Music

Kendrick Lamar’s ‘Not Like Us’ Isn’t the First Drake Diss Nominated for a Grammy

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If Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us” wins record and/or song of the year at the 2025 Grammy Awards on Feb. 2, it wouldn’t be the first hit conceived as a Drake diss track to do so.

Originally released on May 4, 2024, “Not Like Us” is just one of the many diss tracks that Kendrick and Drake hurled at one another during the heat of the beef last spring. While none of Drake’s diss songs against Kendrick landed the same level of cultural impact, “Not Like Us” received five nominations at the 67th Annual Grammy Awards: Record of the Year, Song of the Year, Best Rap Performance, Best Rap Song, and Best Music Video.

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While the idea of a diss track being so heavily nominated for the music industry’s biggest awards is a wild idea, this isn’t the first time it’s happened, and — as Billboard points out — it’s not even the first time a song conceived specifically as a Drake diss was nominated and won.

Back in 2018, Childish Gambino (Donald Glover) dropped “This Is America,” a massively successful hit song that went on to win every single Grammy it was nominated for during the show’s 2019 ceremony: Record of the Year, Song of the Year, Best Rap/Sung Performance, and Best Music Video.

Funnily enough, however, the song started out as a bit of a tongue-in-cheek diss to Drake diss. “This idea for the song started as a joke, to be completely honest, “Gambino revealed in a 2023 GQ cover story. “‘This Is America’ – that was all we had was that line.”

“It started as a Drake diss, to be honest, as like a funny way of doing it,” he added. “But then I was like, ‘This shit sounds kind of hard, though.’ So I was like, ‘Let me play with it.’”

If nothing else, it seems like we need Drake to stay in the game just because the friction he creates allows better rappers to make award-winning music. Tune into the Grammys on Feb. 2 to see how well “Not Like Us” fairs against non-Drake competition.