the ‘Mother I Sober’ record. That s*** was deep for me.”

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