If you had to choose just one song to define your favorite artist, what would it be? I'm Cole Kishner from DICEQ and I'm Charles Holmes from The Midnight Boys and on Tuesday, July 9th, Cole and I are dropping season 3 of Last On Standing, the show where we read Determine an artist's single greatest song by debating our way through their entire catalog. - Our first two seasons covered Kendrick Lamar and Frank Goshen, and for season three, the LSS boys are revisiting one of the most creative, influential duos of all time, Outkast. - We're talking every album, including Aquemini, ATLE, and Stankonia, Speakerbox, The Love Below, and even the Luci's and features. - The third season of Last Long Standing will publish right here on the Dissect feed,

Tuesday beginning July 9. Welcome everyone to a special episode of Dissect, I'm your host Cole Kushner. On Episode we are dissecting Kendrick Lamar's Not Like Us song and video. And I'll be sharing some final takeaways, some final thoughts about the battle as a whole. Doing this episode for a couple weeks essentially since Not Like Us came out. A lot of you have been requesting it, thank you, but I was a little torn. Mostly because there's been so much analysis on this song and now this video. A ton of videos and TikToks and YouTube breakdowns. I didn't know how much doing this video helped.

Full episode would add. I did some videos, I talked about it online a little bit and that is until now because I think I found some stuff specifically in the that no one's really talking about. A narrative that I think is pretty clear once it's pointed out to you. So I did... To break that down because I haven't seen anyone really talking about it at all. And I also have some final thoughts now especially after seeing the pop-out show and the video of why Kendrick even engaged in this entire battle in the first place. Because I remember when Like That dropped, Future song with the Kendrick diss verse of course that started this whole thing off. I remember being kind of confused. Post Mr. Morale Kendrick Lamar, I was not sure where Kendrick was going to go in his artistry.

Being a working musician in the public eye, I was kind of wondering if he was still interested in that if you listen to the last song on Mr. Morale. At least in the moment it felt kind of like a goodbye. He says on that song, Run away from the culture to follow my heart. And again, in the moment, I at least… For watching. Music or maybe he was going to start PG Lang and doing film and experimenting with different mediums ala Andre 3000 Kind of coming back here and there for features, helping produce baby keem, etc.

So I just didn't know where he was going. And since then, since Morale, he did the Mr. Morale tour, he did hillbillies with baby keem he featured on Beyonce, but not a lot. So when he popped up on like that, I was surprised. I was like, Oh, he's engaging clearly he wants to battle and he wants Do it on the grand stage. He wants to once and for all decide who wears the crown of hip hop of the 2010s or whatever. This era of hip-hop like he said on euphoria there's three goats left him j cole drake these are do you want to view it In the context of the control verse, all those people from his era that he called out on control, three are left standing, three that... Could argue is the king of this era, Kendrick, J. Cole or Drake. Kendrick wanted to once and for all settle this debate by doing so in a battle.

All know what has transpired since that moment, but in the moment I was slightly confused and I think Opinion on why Kendrick chose to do this. There's a larger symbolism of him winning the battle and I think it was very important to him that he won for symbolic historical reasons. That's what I'm going to talk about at the end because that point has only been made clear to me since Not Like Us, the pop out, and the video helps to tell that story. So I'm going to leave that as a cliffhanger. We'll come back to this point of why Kendrick engaged and what the symbolism, I think, of him winning this battle really really means and why it's important. Okay, so now... Like us let's start with the song in the moment it was released on may 4th which was less than 24 hours after both Family Matters and Meet the Grams dropped. If you remember, that day was kicked off. Was 616 in LA on Instagram. It was followed by Family Matters that night, the video, and a lot of people.

Less than an hour after that, Kendrick drops Meet The Grams. I'm bringing this up because In The Moment, Not Like Us was a brilliant chess move. We talked about this a little bit on the reaction episode that we dropped. That go go listen to it after this where we break down the entire timeline of the beef but strategically brilliant because I don't know What you remember about that night, Family Matters and Meet the Grams dropped, but it got dark. Accusations, the video, meet the grams of course, the beat and everything that was being. Hused on both sides. I was left feeling kind of gross and just... In the moment, not really sure where this beef was going, if these accusations were true, I hope they're just in the spirit of the battle still But yeah, in the moment it was dark. But then next day, Kendrick drops this dance. Bop to kind of brighten the mood and also I think to get back on the offensive position.

So, since Euphoria, Kendrick was waiting to see what Drake did, to see what angle he was going to take, to see if he was going to play dirty, if he was going to bring the family into it, and he did. And so Kendrick was forced to draw a line. Meet the grams. I don't think he would have dropped that song if Drake didn't send it. To the next. Bombshell track and that bombshell track was defensive right it absorbed the nuclear bomb the red button that drake was attempting to drop it it neutralized it immediately strategically brilliant but defensive Not like us dropping the next day before Drake drops anything puts Kendrick back on offense. Just like a great boxer kind of taking control. The match and never letting his opponent dictate the tempo or the tone of the battle. So just

Kendrick has been throughout this entire thing absolutely brilliant and it was a bop it was a hit from day one now let's jump forward exactly two months later on July 4th The Not Like Us music video. And in the moment Drake fans were kind of accusing Kendrick of dragging this thing on trying to milk this victory, but I think to make a video. Drake made a video for Family Matters and if you now look at the offerings from both sides it's exactly even. So quickly here's just a list of the offerings from both sides. And Euphoria are two songs that go on streaming without videos. 616 in LA and TaylorMade Freestyle are both IG exclusive. Again, don't hit streaming, but they are compatible, both IG exclusive.

Then you have Family Matters music video and now Not Like Us music video and then you also have Meet The Grams and Heart Part 6, both songs that go to streaming. So the offerings sheen on both sides exactly even. So there's not a disparity between the offerings, which I think makes it a clean judgment, right? might be thinking what about like that well like that was a response to first person shooter kendrick took first person shooter as a diss song i talked about this in the euphoria Episode so I won't belabor the point too much but like that was a response to first person shooter so to me still even. But let's now jump into the music video proper, starting with the opening shot, which is also the thumbnail, importantly, the thumbnail for the video. It is an experience. Shot, a still exterior shot of the Compton Courthouse. We also see the Martin Luther King sculpture that's kind of...

Abstract representation of a mountain it's supposed to depict the mountaintop from Martin Luther King jr. Final speech I've been to the mountaintop. So we see these two structures and in filmmaking this is what's called an establishing shot. A publishing shot is usually an exterior scene, a long shot from far away, that's held for a couple of seconds to convey to the audience Where we are and where the subsequent scenes are going to take place. Usually you'll see an exterior establishing shot and then you'll... Up inside. So if you see a building or you see a house exterior shop. Of a house or a building, the next shot, if you're inside somewhere, you just assume, shot that you're now inside that thing that was just shown you from the outside so the opening shot to me is very clearly an Establishing shot.

Opposed to assume we are now inside a courthouse. Obviously, it's not the actual courthouse. It's an abstract kind of symbolic representation Them, but I think there's a lot of evidence to interpret it this way which I'll get to in just a moment. And also, I'll point out that the Compton The courthouse and the sculpture are both white, very clearly pure solid white. That will become important in a second. So directly after this establishing shot we are put inside an all-white hallway and New Kendrick Lamar snippet is played. It's fucking phenomenal. I hope it's a full song. We'll see if it actually is a full song if it gets released, but goddamn, it's great. In the moment -- Hype. I know people are hyped. It sounds great. It sounds west coast. Hopefully that's what the album about that more in a second. So let's talk about this snippet and then we'll talk about Kendrick in the hallway.

Alright, let's do a quick beat breakdown. The sample comes from... From Grab from this song. Alright, so that's where the sample comes from. It's definitely a lot faster in the arena. And so the producer of the track Scott Bridgeway grabs that sample The bass from it and he time stretches it essentially slows it down to 104 beats per minute so let's hear the loop that he created

all right so that's the loop uh Course then we get some drums. Now let's add the sample and we got the stuff great beat not gonna spend too Much time on it but didn't want to acknowledge the beat and the sample again produced by Scott Bridgeway. Lyrically, Kendrick starts with the phrase I am The full line will become I am reincarnated, but he says I am separate from reincarnated.

Caught my attention right away because if you guys remember in the Heart Part Five music video that came out before Mr. Morale dropped, it begins with the title card and on the title card it says I am period all of us. So, same delineation here, I am, period, all of us. There's a separation between I am and the rest of the sentence. You can read it. I am all of us, but there's a period there. And it's signed by OK Llama. Lou Tade, who I worked with on The Damned Kendrick Lamar season 5, but he found, I think, What okay llama means go watch the video for the full details, but in short in the Choctaw translation of the Bible You can deduce that OK llama means my people.

Since I am all of us, there's centering of community, of culture, and Kendrick being not a part of it, but one with it. That the community is kind of one entity, and Kendrick is kind of just the spokesperson for this community. This will come back in the pop-out show. This will come back in the final shot of the Not Like Us video. But here in the opening of the Not Like Us video, he is saying I am and my mind goes straight to the OK Llama, pseudonym, and this idea of community. But the full line becomes I am reincarnated. In the moment of the battle, we might think about this as kind of being... Reborn after the beef and moving on, starting a new life after the beef. I have to mention that in Mr. Morau, this idea of reincarnation comes up a lot. This idea of a universal consciousness comes up a lot.

Again tying into this idea of I am all of us. Also on Mr. Morale, he talks about having past lives that affect his current life. So tying in with a lot of the stuff Kendrick has been talking about since Mr. Morale. He continues with, I was stargazing. This I feel like is pretty clearly a play on Drake being a pop star but also So continuing this reincarnation, this astrology, this spiritual thread, we might see it as a callback to 616. That I live in circadian rhythms of a shooting star, the mannerisms of Raphael. I can heal and give you art. Get into astrology, maybe that's a Whitney influence, I'm not sure, but he continues saying life goes on, I need all my babies. Life goes on again seems to be another clear acknowledgement of kind of this is the end of the battle and we're moving on after this. All my babies obviously.

Into this idea of reincarnation a baby would signify a new life saying he needs His baby seems to allude to his creations, which is going to be more clear once he gets to the IP ownership stuff, but essentially his babies, his creations, he needs to own those. Hence him starting PG Lang, hence him leaving TDE, and owning his master. Owning his IP and then this kind of moving on and rebirth is even in the next line woke up looking for some broccoli Again, woke up, reincarnation, starting over, new day. This motif is running through the verse. Uh looking for some broccoli interesting so i think he's talking about money which will become clear in the next couple lines Also slang for weed, which I, you know, knowing Kendrick, I don't think that's what he's talking about. All right, so he continues, High key, keep a horn on me, that kamasi. I love this line.

So Keep a Horn On Me is gun wordplay. It recalls to me the Mr. morale cover. It's probably a metaphor about kind of a lyrical, having a lyrical sword, that classic kind of hip-hop boast. He's also calling out Kamasi Washington. Teeth in mind high-key comes a play on key signature musical key signature horn obviously shouts out the saxophone and kamasi kamasi washington again from the west coast ip ownership the blueprint is by me so if broccoli meant money ip ownership means he owns his intellectual property He's in control of not only his artistic ambitions, but also his cash flow. The blueprint again... He's writing his own lyrics. He's doing, he's directing his own music videos. He has complete artistic freedom.

