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The original was posted on /r/hobbydrama by /u/ToErrDivine on 2024-08-09 02:20:31+00:00.

Hi, everyone, welcome to the final part (for now) of the Drake-Kendrick writeup. Previous instalments can be found here, here, here, here and here.

…you know, I really think I talk too much.

Act Nine: The ‘Not Like Us’ Video, or ‘How Kendrick Lamar Metaphorically Punched Me In The Face And Stole My Lunch Money’

(Why, yes, I am being incredibly petty about this. Thank you for noticing.)

On the morning of July 5, I woke up, got up, and started to edit the first part of this series so I could post it. About an hour into this process, I idly checked Reddit and discovered that Kendrick had dropped the video for ‘Not Like Us’ something like 45 minutes ago.

I was not pleased.

What I wanted to do was walk outside my house, lift my face to the sky and scream ‘LAMAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR!!!’ in the manner of old films. I did not do this, because I would have then had to explain why I did this to a number of people who wouldn’t have had a fucking clue what I was talking about. (I did it in the Scuffles.) Instead, I opted to ask the mods if I was able to post or not, which was a no. However, over a week later, one of the mods said I could post the first parts, so it was a moot point in the end.

Anyway, here is a synopsis of the video for ‘Not Like Us’, which I will follow with a list of meanings that I have seen suggested regarding various parts of the video. This is not going to be looking at the most minor details; it will simply look at the more obvious stuff.

The video begins with a shot of the Compton City Hall and Civic Centre. We then cut to inside the City Hall (presumably- it’s not like I’ve ever been there), where Kendrick makes his way down a corridor with flickering lights. It’s in black and white, and Kendrick is rapping an unreleased song that a lot of people believe is a teaser for a new album.

We abruptly cut to a door with a slot in it, now in colour: Kendrick knocks on the door in the ‘shave and a haircut’ cadence, and the slot is opened to reveal Tommy the Clown, who asks for the password. Kendrick gives the password, which is the song’s opening line, ‘I see dead people’, and is allowed in, though Tommy chides him for being late after walking to his audio setup. Tommy blows a whistle and starts playing the song, and we see Kendrick seated among two rows of people- Tommy’s crew, the Hip Hop Clowns.

One of the Clowns dances while the others sway in time, and Kendrick raps the first verse, with occasional cuts to him dancing in a corner or leaning against a wall. (The room is also entirely silver with reflective walls- IDK what the hell it is in real life, or if Kendrick had it built for the video.) When the song gets to the line ‘Beat your ass and hide the Bible if God watchin’, one of the Clowns passes Kendrick a Bible, which he conceals.

Cut to… somewhere. It’s black and white again; Kendrick is standing quietly while another guy wearing a Compton cap dances behind him. I can barely make anything about the other guy out and I can’t see his face, so if anyone knows who that is, please tell me. A disguised person who looks like Drake on the cover of Dark Lane Demo Tapes approaches Kendrick from behind, but is blown away almost theatrically. (I kind of expected a Wilhelm Scream.) We get a few seconds of the other guy dancing, and then we cut to a room that looks like a prison cell- blank white walls and a bare single bed- but has speakers and a painting turned to the wall in it.

Kendrick does seventeen push-ups on cinderblocks, and the screen splits in two- the top screen shows Kendrick doing the push-ups, and the bottom has Kendrick sitting on the mattress and rapping. (u/lemonack told me that what I thought was a paint scraper in Kendrick’s hair is actually ‘an afro comb/hair pick. They’re used for styling but are also worn as hair ornaments (sometimes to signify allegiance to Black Power political movements or general pride in being Black)’.) Having completed his push-ups, Kendrick gets up, but does one more for good measure. The video shows Kendrick in the possible-cell rapping until after ‘Certified Lover Boy*? Certified pedophile*’.