Might be a shot at Drake using ghost writers, but again, centralizing this idea of posting. Mr. Morale, post reincarnation, post ego death. I own my music going forward. I'm no longer signed to a major label. I do licensing agreements with major labels, but I own my masters. The publishing so just a flex there and then he says mr. get off I get off and mop feet I don't know if this is a direct callback to whooping feet But Mop is slaying for a gun, so calling back to the horn reference, getting off within is something like unloading, like unloading your gun and just cleaning up the competition. I'm not exactly sure about that. Some people are speculating Mr. Getoff is the name of the next album. I mean, who knows? I would personally highly doubt that. Kendrick's not that obvious, but yeah, great snippet. I hope we get the full track, but.

It does seem to acknowledge the beef directly. And after realizing that, I'm a little less hopeful we'll get the full song if there is a full song. Unfortunately. Hopefully I'm wrong but it does seem like he's kind of putting a nice little end cap on the beef, Over that he's moving on hopefully to a new album that sounds like this man if Kendrick gives us full album of West Coast hits like this, I might actually cream my pants. But moving on. Oh but the visuals during this part. Kendrick's dressed in all white, the same outfit he's going to have in the next scene. The hallway is all white as well. The next thing that we see is a knock at a door. The peephole opens up. We see Tommy the clown.

For a password. And so let's talk about this the knock. So there's a great video viral video about this and the history of this specific knock. Okay, this rhythm, this knock is called Shave and a Haircut, Two Bits. And a haircut, two bits. So this melody, which then transformed into a rhythm, which then transformed into a knock, the origin of it comes From Charles Hale's 1899 minstrel song called At a Darktown Cakewalk. So darktown refers to a black neighborhood in Atlanta. Originated as a racist term used to refer to dance competitions that enslaved Africans were forced to perform on plantations for the white owners. And the cake was the prize of this dance competition.

And so the cakewalk became a dance that slaves would perform at these competitions. That openly mocked the mannerisms of their masters. The masters were clueless. They didn't understand it but this was a way for the enslaved to kind of poke their nose at their masters and they kind of over Exaggerate the white people's mannerisms. And so the video contends that this relates to -- third verse of Not Like Us where he's centering Atlanta, centering colonizers, and it also... The theme of Drake being a colonizer but also mocking him which Kendrick is going to do multiple times in the video so pretty brilliant. In detail if you buy that it's intentional. I tend to think that it is. This video was very, very well thought out as you'll see with some of the other videos. Things I'm going to point out and that others have pointed out. But let's talk about the password. The password of course is I see dead people. Which is also on the actual song. So a couple of layers here most directly

The euphoria reference that Kendrick made when he compared himself to the childhood star in the movie Sixth Sense and the famous kind of catchphrase that has stood the test of time. From that movie as I see dead people but I also think it's a response to the end of family matters so at the end of the movie Of family matters the last line the last thing drake says is you're dead and this ties into the whole red button thing also on that little ig trailer that he dropped he talks about burying kendrick so i see dead people he's referring to himself he's supposed to be dead but here he is another hit another diss track. People so a pretty cool connection when you play them back-to-back right that flows right into a direct response also a

should point out that some people have speculated the icy dead people was also a reference to the game West Coast rapper the game he actually said It on a 2005 song and he specifically says Dre I see dead people of course referring to dr. Dre There's some history about that song about him and Dr. Dre, some beef involving 50 Cent. It's a little bit of a rabbit hole. I didn't want to go into it It would take way too long to try to explain and I don't know if it's entirely relevant or even purposeful But if you are interested in it, go check it out. Just go research search the game. About the more important thing here, the knock and the password. This room that Kendrick is entering is gate kept, not just anyone is allowed in. Kendrick needed to know a password and a special knock to get inside. That's going to be important here in a second.

So we're allowed entrance into the room. This room is entirely empty save for some chairs a table with a record player on it, but other than that it's completely empty and it's all white. Here's where I'll start to lay out my theory. I don't even know if I should call it a theory because I'm pretty convinced on it I hope you will be too after laying it out So we had the establishing shot of the courthouse, an all-white courthouse. If we are using film logic, we should now assume that we are inside that courthouse. For this interpretation comes in the number of chairs that we see inside the room. him. Bears in total, which is the standard number of jury members in a trial in California. And they are aligned. They are situated exactly like a jury is, two rows of six So again if we're using film logic and we also have this motif of white that's going to be consistent in the video

we should assume that we are now inside the courthouse and that this is a trial essentially Story of the music video, which is going to be binded by all white backgrounds, is Drake's trial. He's being tried for crimes not against of humanity, but crimes against the culture. Let's talk about those chairs. Again, they're lined exactly like a jury booth and sitting in the chairs are crumpers, dancers from LA. This is Tommy the Clown's dance group called the T-Squad. If you don't know who Tommy the Clown is, he is a pretty influential and important figure on the West Coast, but specifically in LA. He uses dance to help the youth, to keep them off the streets, to build community. Unity.

In the chairs are the crumpers, the dancers. And Tommy the Clown, I think, is playing the judge. So, Tommy the Clown is positioned at the head of the room where the judge would traditionally sit in front of a desk that has a record player, and I'll talk about that. Then the second but he's also wearing a referee shirt which to me in my mind relates to being a judge a referee judges a game calls fouls a judge judges referees a courtroom and the the trial proceeding So I know he also wears that referee shirt regularly but within the context of this narrative I think it works. So we have Tell me the clown has The judge, the crumpers as the jury, and also Kendrick as a jury member as well. Interpretation I considered for this was a classroom. Room the five elements of hip-hop are present so we have the MC obviously

by Kendrick, you have the DJ which in this interpretation is played by Tommy the Clown, you have the break dancers who are represented by the T-Squad, you have the graffiti art... Which is represented on the t-squad t-shirts that say not like us in the classic West Coast airbrush graffiti style and then the fifth element of hip-hop is knowledge so history, where the genre comes from, and this would be represented by the classroom itself. So it is a pretty compelling theory. I think the reason why I side with the courtroom interpretation is that It ties into a larger narrative and there's more evidence throughout the video that that's what it is, whereas if it is a classroom, a few... Goes a little more isolated and not tied to this larger theme and narrative that I think is very clearly running throughout the video. So I didn't want to at least acknowledge that interpretation, although I will be kind of continuing on with the classroom theory.

Now let's talk about why this room is so empty. So admittedly this next theory I think is more speculative if I'm 99% sure that this is the courtroom. I'm maybe 85% sure about this next theory. So what I think the symbolism of this courtroom being empty, I think it's evoking what are called a white room or a clean room. Imagine in your mind like a laboratory, right? Usually laboratories and specifically white rooms or clean rooms are all white because the Lab workers wear all white lab coats. Whites use because you can easily detect spills or contaminants in the space. Specifically white rooms and clean rooms, are controlled sterilized facilities that have to undergo inspection to get certain. Certifications, but they are designed to limit contaminants in a space. peace.

The interpretation of this courtroom, dressed as a white room or a clean room, is that this Uncontaminated and that this room is pure unadulterated culture. So think about it you have Kendrick, LA native, you have the Crumpers, Tommy the Clown, symbols of of pure LA culture. Drake on trial for his crimes against the culture. Again, not everyone's allowed in this room. You have to know things. You have to know the past. You have to know the knock and once inside it's very controlled it's clean Contaminants. This is pure culture. Hopefully I'm making the case for it because I feel like... Pretty confident and just go google a white room or a clean room. It's obviously not going to be exactly looking like the video but...

In my mind, they're evoking that idea and it fits perfectly into this idea of not like us, us being pure culture. The creators of this culture that we love and consume and that Drake has abused over the years through disrespecting people like Pharrell, buying his Jewelry, imitating Tupac, just doing a bunch of no-nos, and playing around with the culture like it's his. So with that interpretation laid out, the next shot that we see is Not Like Us starts to play from a record player that's at the table at the head of the room. Interpretation of this is that this song is being played as evidence. For me, this is playing off a motif that is written throughout the end. Entire song, where Kendrick uses specifically courtroom vernacular or courtroom vocabulary, lines like might write this for the doctor.

It. Your homeboy needs a peanut. Baka got a weird case. You better not ever go to cell block one. Oftentimes in music videos they take these little motifs in the song and they build stories around it And that's I pretty convinced. That's what they're doing here. So not like us What's said and not like us, the revelations in this song, are all evidence being played to the jury. Now we have to talk about the outfits that both Kendrick is wearing and the crumpers are Wearing because this establishes a secondary color motif. So we have the all-white background, we have the white courthouse. White is going to be used to convey the trial narrative. So all the scenes in the video, if you go watch, have to do with the trial narrative. The trial narrative. Now the dancers are wearing white t-shirts that have like the classic west coast graffiti style that say not like us it's red and blue text and if you look at specifically like the belts that they're wearing

they're wearing belts made out of red and blue bandanas. So we get this secondary color motif Going to come up later in the video throughout the video of red and blue and combined with the white we get red white and blue as the main colors this entire video. Watch the video with that in mind and it's clear as day you're gonna see red, white, and blue almost in every single scene aside from a few vignettes that we'll talk about. So why red, white and blue? Pretty obvious here. So one red and blue together, especially the bandanas, symbolizing the unity of the West Coast. If you watched this video, you might have seen it. The Pop Out Show was essentially the main takeaway of the entire show, of an entire our entire coast.

Crips and Pirus coming together in unity in celebration of this victory. Not about Kendrick, it's about the West Coast and more broadly, pure culture. Red wine blue, of course, evokes the American flag, and this video was dropped on 4th of July. And one of the main angles Kendrick has taken throughout all the diss tracks is that Drake is a foreigner, he's Canadian. And that he's coming to America to exploit its culture, to claim it as his own, and play with it as his own, and disrespect it as if he owns it. And so, Fourth of July drop, the American flag, this is about Black American culture, the creators of hip hop, right? So we're getting like this, it's not- to be.

Being emphasize with who are wearing these colors. You know, I don't think there's a white person in this video. It's making very clear the creators of this culture, not only for Drake, but for all of us. Us. The day free directed videos go watch element go watch all the morale videos these guys have been getting head Into film language it's very clear my prediction is that Dave Freese is gonna direct a feature film one day I think that's inevitable You're already seeing them team up with the creators of South Park to make a feature film together.

The color motifs are very thought out. Watch the video with those in mind. You'll see it's very clear as day. So the entire first half of the first verse takes place in this courtroom cleaning. House. Let me acknowledge that I know we've talked however long this episode has been and we haven't even gotten to a single lyric in the song yet, but things will go f- faster now. There was a lot to establish in the beginning, but let s hear some of the song. We hear the now iconic introduction. Great, great, great sample.

Produced by DJ Mustard of course, featured throughout the video. The sample comes from a 1968 track called I Believe To My Soul by Monk Higgins. Let's hear the two snippets that Mustard samples for this video. Be. Alright so obviously Mustard speeds these up, puts a great beat behind it. It's a classic west coast sounding beat that's very... Intentional. Obviously Mustard's from the West Coast, he's a legendary West Coast producer. He came up with YG, which I think is pretty important since Drake.

Tried to align himself with YG in the Family Matters video and YG shows up in this video later. YG was at the pop-out show so obviously undermining Drake's claim there but then we hear his classic tag mustard on the beat hoe and then Kendrick repeats the tag as the opening line of his verse. Follows by saying Deebo any rap n-word hear free throw so this is kind of a classic Kendrick flip at this point because he's a similar thing on Nostalgia and I think he did it, I can't remember the the song off the top of my head, but he's done it I think a few times. So Deebo is the bully in the club. Movie Friday which is set in Los Angeles of course. So Kendrick comparing himself to Deebo and saying that any rapper is a free-throw means that he'll demolish them easily as easily as a free-throw

Deebo though is also the nickname of DeMar DeRozan. DeMar DeRozan is going to be called out by name later in the song. He's a friend of Kendrick's. DeMar DeRozan is a friend of Kendrick's. Rosen recently said that Kendrick is like family to him. They've known each other for a long time. They grew up in the same neighborhood Kendrick has a song called black boy fly that has to do to Marta Rosen so there's a lot of history there of course to Marta Rosen's an NBA player so free throw obviously connects there fun for The metaphor works even technically and Tamar DeRozan is a great free throw shooter. Just signed to the Sacramento Kings, which is, I'm from Sacramento, I live here. I'm so excited that he's here. But onward. Man down, call an amber lamp, tell him, Breathe, bro. So a lot of layers in this bar, too. Man down is something you say when someone's injured. Or ambulance is called for that person down and telling someone to breathe is what a paramedic

Might say to someone that's injured but and i did make a little tick-tock about this when the song came out there's a viral video that came out i mean this must be like 10 years ago of this Getting in a fight on the bus and he gets punched pretty badly and he starts bleeding from his nose and he says Call on Amber Lamps and it you know that just that clip went viral But that viral video took place in Oakland on the west coast so there's a connection there For watching. To one of two memes or both simultaneously. So there's a video of Drake that went viral a few years ago Of him saying breathe bro breathe we can play it here what do you mean breathe breathe don't me to breathe. I can't be. Yo, bring me a shot. Bring me a shot. And this was Drake recording himself.

After I believe the Raptors, the Toronto Raptors won the NBA championship. So this works. With the previous line because DeMar DeRozan used to play for many many many years for the Toronto Raptors and DeMar DeRozan was traded the year was traded for Kawhi Leonard and Kawhi Leonard and the Raptors that same year went on to win the championship without DeMar to Rosen and at the time it felt kind of fun. Up because Demartur Rosen was so loyal and such an essential part of getting the Raptors to that point but then didn't get to enjoy the spoils of the championship. And kendrick is going to allude to this fact when he cites darosin again later in the song so that's one meme breathe bro referring to the

Drake viral video. There's another viral video that applies as well. So this one went big on TikTok. It shows in fast motion. It looks like it's not really clear in the video. I think the sound went viral more than the video itself but essentially someone it looks like gets shot I don't know if it's real or not and it made me think about it. You see someone looking over him saying breathe bro breathe bro and the but the voice is like sped up. This one works too because he says Man down, call an amber lambs, tell 'em breathe bro. And this video gets shot and then immediately someone's telling him, Breathe bro, breathe. So, just a fucking... The first two lines are just so good, so layered, they connect. Perfect. Next line, nail it inward to the

cross he walk around like Tzo so playing on this death of man down breathing he passes he's put on the cross like crucified Fiction as a sacrifice, but the wordplay about Nail to the Cross and Tizot refers to Tzo Touchdown who is an artist that you should definitely check out if you don't know him, but famously His thing is that he wears nails in his hair. Featured Tizo Touchdown as he often does feature these up-and-coming artists early in their career, See as helping their career, and in many cases that's probably the case. Drake has also been known to attach himself to these rising stars early so that he can Keeps himself relevant and that many people feel like in a lot of these cases it's a selfish act.

Stole Tzo Touchdown's style on his most recent tour. Drake wearing the football padding outfits Is what Tizo Touchdown did first. Drake took the style just like he took Shmino's style, just like he's taken a lot of people's style and looks over the years this is just another case of Kendrick bringing up Tso Touchdown works on that Level 2 and then the third layer the triple entendre is that Tizo is homophone for the watch brand Tizzo and their logo is a cross so we have nail The cross walk around like Tizo. It works Tizo touchdown, nails in the head, Tizo watch, cross logo. Brilliant. So three lines in, it's a perfect verse. Okay next what's up with these jabroni ass n-words trying to see Compton so the obvious play

Here is that Drake is an outsider trying to align himself with Compton by association. He started Family Matters by listing YG listing the game listing Chris Brown all these people from Compton from the west coast who were gang Affiliated and saying these are my friends and implying that Kendrick is not like them he's not affiliated he doesn't actually the video. Brony which is a word that actually was invented by the wrestler Iron Sheik but then popped Otherwise by The Rock. So if you grew up watching WWF like I did, you know The Rock used to say-- Only all the time and it kind of took on the meaning of just being a stupid clueless kind of person. The origin of the word is really interesting because jabroni is also known as a jobber and

Jobber is what's called enhancement talent. This is a wrestler whose job it is to lose, lose to established wrestlers so that those wrestlers look good in the process, enhancing Popularity so whether Kendrick was doing this intentionally or not the history of the word supports kind of everything else he's saying about Drake here it's an easy win and he's gonna look good in the process he's gonna make it look sexy that on Element. Alright, next line is The industry can hate me, fuck them all and they mama. So the industry is... Actually mentioned in every single one of Kendrick's diss tracks. On Euphoria, he said Whoever that's fucking with him, fuck you and fuck the industry too. You. Circadian rhythms of a shooting star, the mannerisms of Raphael, I can heal and give you art, but the industry's cooked as I pick the carcass apart.

And then on Meet the Grams there's a longer passage that starts with I've been in this industry 12 years and I'm Tell you one little secret there's some weird shit going on and some of these artists be here to police it and then he goes on to lay out kind of a R. Kelly, Puff Daddy situation happening at the embassy, which is Drake's house, saying that the embassy is about to get raided too. You. In this beef. 400 million dollar deal with Universal. He definitely plays the game. Now owning his IP having his own record label kind of detangling himself from the industry so to speak That going against Drake might have consequences for him, but that he doesn't care.

This up time and time again. Fuck the industry. I don't care what the repercussions of this might be if I'm going to be an industry outcast. It doesn't sound like that's going to happen but he was ready to take that sacrifice in order to dismantle drake so we get that here in night like us as well So the final line in this part of the verse is how many ops you really got? I mean it's too many options. I'm gonna pass on the This body I'm John Stockton. Such a great line. In the moment, hearing it for the first time, you get what he was saying, so clever, and then you get the beat switch into. Kind of celebratory part of the song. It's just a perfect moment. So we get this great word play between ops and options. This is referred to as the moment of the moment of the moment. To kind of the 20 v 1 aspect of this beef I pointed out the fact that Why are all these people turning on Drake? Why Metro future Rick Ross?

Go down the list of the people of the weekend all these people and prominent figures in the industry why are so many of them willing to district willing to go on record align themselves against this guy. What is Drake doing behind the scenes that is upsetting so many people? Drake fans might say, Oh, He's the biggest artist, so they're jealous. Other people might say that he has a history of sleeping with people's girlfriends. Maybe the most famous of which is going to be called out specifically later in the song when drake slept with lil wayne's Girlfriend or wife, I'm not sure, when Lil Wayne was in jail. It sounds like him and Metro's beef is about a girl. Drake doesn't have the best track record with this. And every time he gets in a beef with someone, he's following their girlfriend or he's following their wife on Instagram or commenting on the. Life's photo.

Pass on the body that there's more ops willing to do damage to the body. And it's great wordplay with John Stockton. So another NBA player. So that motif established at the start of the verse with Demarto Rosen is called back here on the end of the verse. Famously is the all-time leader in the NBA for assists. And so when he says pass on the body, I'm John Stockton He's playing on that pass assist motif, but There is more Of course there's more, it's Kendrick. John Stockton famously played with Cara Malone his entire career on the Utah Jazz. Majority of John Stockton's assists are to carom alone. Why is carom alone relevant? Well, Carmelone impregnated a 13 year old girl when he was 20 years old he tried to I think.

Is to have a relationship with the child. He hid the child from the public, never met his son until he was 17. And so there's a lot of things that we can do to help him. Clear parallels between this and Kendrick's accusation that will later surface that Drake likes them young. And the cherry on top is that Carmelone was Drake's neighbor, and Drake has posted Picture of them together hanging out on Instagram. He has since deleted it, but that's not a good look, right? So Of just another brilliant bar infused with so many layers that apply. All without sacrificing the sound and accessibility of this hit record. Perfect verse so far. I hope you'll enjoy it. You're as impressed as I am. Let's take a quick break and we'll continue the analysis.

- All right, so we get the first instrumental interlude and at the end of that, Kendrick says, Beat your ass and hide the Bible if God watching. Super clever. It also reminded me of the song Element when he said put the bible down and go eye for an eye for this shit. And go listen to Element post beef, and it will hit you a certain way because it is. Certainly aimed at Drake just like Heart part 4 was aimed at Drake. All this stuff has been brewing for years but there's a tie there between and putting the Bible down, hiding the Bible, while Kendrick sins, I guess. So then we get the second half of the first verse, which starts with Kendrick saying, Sometimes you gotta pop out.

And show n-words certified boogeyman i'm the one that upped the score with him so when i first heard this line this was pretty funny to me because it's so clear that kendrick is online as much as maybe he takes breaks from it or doesn't interact with it He knows the perception of him. He seems to have a very close watch on things like Being nicknamed The Boogeyman. and him kind of acknowledging that fan-given nickname I thought was super clever here. He also says certified boogeyman, which is going to be set up for a couple lines just after this. So again, I was reminded of Element. In Element, he says, Say my name, and I promise you'll see Candyman. And kind of being these mysterious kind of supernatural figures in the public consciousness. To what Drake said on TaylorMade Freestyle and Tupac's voice when he said you're supposed to be the boogeyman go do what you do so clearly trying to taunt Kendrick

Kind of blows up in Drake's face because Kendrick did pop out and made a number one hit all about him being a pedophile. I've seen some people interpret this pop out and show. Obviously, he's acknowledging his interaction with this beef that he's proving himself in front of the entire world. World. It up. For the first time and we see Kendrick kind of just standing there unbothered someone in a baklava face covering comes up behind him like he was going to do harm to him and that person gets kind of supernaturally pulled back into the darkness and next to Kendrick is someone In a Compton hat like dancing, crip-walking next to him. And so very cool here because

this the aesthetic stylings of this shot are mimicking the second part of fantasy. Matters music video where it's black and white very dark tone almost exactly like this vignette calling back to that moment. The actor in the baklava face cover is stylized like Drake on the cover of the Dark Lanes demo. Where he's also wearing that same baklava mask. So obviously this is a play on Drake sneaking up on Kendrick, the boogeyman, and getting supernaturally pulled back into the darkness because Kendrick is untouchable because the spirit of. Compton is by his side, that he has an entire city, an entire coast, kind of protecting him. Interestingly, the specific Compton hat that dancer is wearing is the one that Eazy-E famously wore throughout his life and Eazy-E of course has passed away but from Compton

Of the supernatural spiritual theme is all right there in the scene. Super clever, very effective, one of my favorite moments in the entire video. So next line, walk him down, whole time, I know he got some hoe in him, pull on him, extort shit, bully death row on him. So this calls back Back to the video. Gun. Offense with this song, dropping it less than 24 hours after his previous diss track in Meet The Grams.