At the ‘WOP WOP WOP’ part, we cut to Kendrick beating up a pinata that looks like an owl with a stick, with the ‘No OVHOES’ disclaimer below it- one shot for each strike. (Kevin Dunn would be proud.) He breaks the pinata, a mass of… stuff? Not sure, really… falling out of it, and then we cut to Kendrick in what I’m guessing is a parking lot somewhere. He raps until the ‘A-Minor’ part, a crowd of people yelling the song along with him, and then crip-walks along a hopscotch court.

We cut to a crowd of Comptonites at the Martin Luther King Jr memorial chanting the chorus, and then to Kendrick and Mustard driving through Compton in a Ferrari. They stop at iconic burger joint Tam’s Burgers #21 to get food, and Kendrick’s dancer Storm DeBarge dances along. We then get alternating cuts of the burger place, Kendrick rapping as he walks past a line of Comptonites, some people on bikes, and Kendrick and Mustard driving around.

We then get shots of a shipping yard somewhere, as Kendrick is joined by Dave Free and DeMar DeRozan. (Since we’ve got the Toronto connection with DeRozan, one should note that Mustard is wearing a Toronto Blue Jays cap in the video.) Dancers Kida the Great and Taiwan Williams are seen dancing in one of the shipping containers, and Kendrick appears, looking very sharp in a grey suit. We get alternating shots of Kendrick rapping, Kendrick dancing and Kida and Taiwan dancing, and then we cut back to the crowd of Comptonites.

The camera zooms in enough that we can see Kendrick in the crowd, and then cuts to Kendrick’s choreographer, Charm La’Donna, walking uncertainly and then dancing along a tightrope. We then see Kendrick at what Wikipedia tells me is Nickerson Gardens, a public housing complex in Watts, LA. He’s there with a group of people including his Black Hippy friends Jay Rock, Schoolboy Q and Ab-Soul, and TDE’s executives Anthony Tiffith, Terrence Henderson, and Anthony Tiffith Jr. (I may have missed someone; if I have, sorry.) The camera cuts between panning along the line of guys and the group hanging out and partying with a bunch of other people who I assume are residents of Watts.

Back at the mirror room, Kendrick and the Hip Hop Clowns dance under Tommy’s direction, and then we cut to a living room somewhere. In black and white, we see Kendrick and Whitney Alford standing together; the camera zooms out and shows their children standing in front of them. We then see the four of them dancing and playing in the apartment, and it’s freaking adorable. We cut back to Kendrick walking past the line of Comptonites, and then to the crowd of Comptonites, who are chanting along with the ‘Freaky-ass nigga’ part.

We then cut briefly back to Nickerson Gardens, then to Kendrick at the shipping yard, then to the crowd of Comptonites, and then we get more shots from the line of people, the mirror room, the crowd, and then a group of women dancing at the Martin Luther King Jr memorial.

Finally, we see Kendrick staring at a barn owl, his expression borderline contemptuous. They stare at each other for a few seconds, and then the camera cuts to Kendrick walking away, revealing that the owl is locked in a cage. It follows Kendrick’s movements with an almost defensive posture, and then stares into the camera.

The song is over, but the video then cuts to the crowd of Comptonites, who are singing the end of the song. The camera pulls back, zooms in to show Kendrick in the crowd and then zooms out again. We cut to the words ‘Directed by Dave Free and Kendrick Lamar’ as the crowd cheers, and the words ‘NOT LIKE US’ appear as someone- presumably Free- asks the crowd if they’re ready to do it again and gets a rapturous response.

That’s the video. Here’s a list of implied meanings/interpretations that I’ve seen.

1: The recurring shots of Compton- the City Hall, the Martin Luther King Jr memorial, the iconic burger joint, Kendrick and Mustard driving around the city- and the crowd of locals are intended to show A, that Kendrick has extremely strong ties to his city despite not living there anymore, and B, Kendrick has the wholehearted blessing and support of Compton’s people.

2: Many of the Hip-Hop Clowns are wearing white clothes with ‘Not Like Us’ written in red and blue, and several of them…

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