Also in a moment he's going to allude to having five more diss tracks ready in the clip and so Is walking him down with these diss tracks as well. I hear you like I'm young, you better not ever go to cell block one To any bitch that talk to em and they in love Just make sure you hide your little sister from em They tell me Chubb's the only one that get your hand me downs And party after party playing with his nose now And Baka got a weird case why I see a round Certified loverboy, certified pedophiles Wop wop wop wop wop Not fuck em up Wop wop wop wop wop Imma do my stuff Why you trolling like a bitch ain't you tired? Tryna strike a chord And it's probably A minor So verse continues with Kendrick calling Drake out by name in one of the more memorable parts of the song where he says Say Drake, I hear you like I'm young, better not go to cell block one to any bitch

To him and they in love just make sure you hide your little sister from them so pretty obvious what the implication there is here but at this moment exactly when he says say drake i hear you like i'm young you better not ever go to cell block one, we get another all white background scene. And of course it's the jail cell. So this ties into the courthouse kind of trial motif. Kendrick is playing the prisoner that awaits Drake when he gets convicted and goes to... Cell block one and as we know notoriously prisoners treat predators not very kindly So that's the implication there and you've probably seen this online but i'll point it out here kendrick does team push-ups during this section so one he's nodding to push-ups the song the first strike this and seven

Team the age is still a minor right so i think they're kind of playing with this idea that drake doesn't like girls past 17 that would make them legal that would make them adults and of course or he says, hide your little sister from him. Another Easter egg, one of the more clever subtle ones is that during this part, exactly when Kendrick says. Hide your little sister from him. He does this kind of hand movement with like two L's going back and back side to side and this is mimicking... A TikTok that Drake did doing this same kind of hand movement with a 10 like what looks like a 10 year old girl which again within the context of these accusations isn't the greatest look right it could just be a harmless video it probably is but You know Kendrick is using all these little bits and pieces to assemble a case against Drake and having this connection consistently weird relationship with women underage Also, I've seen online people speculating about the photo or the painting in the background

Ground of this scene. There's a painting that's turned backwards that's standing against the wall and the L-Sail. At least in my interpretation there's a few possibilities. I'm not actually sold on either one, but I'll point out both. On push-ups, which of course Kendrick is a little Alluding to by doing pushups in the scene, I know my picture on your wall when you cook up, meaning Drake s like their inspiration. And so by turning the picture or the painting backwards and it's not hanging on the wall, they're disproving that claim. I don't know about that one. Also, the second interpretation that I've seen a lot of people running with online is that on the 4th of July when this video dropped It's the same time that Michael Rubin, I don't even know who this guy is, I guess he's a big celebrity, but he has these famous white parties where just tons and tons of, like, high-profile celebrities. Is go dressed in all white and you see the pictures online and it's you know, the who's who.

Apparently this year the invitations for this party were original one of one paintings by the artist George Kondo. I know him from his work on My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy cover art. And the locations for this year's White Party were these one-of-one paintings by George Condo that were sent to the celebrities. Speculating that Kendrick was sent one of these condo paintings and that by putting it in the scene and turning it backwards that he was not only rejecting the invitation, but also kind of making a mockery of that event, what it means. It's like a who's who in the industry. It's celebrity, it's indulgence, all that, and that was a statement. So I did look into the actual invitations They're much smaller than the painting that's seen in the video not to say that would disprove this theory Also people were pointing out that Kendrick is wearing all white in the video, which they were saying is a nod to this party again

And I don't know how much this party's on Kendrick's radar, if he would be that petty to drop the video specifically during this party, but it does seem like a party that Kendrick would be kind of despise and what it represents, and Drake being there. At the fourth of July party and the video dropping at the same time as the party people are again saying that all this was intentional so if it resonates It does for me but I can see I can see people thinking that but in any case this scene is pretty brilliant you could see a thread now right where Kendrick and day free are looking at these lines and you don't To be too obvious with the interpretations. And so they're finding these really subtle and clever and effective ways that are communicating ideas. Is around the lines and what they mean, but not throwing in your fate. It's like obvious enough where you kind of get it,

Obvious that it doesn't make you think or it doesn't add an extra layer to what's being said or implied in the in the lyrics so We're going to see these kind of vignettes throughout the whole video. It's very clever and it's very much of the film language that Kendrick and Dave Freeh have been developing for the past couple of years. We see these kind of symbolic references throughout all their videos, so it doesn't surprise me that... That we can do. Seen, a jail cell relating to the trial motif is all white. So they're bridging the courtroom, the courthouse, L-Sail, all dominated by white backgrounds. Alright, so the next lyrics kind of go in on the OVO crew. He calls out Chubbs for getting... Drake's hand-me-downs, I think that means he gets some of the women that Drake sleeps with.

Next door who's an ovo artist playing with his nose now meaning he might have a cocaine drug problem. Though, was formerly Drake's bodyguard. And the weird case that's getting referenced here accusation against Baca in 2015 of sex trafficking and forced prostitution. So ultimately he was held in prison or in jail for 10 months he was found guilty of assault the sex trafficking charges were dropped because the woman did not want to testify. So he wasn't technically found guilty of sex trafficking, but it's a weird case.

The next video. Drake, you're kind of sketch. Everyone you run with is kind of sketch as well. By naming all these people in the OVO crew it kind of all builds up into this very very effective punchline of Certified Loverboy, Certified Pedophiles. This was the first time Kendrick really just plainly, plain as day calls Drake and his crew pedophiles. He's calling attention to Baka's weird case he's alluding to Drake's videos with Underage women that have been circulating the internet, his weird friendships with Millie Bobby Brown when she was like 13. There's a very healthy list of underage women that that Drake has associated with or interacted with that just look a certain way, and when taken all together, just look pretty sus. So Kendrick plays this card pretty effectively.

It becomes like a very memorable moment in the song and then he follows it up with like another quotable the wop wop Wop fuck him up. I'm gonna do my stuff like this stretch of the song is absolutely insane because it's building up to the A minor line and it's just quotable after quotable like all These little moments accumulating. this scene in the video is great obviously it's when he's beating up the owl pinata owl is ovio's mascot of course so it's again one of those symbolic moments that we understand in the moment but it's still so Creative and something we would never expect. You hit pinatas at children's birthday parties. So, typically it works.

Perfectly. All right, so then we get probably the most memorable line of the entire song and beef why you troll Like a bitch aren't you tired trying to strike a chord and it's probably a minor I think we all understand this line no the song is not in a minor I originally thought it was I went crazy for like 30 seconds and then I was like oh shit it's B minor but this line has entered the lexicon of pop culture quotables. It reminds me of Forever Ever, Forever Ever, and Miss Jackson, just those lines.

That are going to live forever. I just don't think this is ever going to go away. It's so memorable the way that he holds the note throughout the entire instrumental section after that. It is just perfect. Perfectly executed, clever. But you understand the double entendre there right away So the masses can enjoy it, but it still works on a Technical love, I mean, just everything about it is so well executed. And this part of the song, before the video, was a moment, right? Kendrick and Dayfree understand that. And so there's kind of a lot of pressure of what they're gonna put. During this part and again they nail it because as you know we see Kendrick kind of shuffle dancing across a hopscotch court and hopscotch of course is a game that you play when you're a minor just like the pinata. So just like the line, it's clever, but we understand it in the moment.

Layers and it's just so well executed it's not the obvious move but there's enough information and motivic relation to what's being said that we understand it and it really makes an impact just so well executed And there's actually another layer on top of all this. If you look at Kendrick's outfit. And the way this particular scene was shot, it really resembles, I think it's called the Your Wack meme. If you just Google Your Wack meme, it'll come up. Let's play the audio of it here. middle of the street and he's kind of yelling at no one that you're whacking and kind of going in on this person that may or may not even be there but if you

Way visually that video is shot it's shot from above as if I think someone from like a second level of an apartment building is like zooming in on this person and that's the That they shoot the hopscotch scene from above at a slight angle and also Kendrick is dressed like that guy and so it could just be coincidence But on Euphoria, he also did a similar thing where he says, I hate the way that you walk, the way that you talk, and does that list thing. And that's a callback to a DMX video where DMX was specifically talking about Drake saying, I hate the way that he walks, I hate the way, and saying, I hate everything about him. And this is spiritually akin to this guy in the street saying you're wack i hate the way you the way you dress is wack So it's the same thing, and so that's enough for me to think that the reference is intentional. Dressed like the guys shot at the same angle. And there's another layer if we consider euphoria in the DMX video.

Incredibly clever moment on all fronts. Also we have to talk about Kind of the musical function of this A minor line. So as I mentioned, Kendrick holds... The A minor note across the entire instrumental. This builds tension musically. And we're coming off the wop, wop, wop part, we're coming off the certified pedophile, this whole final. Sequence of the first verse is just quotable after quotable, hit after hit. Then he stretches the A minor part across the instrumental building tension and when the beat kicks back in We're here the chorus for the first time. So just musically, I cannot emphasize enough what the final sequence of lines in that first verse. The tension of the A minor and the memorability of it and the effect of it to follow that up with the chorus for the first time

is a huge reason why this chorus hits as hard as it does the first time you heard it and every time you hear it. Because functionally he has set this up brilliantly and so when we hear they not like us which is incredibly simple but very very effective for a number of reasons. To point out and we'll listen to this section now. Just next time you listen to the full song, just notice that drop and notice while... How everything that builds up to that moment makes the chorus such a moment. The chorus and in the video of course you hear the actual crowd layered on top of the chorus which is really cool. I'm not going to talk about the

course too much right now I'm saving that for the end because it ties into the conclusion of this entire beef I think but one leg I'll point out here is that he had just gone in on OVO, multiple people and their crew and So when we hear they not like us one layer is that OVO is not like PGA. Lang or TDE or the West Coast those guys don't move like we do also just say that four word chorus which is similar to We Gon' Be Alright that turns into this anthem that's so simple but so powerful. Just like a good kind of slow, not to reduce it, but you know, like a slogan. It needs to be perfectly crafted so that it's memorable. Easy to recite, easy to remember. It's something that you can sing along to literally the first time you hear the song. So just technically very well crafted.

And of course, we get the visual during this moment where the MLK statue in front of the courthouse is now just totally filled. The entire frame is just filled with Compton natives. Kendrick is in there if you look closely he's one of them but that's the point he's just one Million right like he's I am I am all of us this is the larger entity the larger culture that I am simply a mouthpiece for again we'll talk more

but let's get into the second verse. You think the bagel let you disrespect pop nigga? I think that open show go B.O. let's stop nigga Dic ho foul, I don't know why you still pretending What is the out? Bird niggas and bird bitches go The hardy end's not dumb Shape the stories how you want Hey Drake they're not slow Rabbit hole is still deep I can go further I promise ain't that something? P.R.A.T. stands for bitch and you Malibu most wanted Ain't no love boy you ball boy fesh get a raid or something Since 2009 I had this bitch jumping You niggas will get a wedgie Be flipped over yo boxes or over yo foe The other vaginal option? Pussy Niggas better straighten they posture Got famous all up in contact Might write this with a doctor Tell a pop star quit hiding Fuck a caption, won't action No accident, I'm a hands on He fuck around get polished Kicks it off with the Tupac reference Calling Drake out for imitating POC on TaylorMade and saying the Bay Area is not going to let you slide to POC of course was born in Oakland and that's why he calls it the Bay Area. Oakland by name in the next line. I think that Oakland show can be your last stop. And during this part visually we see DJ Mustard and Kendrick in a Ferrari.

Is kind of odd if you've been following Kendrick his entire career. He doesn't usually do this. Of flashy materialism thing, but and you also think of the pop-out show where he was wearing those huge necklaces made of diamonds which For me at least was very shocking to see Kendrick. He doesn't really do that or hasn't done that historically in his career but I think it's working for him now and I think because of Mr. Morale. So on Mr. Morale, the first track and throughout the album, he talks about how he Bought jewelry, cars, infinity pools, kind of behind the scenes. He wasn't one to flaunt them, but he was indulging in materialism, which historically he's been kind of again. And that was kind of one of the revelations of kind of the hypocrisy where he was sleeping with women.

And indulging in materialism, but kind of had this image of... The role model that was engaged and maybe we assume faithful and that didn't indulge in materialism and yet behind The scenes he was living this second life that he reveals on Mr. Morale and this is just. Me speculating, but he's driving a Ferrari in the video, he's wearing his chains for everyone to see at the pop out show. And maybe this is him being a little bit more comfortable in that indulgence, like accepting that part of himself. That does genuinely like jewelry or nice cars. But a lot of pressure on himself to present himself in a certain way, where now maybe we're seeing some sides of him that he wasn't comfortable always expressing. Too much into it but it was weird seeing Kendrick driving a Ferrari. I don't think I've ever really seen that in a Kendrick video and maybe this is

And popping out and showing us. But color scheme consistent here. Go watch that scene of the car. It's a bling. In the next video. This red white blue thing again. They go to Tams, which is a burger joint in Compton that Kentrick has talked about on multiple songs and grew up eating at. The exterior paint red. There's a blue sign. The inside of Tam's is red, white, and blue. Go look at those scenes. The red, white, and blue thing is very consistent throughout the whole thing. Lyrically he says, Did Cole foul? I don't know why you're still pretending. What is the owl? Bird n-words and bird bitches. This is sneakily clever, so let's dissect the layers here. Thanks for watching!

Theory would be that first person shooter was originally supposed to be all three, Drake, Kendrick, Cole on the same track. Kendrick rejected the feature request. Cole and Drake did the song anyways. Apparently, this is rumor speculation. I think DJ Akademiks is the one that brought this up, who obviously can't be trusted always, but -- But with Drake information, he does seem to be somewhat reliable with these kind of details. And this is not a pro Drake stance. So I think academics was being unfair and revealing this information if it's true. But the information is that J. Cole recorded his verse thinking Kendrick was going to be on the Track. And if you listen to it with that in mind, it does make sense, the way that he's talking about all three of them. But Drake's verse has a ken-joey. Kendrick dissing it, which we had assumed that he wrote after Kendrick declined the feature request, declined to be on the song. And so doing Cole Fowl is like

Putting Cole's verse on there where Cole thought it was the celebration and Drake kind of used the song for his own agenda to take another sneak diss at Kendrick on the song that was so To be a celebration of the three conceptually. So that might be some of it, I'm not exactly sure, sure, but he did do coal. File on pushups and family matters. On pushups he said I don't care what Cole thinks, that dot shit was weak as fuck. Family Matters he said, Cole losing sleep on this, it ain't me. So not quite being as loyal to Cole. Whole and this whole thing that you would think since they did this song together, since they went on tour together and did this kind of public team up. From Kendrick's view, it's probably The next video.

Look a certain way to get another high profile hot name on his side and then after the fact when Cole backs out he's still taking these little jabs at him and not being loyal to Cole in the way that maybe he should have but foul did Cole foul so this is a homophone foul f-o-u-l but also foul f-o-u-l WL which is a bird. I have the definition here it's essentially a bird like a duck or goose or turkey or pheasant a bird that's used as food or hunted as game. And so this is setting up what is the owl. So fowl rhymes with owl of course but also means bird and then he says bird n-words and bird Bitches so clever wordplay there and the bird has layers to bird of course owl But also bird man who was the?

owner of Cash Money, Young Money, which was Lil Wayne's label, was a subsidiary of Cash Birdman and Wayne famously had beef that had to do with shady business. This video. For it. This person that was signed to this person that was signed to that person and euphoria where he was saying, you're assigned to Wayne who was assigned to cash money who was assigned to Universal, and that your splits aren't looking at Good or in the past either so why you calling me out on my old deal as well

This illuminates another detail. So in the video, if you watch the closed captions in the video, it doesn't say bird bitches, it says burnt bitches. And bitches is a homophone with bridges. Burnt bridges. Makes sense. What is OVIA? Well, in part, relationships. He's going to show TDE on screen to say that although I might have parted ways with TDE, there's no beef, we're still good. Burn bridges they didn't either it was simply what was best for me financially going forward and my kind of independence As an artist. Gets paid off and the next line he says go and then he says the audience not dumb so he's playing with the very well-known Bay Area

Slang go dumb. Within the Tupac reference, the Oakland shoutout, the West Coast thing is consistent throughout this entire song. It's consistent in the flows that he uses, the beat that he's using. It's in the video, like West Coast, just runs throughout this entire thing. In the full line, the audience not dumb, shape the stories how you want, hey Drake, they're not slow. So this is Kendrick's way to rebut all the things that Drake is saying. About Kendrick and just keeps it moving, right? Drake makes a whole song, Heart Part 6, that essentially is a PR statement that denies. Everything that Kendrick was saying about him. Kendrick does a similar thing here, but he accomplishes that in a similar way. In one line. And he does so very cleverly because he compliments the audience.

Audience our intelligence and it just assumes and makes the assumption that we're going to see through it. Again, kind of complimenting us. And not spending too much time on it and just keeps it moving, I think it's very effective. because in a... Rap battle, we don't really want a PR statement. Like we don't need them to be denying these. At least I don't like, I'm kind of. Just say I'm I'm with the feeling that this is all in the spirit of a beef that hip-hop is built on exaggeration a lot of the time and that in a battle you're just going to use all the angles that you can and if they stick they stick but I hope None of this is true, I hope it's all exaggeration, in the spirit of the battle. And so to do what Drake did on Heart Part 6, to make it that serious the next one.

All understand the conditions and the terms of these kind of things and I just liked how Kendrick handled it it's like you call me a wife beater Drake They're not buying this. There's no evidence. Keep it moving. In the next video. Obviously alluding that he knows even more about Drake. He can keep this battle going if he wants to, if Drake chooses to go that route. B-rad was a character in the movie Malibu's Most Wanted and that character named Brad Gluckman attempts to emulate Black culture by becoming a rapper named B-Rad. Also, we get the most wanted which is of course relates to criminals trials predators any false

it up by saying ain't no law boy so we get the motif there, the most wanted, the law, clever stuff. Love the next line you a ballboy fetch Gatorade or something it's such a great line said with such a great flow the tone of his voice is perfect, kind of just like tossing him away. I don't know, the dynamic of calling Drake a ball. Boy and tell him to get Gatorade is just so perfect you can't hang with the big boys you're not on the court you're not actually playing He follows by saying since 2009 I had this bitch jump in you n-words or get a wedgie be flipped over your boxers What's ovo for the other vaginal option and then he says but says pussy so fine So 2009, interesting year to cite because that's the year that K. Dot, which was his kind of high school rap name... Becomes Kendrick Lamar he releases his first self-titled EP the Kendrick Lamar EP the next one. So he's calling back to that moment. The wedgie is so funny to me.

Calling back to the Deebo bully thing from the beginning of the song but I saw this really funny theory online where I'm not saying I believe this, but I have to bring it up 'cause it's pretty funny. OVO, if you look at the letters OVO, people were. Comparing that the shapes of those letters together to an actual wedgie so think about Someone getting a wedgie, the two butt cheeks on either side and then the underwear pulled up tight above the pants forms a V shape so you have a butt cheek V and a butt cheek O V O which I don't know. It's pretty funny. And then he continues by kind of ramping up the aggression. And the tempo and the speed of the flow where he says, Better straighten your posture, get famous all.

Compton, importantly, says might write this for the docket, again tying into this courtroom vocabulary motif that runs throughout the song and is accentuated in the video. Break down lyrically for this kind of four or five line sequence, but the flow is just so great and really works. But let's Fuck no Wayne, girl, like he was in jail, that's conniving Then get his face tatted like a bitch apologizing I'm glad these roads came home, y'all didn't deserve 'em either From Alonja down to Central, nigga, better not speak on Serena And your homeboy needs a peanut, that president moving flocks That name gotta be registered, then paste on neighborhood watch I lean on you niggas like another line of WOC Yeah, it's all eyes on me and I'ma send it up the park, ayy Put the road label on me, I'ma get 'em dropped, ayy Sweet chin music and I won't pass the ox, ayy How many stocks do I really have in stock, ayy One, two, three, four, five, plus five, ayy Devil is a lie, here's 69 God, ayy Freaky ass niggas need to stay the ass inside, ayy Roll they asses up like a fresh pack of Zon, ayy City is back up, it's a must, we outside, ayy

Andrew continues the verse calling out Drake for having sex with Lil Wayne's girl while Lil Wayne was locked up in prison I think 2009. Your story. Lil Wayne admitted it in an interview some years later. You can find that clip online. Get us Space-tatted like a bitch apologized and refers to the fact that Drake has Lil Wayne's face tatted on his bicep or... Somewhere on his body. And I'm not sure if it was an apology tattoo. I haven't I couldn't Anything about that but obviously that's what Kendrick is implying but I think Kendrick calling this out specifically is just another example of Drake disrespecting an elder statesman of hip-hop. Not only is Lil Wayne one of the greatest rappers ever and should be respected as such, a la Pharrell. Allah kaman, who we're going to talk about in a second. Lil Wayne was also the guy

that signed Drake to his label and gave him that cosign early in his career that really helped Drake. To then go and sleep with his girl while he was in prison. Just another example of Drake not really. Really understanding how to treat his elder statesman as with reverence and respect. Glad D-Rose came home, y'all didn't deserve him neither. Talking about Damar DeRozan coming home from playing for Toronto Raptors, back to America, Chicago, and now Sacramento, which is the West Coast. And then he says from Alondra down to Central better not speak on Serena so this is sneakily clever because Is he's talking about Serena Williams, the goat of women's tennis, and she's from Compton. So obviously has a... Connection there but but Alondra and Central Avenue are two streets in Compton and they intersect

To trague a new park I don't know if I'm saying that right but this park at the Alondra and Central Avenue is where Venus and Serena Williams played tennis in their youth in Compton. Extremely clever wordplay there. But also… Kendrick is bringing up Lil Wayne and right after he's bringing up Serena Williams who famously is married to Common another hip-hop legend can comment have had beef and have exchanged disses because apparently I don't I don't understand the full timeline I didn't go down the rabbit hole but apparently Serena Williams And common were dating they took a break or something and serena williams and drake dated in that time i guess drake left her and then in common and her got married. Hopefully I have this right. I don't. This is the kind of stuff I don't actually care about.

But again, following the Lil Wayne reference, he's then following it up with another disrespect to another hip-hop legend, just building the case that Drake just does not know how to respect his... Hip hop elders. Next we get your homeboy needs a peanut, that predator moves in flocks, that name gotta be registered and placed on neighborhood watch. Again, this is calling out Baca's case of human trafficking. This is where I'll bring up the visuals for this part. So it's another all-white background shot this time an exterior shot that the entire frame is engulfed in an all-white shipping containers. And we see Kendrick and some dancers, one from Sacramento, in front of these shipping containers. And pretty quickly, people online picked up the fact that shipping containers have been known to be used for human trafficking. Apparently there is an episode of The Wire in which shipping containers were used for human trafficking. And so we have Kendrick.

In this scene talking about your homeboy needs a peanut meaning Baca calling him predator and that his name needs to be registered because he's a sex offender and placed on neighborhood watch During this scene showing shipping containers and creating the through line with the trial narrative with the all white background and what the really sells me on this theory being true is look at the way Kendrick is dressed in this scene. Specifically he's dressed in a suit, which is the only time he's wearing a suit in the video and I think following this trial thread, I think he's dressed like an attorney presenting evidence in the form of these shipping containers. So it's pretty cool and to me the selling point is that this scene occurs exactly when he says subpoena, predator. Also another clever detail in this scene. We also see Dave free and he's dressed in a plain-sleeved

Tank top and we have a few quick shots of them together. Kendrick in a suit, day free in a tank top and it res- examples of Metro Boomin and Futures We Don't Trust You. It's pretty similar, I think it might be a play on that. Of course, that's the album that Like That is on and what kicked off this whole thing. All right, then Kendrick continues really ramping up the energy I lean on you n-words like another line of walk Another line with great wordplay lean of course is a drug made up cough syrup And the most commonly used brand of cough syrup is WokArt which is why he says another line of Wok That's why Lil Yachty has the line I took the walk to Poland But another line refers to the fact that on cough syrup

Bottles. You know, you measure a dose of cough syrup with a little plastic see-through cap that has lines that indicate the volume. So another line of walk like more walk. So clever there. Then he shouts out to Pac again, It's all eyes on me, referring to Pac's album, double album, I'ma send it up to Pac, pay me. Tribute to his legend, put the wrong label on me I'm gonna get him dropped, sweet chin music and I won't pass the ox. More clever wordplay here. Sweet Chin Music is the finishing move of the wrestler Shawn Michaels from the WWF. And the move is a high kick to the chin while the opponent is standing and then they drop to the ground and he pins them so i'm gonna get him dropped sweet chin music i won't pass the ox obviously he's now playing off of these diss tracks doing damage to drake

Stop and this leads into the line how many stocks do i really got in stock one two three four five plus five alluding to the that he has 10 diss tracks ready to go or five more diss tracks after this one which by all accounts the Whistlehead That you hear around this beef was true and I believe Kendrick when he says that he seems like he was very well prepared going into this thing and of course the rabbit hole goes deep I can go further I promise right he's got more on Drake if he wants to keep going But there's more because this is a numbers bar and you know how Kendrick loves numbers bars and you know how I like to dissect them. So 10 total diss tracks and he says stocks instead of songs. I don't know

why he would do that but let's think about the other time he said stock in this song John Stockton right there's ten stocks stock ten right John Stockton reach Maybe. Probably. But still fun. Also, the next line, Devil is a lie, he a 69 god. On the previous line, we had one, two, three, four, five, and now he has six or 69 God. This is, of course, a play on Drake calling himself the sixth God. In a battle-style way. Also, devil is a lie. It's a common saying that implies another person is attempting to be deceitful or that a person is trying to be deceitful. Situation is not as it appears. This of course ties directly into Kendrick's claim that Drake is a liar. Also the devil's number is 666 so we get the six wordplay not only from the one two three four five now six we have six six six and

lied and the devil is a lie, and then 6-9 God. Thing small details like this just prove he's a master lyricist even in lines that you don't think much is going on stuff is going on so then he ends the verse freaky ass n-words need to Stay the ass inside. We'll talk more about that later when it becomes a refrain, but then in contrast that with cities back up, it's a must we outside So again, a direct comparison OVO Drake, they need to stay inside their predators. Meanwhile, we're outside and we're showing you we're outside. Literally in the video, we see them all outside during this line. They're united, ready for action. And Kendrick is putting that on display for the world. So after this verse we see one of the more mysterious, I guess, images.

The video which is the dancer on the tightrope. So to jog your memory we see just a clear blue sky with some dotted clouds, a tightrope running fully across the screen, and one of the crumpers or t-squad members that... Advancing across it. It's a great image. I've kind of confused on its meaning or not, maybe as confident as I am about some other of my analysis in this episode. Some have compared Blue sky background to Drake's album cover, Nothing Was The Same, and just kind of using that as... An aesthetic callback to that album. If you want to look maybe a little too deep into that, you could say nothing was the same after this beef. I don't know. There is an idiom walking a tightrope which is meant to imply someone being in a situation in which small wrong move will lead to their downfall which again you could apply to Drake.

Those are the only two interpretations that I could think of again. I'm not that confident if you have an idea Let me know but what is cool? about this scene is that directly after the tightrope scene, or what appears to be a tightrope, we Then transitioned into an exterior shot of the Nickerson Garden projects in Compton and behind them you see telephone wires. So I think it's implied that the dancer was not on a tightrope but on a telephone wire, hence the sky background. So Nickerson Garden Projects is famously where Top Dog grew up. Kendrick tells that story on Duckworth at the end of Dam. But Top Dog, the owner and the founder of TDE, the one that discovered Kendrick Lamar. This is where he grew up. It's also where TD hosts their annual toy drive and in front Projects we see not only top dog we see punch we see j-rock school by cue

Absol, kind of the founding members of TDE, and all the while we hear They Not Like Us, the chorus during this scene. So not only is Kendrick showcasing them as pillars of LA culture. I think he's also implying that him and TDE are clearly still cool even after Kendrick left the label to start his own label because Push-Ups, Drake's first diss, a lot of that song, was claiming that Kendrick was getting By Top Dog and him leaving the label was implying that there was some friction there but clearly not the case All right, so let's move into the third and final verse, which I'll say up front I think is the most important verse.

Within the trial narrative theory that I'm proposing in this episode. So the third verse is just incredibly impressive. Just from uh the craft of it. It's essentially one big setup for the final punch line. And it's just so well written in terms of just the structure of it. So importantly, during this verse we return to the courtroom for the first time. Time in a long while.

This for me is where the courtroom theory really proves itself. Because within the context of this theory, This third verse reads or is presented like a court docket. To the next. Us the hard evidence to convict Drake as a colonizer, as an exploiter. Bringing this specific verse back to the courtroom for the entire thing to me feels very relevant very purposeful so we see this back and forth between two groups on either side of Kendrick the T squad doing their interpretive dancing kind of choreographing this verse So recently within the last couple days, Complex actually interviewed the choreographer

I'm not a big fan of the show. The symbolic representation of them. She didn't give any, so she was pretty blatant about these dance moves just kind of coming from what she felt. When hearing the song and that they were open to interpretation and the interviewer seemed to be pushing on specific things and trying to get her to explain specific moves and she kind of kept saying they were open for an interview Interpretation and they were more about feeling than creating some kind of code and message with them. One thing that she did say however and she was really loose with it in terms of like this is what i feel but it's not necessarily the answer quote unquote That when they were laying on the ground during the line Atlanta was the mecca building railroads and trains that them on the ground symbolized the railroad. Again even when they were laying

When she said that, she said, That's what it is for me personally. So all that to say, I'm not going to try to break down every single dance move we see during this scene. Important narratively within the context of the video is that we are again back in the courtroom for the entire thing and that the verse reads within this context like a court docket like a detailed explanation evidence case by case and it ends with a conviction. Alright, so Kendrick sets up this verse pretty masterfully He says once upon a time all of us was in chains homie still doubled down calling us some slaves So this is in reference to Think a couple of lines, the most recent of which was in Family Matters, which had released just 24 hours prior, where Drake said Kendrick always rapping like you about to get the slaves free you just acting like an activist it's make-believe so this

Rubbed some people the wrong way because if you think about what he's saying in this line, if Kendrick is rapping today about black issues and trying to make things better for his community, then essentially Drake is calling those people slaves. Currently. That's at least what my interpretation of Kendrick's rebuttal here is implying, right? Also on Drake's most recent album on For All The Dogs on the song Slime You Out he said Whipped and chained you like American slaves. And I guess he's trying to be provocative there, but specifically saying American slaves is just all kind of in bad taste. And I think Kendrick is specific. Calling attention to these kind of lines to just again show Drake's lack of understanding of the history the genre of the country and him just kind of getting too comfortable and forgetting where he comes from what his background is and how certain lines like this would resonate with someone like Kendrick and

He represents. I some of the ways Drake has kind of colonized black American culture. So he hones in on Atlanta calls at the Mecca points out that it was building. Roads and trains back in the day, that settlers were using folks from Atlanta to make them richer, and then says fast forward 2024, you got the same agenda. So obviously Kendrick here is claiming that Drake looks at a city like Atlanta with this incredible history of transforming the world. Itself from a major part of the slave trade into kind of this vibrant black owned black built city, which there are tons of black-owned businesses, black government officials. Looks at it as something he can harvest, something he can personally benefit from by associating himself with musicians from Atlanta. And so this leads into.

Kendrick going line by line, artist by artist from Atlanta that Drake has worked with, citing what he gained from that specific artist and the way in which Drake was attempting to gain. Credibility for himself by associating with these Atlanta artists. And the list to me is incredibly effective just from a structural kind of lyrical point of view because it's... Building this entire verse is building and building and building the way that he sets it up at the beginning and he keeps coming back to it let me break it down for you bear with me for a second Let me put y'all on game kind of setting up this long play and getting into this very specific list this docket this evidence all kind of building this entire verse from line one building to the final punchline you run to Atlanta when you need a few dollars you're not a colleague you're a fucking colonizer and to me The trial narrative this is the final punchline it's the lawyers close

in the next video. Told you exactly why. And I think it's worth pointing out that Kendrick specifically uses Atlanta because it is in America and it ties into this larger case he's presenting against Drake of exploiting black American culture specifically, but He could have used the UK here, you know Drake trying on the British accent with when drill music started Popping off over there. The Caribbean or the Jamaican accents that Drake has tried on, Spanish accents, you know.

All these various cultures that Drake has tried on in one way or the other in his music. Or even in his like social media videos he'll be talking like in the jamaican accent it's a it all kind of paints this picture of like i think kendrick is asking throughout this beef like who are you drake really at your core who are you are you? Because your public persona and your music seems to kind of sway with the breeze. Is a kind of an amalgamation of whatever's trending at the moment. Kendrick, on the other hand, is Compton through and through. He's West Coast. Showing that in the video and the song. He is purebred and he's from a place with a rich history within hip-hop within this culture. Meanwhile Drake, I don't know who you are, I don't think you know who you are, and again you pretend to be of a certain culture, but I'm telling you, you are not.

Like me or not like us. And so that's why I think the colonizer colleague line is so clever, so effective within this beef, with everything that came before it in Euphoria 616, meet the Grahams. Has been elaborating on certain points throughout this entire beef. And I feel like it all comes to. Ahead in this final line of the third verse. But then right after we get another incredibly the family matter and the truth of the matter it was God's plan to show you all the liar so a lot here most of me Of course he's addressing family matters directly which dropped just 24 hours before Not Like Us dropped so He at least recorded this line within that 24 hour span. I don't know how much of the song was pre-recorded. Definitely this third verse, which is I think the most impressive verse, was recorded the day after Family Matters.

The day that he released this song. I think he recorded it that day because it's entirely built off of what Drake's. That in-family matters about rapping like you're trying to get the slaves free. So, I mean, we need a documentary on all this at some point. We need to know when these songs were written, 'cause if you wrote the entirety of Not Like Us, which I just can't fathom. To be true but maybe it is. If he wrote the entire thing after Family Matters dropped and then dropped it the same day, I mean Jesus, I just can't see how that's possible but you never know. know. Line he also says God's plan which is of course one of Drake's biggest songs of all time it also a very famous music video where Drake is seen kind of giving money to people and doing these humanitarian acts. That plays into like show y'all the liar it's like drake is not who he is purporting himself to be his image is false it's it's manicured

for him to look a certain way and throughout this beef I'm exposing the fallacy of his image this has been one of Kendrick central points from the very beginning of Euphoria. Master manipulator and habitual liar too. Also, I think of the reverse to sample. Coming from Oz about the Oz in that movie being uncovered as a phony and a fraud, one exposing the world of Drake's false image. And then of course we get the visual paired with this line which is just chef's kiss in terms of strategy. We see Whitney and Kendrick's two children kind of posing for a portrait within a living room. And of course, when a Drake's. Major claims throughout this beef was that Kendrick beat his wife and that he doesn't actually see his kids and that Dave Free is the actual father of one of these children.

So we get the family matter and the truth of the matter and so we get family and truth in the same line and then by proxy we see the family and kendrick is saying this is the truth of the matter. I am with my kids, I am with Whitney. Whitney in this scene is wearing a white tank top and aka a wife beater so that's what I'm talking about. That's definitely intentional. And essentially without saying a word, Kendrick is disproving. Essentially all the major claims in Drake's diss tracks with one image. And then we hear the bridge and Whitney starts dancing so let's hear the bridge and we'll talk about it because it gets even deeper than this. All right so let's take it back to he a fan he a fan he a fan.

We see Whitney get her moment in this beef. She's dancing in the living room having a good old time with her kids and with Kendra Whitney by the way if you don't know is from Compton her and Kendrick met I think in high school there's definitely photos of them together when they were very young. I think they were on again off again type of thing. The public at least is blurry they don't really share that kind of information but they've known and been together for a long time so seeing her get dragged in a this beef but then kind of getting the final word it's kind of a beautiful moment right but there's some layers within this scene so andre Tardo on Twitter pointed out that the black and white living room set that is seen in the this video is possibly and probably most likely based on a photo from Latoya Ruby. Frazier, who is a black photographer from, I think, Chicago or Pennsylvania, somewhere on the East Coast.

She's a pretty well-known photographer, and Kendrick and Dayfree are definitely known for referencing photography in their work, most famously probably on Element. There's a photo by Frazier in a series called Flint is Family in Three Acts and the living room and the and the framing of the photo look very very very similar to what we see in the scene in the Not Like Us video so that The layer to this scene some history behind it frazier i guess i haven't done a full deep dive to her work. I just didn't have time to do that. But apparently she explores subjects like the notion of family and This photo comes from a series called Flint is Family so it seems intentional especially literally where we hear Kendrick say the family matter so adds a layer to the scene. Thought it was interesting and I didn't notice this until just like a day ago in the original.

In the original photo there is not a fan on the ceiling, but in the video there is very clearly a fan On the ceiling and spinning at full blast exactly when we hear he's a fan he's a fan he's a fan so we see Whitney and then Kendrick and Whitney dancing beneath a fan while we hear that line It's very subtle because you're so focused on Whitney at this moment and rightfully so but it's just one of the details I was like, Ah, of course they kind of snuck it in there. It's not going to be obvious, but it's there just another... Easter egg in a video that has tons of them so next time you watch the video look for that but let's talk about the notion of a fan, right? So obviously he's calling Drake a fan. He's a fan of the A part of it tying into this whole not like us theme. Also being a fan has been a slight motif throughout this entire battle.

Don't trust you future has a line saying you n-word number one fan dogs so he's calling out the fact that Drake is a huge fan of future and even And family matters. Drake never really disses Future, he just says he's kind of bummed out. Out that they had a falling out, but also Drake on pushups before Family Matters said, I could never be nobody's number one fan, as a direct response to Future's line. So Kendrick's giving his take on the fan thing. And calling Drake a fan, not of just future, but the entire culture, but it also is an acronym, F-A-N, and then we get the freaky-ass N-word, 69 gods. So F-A-N freaky ass n-word. Super clever, works on multiple levels of course. The 69 God we already talked about is a flip of the 6th God. 69, of course, is the 6th God. Sexual position, but also people have proposed that he's saying 69 to nod to. Tekashi69, who is a controversial rapper.

An online kind of character who pled guilty to a felony level minor related sex crime, which took place in 2015. That that's intentional, there is a very direct link to all these claims of being a predator. Alright, so then we get the hey hey hey hey run for your life. This one is pretty interesting Run For Your Life to me ties directly into this trial narrative or vocabulary after the conviction. So after the conviction. And drake is on the run he's a criminal on the run i also think it calls back to what kendrick said in meet the grams curry keelan The family away. LeBron keep the family away. So he's talking to kind of us, the audience. Everyone should be running from Drake and his circle. These guys are bad dudes. Don't be around them, don't take your kids around them, etc. So I'm a proposed, I'm not sure I'm kind of on the fence about this, but the, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey.

People are saying is Kendrick mimicking Bill Cosby's fat Albert character. Who is known for the catchphrase, Hey, Hey, Hey. And of course, Bill Cosby very infamously now has done some very. Horrendous things, raping, drugging women, just gross stuff. So if you buy that it's intentional, just like the 6ix9ine, Takashi 6ix9ine, there is a link directly to that in terms of the price. And then at the end of the song, Kendrick just, I feel like just starts having fun. We get the, let me hear you say, O V ho, the step of this way. This way, making this a dance song, making this an anthem, very intentionally putting the sing-song call and response type things into this song. It's super clever strategically, right? I mean these are kind of corny bars. I think Kendrick understands that, but at this point in the song the case... Has been made and again it is kind of fun and infectious and undeniably catchy or you like.

You can't resist the urge of yelling back OVO and then dancing when you hear a step this way, step that way. He understands the power of music. That's why he has centered the music in this beef. He understands that IG... Captions photos anything you say online you can say the same thing online through a photo or tweet but it's going to be way more impactful in a song and in a video form. And he understands that to the fullest. And he definitely knew this song was going to be a hit. By the time they filmed the video, they already knew it was a hit, but I mean it was very clear the moment it dropped that this was going to be a hit. I don't know if anyone really predicted how big of a hit it's. Still number one to this day as we're recording this. So by including these kinds of sing-song call and response things, he's getting the whole world on his side because the whole world is now chanting, OVO and saying all these things, demeaning.

Drake just super clever strategically right and then in the video during this section we see just a sequence of a bunch of the shots filmed in Compton all the LA natives in the scene and so they become part of this Call and response. We see a bunch of cameos. We see YG, Thundercat, Steve Lacy, Big Hit, which is Hit Boy's father and rapper. We see problems. Just a bunch of I think Sizzas in there just a bunch of cameos all of them being LA based artists We also get the scene in the courtroom of just Kendrick alone in the room waving

and smiling to the camera directly. One of the few times he actually looks into the camera. It's a very memorable moment because it contrasts so much of his persona in this thing, which we'll talk about in a second, which is very nonchalant. Taunting Drake of course but also when they filmed this video they knew the song was a hit they knew Had won the battle so i think it's just kind of waving goodbye it's a celebration of the conviction because without Not Like Us, Kendrick's victory wouldn't be so unanimous, right? Everything that we got up until Not Like Us, I think Kendrick still... Thought Kendrick was in the lead, but it wasn't like a huge margin, right? And not like us was it It's a true nail in the coffin. I think anyone but Drake stans understand that Kendrick Unanimously won this battle and that's why the penultimate image of the video

that they knew Kendrick had won the battle while filming the video and conceptualizing it. Fades out and while it fades out we see the owl in the cage So let's talk about it on a surface level then go into detail. Most obviously the OVO logo is an owl. That's Drake's kind of mascot. And so Drake is not killed but tamed. He's put in his place through this battle and Kendrick is the one to put him there. I think from the trial narrative perspective, again, I think this is what cements it for me in a lot of ways is that After being convicted, guilty as charged, we see the owl behind bars, literally locked up, right, in cell block one, symbolically. luckily.

Or not. Moment of the owl behind bars. Interestingly though, this scene is not in all white, but it's the opposite, it's all black. Is wearing a solid white shirt. So in my mind, the solid white is still there. The symbol of the pure culture Still there and that's who put Drake in his place. The culture checked him. Doesn't kill him but check but there's more layers and they all tie all these various threads that we've been talking about throughout this song Video. An owl is a predator. So the owl in the cage literally works. On that as well. It's a predator put behind bars. Also people online had pointed out, I think rightfully so, that a caged bird, all a caged bird can do is sing.

So that directly ties into a line on Euphoria where Kendrick says I like Drake with the melody. I don't like Drake when he act tough. So again, don't pretend to be someone you're not, don't imitate a culture, just be who you are. Are there's no problem with you making pop songs I don't have a problem with that I only have problem when you're imitating culture and then acting like you own it. So Owl in a Cage works on that level as well. We should also talk about the These various shots during this scene. So it starts with the owl's point of view. So we see the owl from behind and we see Kendrick kind of looking at the owl like menacingly kind of. Sure what he's gonna do to the owl. Is he gonna kill it? Gonna strangle it, throw it across the room. But importantly, from this first vantage point, we do not see a cage. It's only on the second shot where we get Kendrick's point of view, or at least the back of Kendrick looking at the cage or at the owl. We see the cage and then Kendrick walks away.

When we see the owl fully behind bars. So it's interesting the contrast between... Perspectives and this is something I read online. So I'm not taking credit for this interpretation, but I do think it is a thing So from Drake's perspective from the Alice perspective no cage and he's staring at Ken And that's them going one-on-one in this beef but then when we get Kendrick's perspective we see the cage and that Drake was locked up this entire time he just didn't know it and it's only after Kendrick revealed to him and the world that this owl, this artist, is limited and he can't move freely within this culture. And someone like Kendrick wearing the pure white shirt symbolic of pure culture is the one to put him in his place. So again, from the owl's point of view, the owl could have attacked Kendrick because there was no cage there, but it was revealed in the second shot that

Kendrick has been protected this entire time. This ties back to the other all-black scene in this video where Kendrick is standing... With the spirit of Compton dancing next to him, the Drake character sneaks up on him and is pulled back into the darkness supernaturally because Kendrick is protected, just like the cage, right? The owl can't get to -- Kendrick because there's a separation there. They not like us. I'm protected by the culture because I am one. With it, right? So this last scene is just brilliant. On multiple levels, the meaning is there, but importantly, I think the impact. We all understood the impact of and felt the impact of that final image when we first saw the video. To contrast with what Drake tried to do in his video where he was smashing the Good Kid Mad City van which is a symbol of Kendrick and

I think in the moment it was clever, you know, in terms of the battle, in terms of strategy. Like oh did he actually get the real van no it wasn't the real van but doesn't matter I do think it was clever to do that but I think the impact of that shot Him smashing the van. No one talks about that now because if he had won the battle like Kendrick and then he had shown that image it would have been a hundred thousand times more impactful but he didn't earn the impact of that crushing the van shot Thought by crushing the van that would help him to be victorious, but he didn't earned the symbolism of crushing the van. Kendrick earned the symbol of putting the owl in the cage.

It was already understood that Kendrick had won. And so all that meaning, all that history is imbued in that symbol. And so it's just, to me, it's just the difference between these two artists and how they operate and how they work with art. Symbolism like this. Kendrick is a master of symbolism, we know this. He understands it completely. For Drake, we know that's not his thing. Thing. So we should compare the video of Family Matters to the video of Not Like Us because that's the direct comparison point within the... Battle in terms of medium. And so that to me was something I thought a lot about, just that difference between the symbol of...

Of crushing the van and its lack of lasting impact compared to the impact, I think, the world felt when they saw this final shot of the owl in the cage. Interesting case study and symbolism and why it works and why it doesn't work and why we feel just on an intuitive level, the impact of these images because they are imbued with history and you kind of have to earn The symbolism behind it. You can't just offer it up and expect it to be impactful and for people to feel it on an intuitive level. And again, Kendrick is the master of this and this penultimate image and day free of course is really just the icing on the cake of this entire thing. Thing. But, importantly, even though the song ends with the owl in the cage, the video does not. And so this is going to bring the episode full circle and back to what I was saying, why I think Kendrick engaged in this beef. It has to do with this final show.

Out. And very importantly, chose to end it with the aerial shot of the MLK statue just filled with Compton. Natives, LA natives. We don't really see Kendrick. He's in the crowd and they kind of zoom in on him but not really because that's the point. Kendrick is just... One lost among this crowd that is representing not only the union of Compton, not only the union of Pirus and Crips. Not just the union of the west coast but the union of the culture we see kind of the living breathing entity of the culture In this mass of people, right? And Kendrick is not singled out. He's just one among the masses. He's just one part of this larger thing.

And I think this final shot is so important and emphasizes to me the entire point of the entire battle. Op-out show and now after the video Kendrick has made a very specific calculated effort to decenter Drake in this battle and recenter the focus on the West Coast. On LA on Compton. You saw that at the end of the pop-out show and that now iconic photograph of everyone on stage together in Union and and you see it also throughout this entire video. And so we have to start thinking about -- Drake as a symbol, and Kendrick as a symbol, representing larger ideas. My opinion, or at least my interpretation, I think Kendrick is using Drake as a symbol of hip-hop's exponential growth over the past couple of decades.

And the ways in which with that growth of popularity the ways in which hip-hop has been de-centered from its roots. From the places and the people who created the genre and the culture that created the genre. Hip-hop has become so big that you have a lot of voices, you have a lot of outside voices. Commenting on the genre, curating the genre, controlling the narrative of the genre to some extent. And a lot of them are outsiders and I'm 100% including me in this conversation. Drake the symbol of the outsider in Kendrick's view and of course I'm speculating here this is my own theory let me be clear on that but I think Drake becomes that symbol because of specifically the way he has moved within the space, which we've talked about now at length.

And all the ways that Kendrick has called out what he thinks is improperly moving within the culture. And the ways in which he has abused and exploited the culture to his own advantage. And you can extrapolate that central idea to a lot of the outsiders now involved in the hip-hop space and I think checking Drake By extension, symbolically is a check to the entire world. It is reminding the world, it is reminding people like me, outsiders who appreciate. And are fans of this culture and this genre, that you are a guest in this house, that you do not-- Control this thing, that you did not create this thing, and to Move within this thing with respect. Understand the history. Comfortable that you think you created this or that you control it in some kind of way that you have some

of ownership on it move within this thing with respect and reverence because you do Not create it, you did not come from the places that created it, and you did not suffer the same hardships that led to to the creation of this thing in the first place. And that gets into a much deeper conversation of communities like Compton. History behind them and the history of this country and I think all All that is kind of playing into what I ultimately think Kendrick has recentered very intentionally at the end of this battle is that we I'm talking about me. I'm talking about probably a lot of you listening. We are not like them. We can appreciate what they have given us. Can be fans of the culture and the genre and that's why that line resonates so much is we are fans. Do not own this thing we do not control it and i think ultimately that's what drake to me

in this battle has come to symbolize is someone that got too comfortable in Kendrick's view, That is an outsider. I don't think it's necessarily a race thing. I think it's mostly the way in which he's disrespected the culture and the very. Ways that kendrick has called him out on and on the flip side of this coin we also have to view A symbol of that pure culture of pure hip-hop. This again goes back into I Am All of Us. To what he said in Heart Part 5, I do this for my culture. It goes back to what he said in Element, I'm willing to die for this shit. I've done cried for this shit. It might take a life for this shit. This is more than just music to Kendrick. This music represents something at his very core. He is a product of this genre of this culture. I want to play for you an interview clip that I saw resurface since the beef and

I think it really illuminates a lot of the reasons why Kendrick engaged in this beef and why he ultimately centered the West Coast and Compton at the end of it. So let's hear the clip and we'll I'm so passionate about hip-hop, man. I don't know where everybody else come from, but I listen, man. I love it to a point I can't even describe it. You know? And when I heard these artists say they're the best coming up, I said, I'm not doing it to have a good song. Or one good rap or a good hook or a good bridge. I wanna keep doing it every time, period.

I do it every time you have to challenge yourself and you have to confirm to yourself, not anybody else, confirm to yourself that you're the best, period. I don't, no one can take that away from me, period. That's my drive and that's my hunger, I will always have. And at this point right now, the years and the time and the effort and the knowledge and the history I've done on the culture and the game I've gotten from those before me and the respect I have for them. I want to hold myself high on that same pedestal 10, 15 years from now. And that's where you were going when you were so blunt on control. You were like, I need to say this, this is what I mean.

What we doing it for? Listen, this is culture. This is not something you just play with, you know, get some few dollars and get out, you know people live they lives to this music, period. It's my partners in the hood right now that they listen to rap everyday 'cause it's the only thing that can relate to their stories and their tribulations. They live and breathe it. You can't play with this and you have to take in consideration what you write down on that paper. And if you're not doing it to say the most impactful or doing it to be the best you can be for the listener to live their daily lives, then what are we doing? doing here all right so this interview was with Zane Lowe at the time of dams release but I think so much of it Still applies now.

Which he studied the history, wanting to continue the legacy in the right way that makes the Fathers of this thing proud and then he specifically says this is culture, this is not something you can play with to make a few dollars and then says how powerful this music is to specifically the people. In his community who live their lives through this music because it's the only thing that relates to their own struggle. Reflection of themselves in the music. And so again bringing this back to the beef if we're talking about Drake and Kendrick as symbols I think we've already covered the Drake part. It I think Kendrick most likely saw himself as the only person that could take down Drake. And in this way I really do feel, and this is again my interpretation, but I really feel. Like Kendrick feels like what he did through the beef was a service to hip-hop and a service to his culture that he is a protector of

Because he has this skill set, because he comes from Compton, because, you know, he's talked about in the past of being hip-hop's savior. Kind of shed some of that weight since Mr. Morale. But in terms of just hip hop and not maybe necessarily trying to change the world, I still feel like the hip Pop savior or the arbiter or the protector of, I still think that applies. I mean, why else would he engage in this beef? And why else? you recenter the west coast at the end of it i think and again this ties back into the the last image of the video and the last image of the pop-out show this is Just as the visual period of this entire thing, and history will look back at the pop out show and on the show. Not like us, moment in hip hop. Kendrick engaged in this beef as a service to hip hop.

So this new Dave Free interview came out with Elephant Magazine just yesterday as I'm recording this so mid-July and there's a Few quotes I wanted to read because I think it ties into this idea of being at service to hip hop and day free. Course is the co-owner of PG Lang. It's Kendrick's creative partner for years now and He talks about what PG Lang is supposed to represent and what its service is as a creative service. So in this interview day free was asked why doesn't do that many interviews and he essentially says I'm more comfortable behind the spotlight, but I am making a point to do more of these and this is why. And so here are some quotes I want to read you. Says Hiding out serves me well, but it's bigger than me. I'm just trying to be a contributing player to the new age of how information is shared. I'm just trying to bring an offering. and then later he says

Quote, I'm trying to share more, be less selfish. That's our value proposition, talking about PG Lang. That's our value proposition, actually being. At service to something more than yourself. So this to me ties in directly to PG Lang into this video that is co-directed by Dave Free that is put out By PG Lang. Centering and reminding all of us where this hip-hop thing comes from as it's kind of grown and separated from its roots Through this beef, through this video, through the pop out show, Kendrick has reminded the world that we, fans, us outsiders are not like them. I think more than anything that's what I'm personally taking away from this whole battle. This battle for justice.

Kendrick was a restorative act. It was an act of service. I always suspected there might be a larger message at play and that's my interpretation. Of it that's why I think Kendrick engaged in this thing I don't think it's entirely ego I don't think it's entirely I'm the greatest Rapper alive. Just don't think there's an argument anymore. It really is. Fuck the big three. It's just big me. Through the battle, Kendrick has made it clear that the me in It's Just Big Me represents the us and not like us. Thank you all for listening this far. I know it was a super long one. If you have any thoughts, hit me up. At Dissect Podcast and as a little gift for those of you who have stuck around this long, I'll just say that I will be back very soon with some Kendrick content that might last a couple of months.

Listen to the last song standing on OutKast in the meantime and I'll talk to you guys soon.