Kendrick Lamar's 'Not Like Us' video has seemingly finished off his beef with Drake, while Toya Delazy goes in at Cassper Nyovest. Pictures: Arnold Jerocki (Getty Images) and toyadelazy/Instagram
US rapper Kendrick Lamar put the final nail to the coffin in his much-publicised beef with Drake with the release of the Not Like Us video.
The video has clocked in more than 10 million views on YouTube under the same number of hours − this while South Africa’s Toya De Lazy attacked Cassper Nyovest unprovoked.
The Not Like Us video was shot just days after the Grammy award-winning rapper hosted the historic The Pop Out: Ken & Friends concert in California.
Social media was littered with images of the rapper in his neighbourhood shooting the music video, but the end result was more nuanced in its references to Drake through fine art direction.
There’s a shot in the video of Kendrick with a stick in hand going at an owl piñata-the logo of Drake’s clothing brand October’s Very Own (OVO) is an owl.
The last shot sees Kendrick holding a Barn owl, staring into his eyes and then seemingly locks it in a cage.
One of the final shots of the video sees Kendrick with his partner, Whitney Alford, together with their two kids, dancing to the song inside a living room.
On Family Matters, one of of the songs Drake released during their back-and-forth release of diss songs, Drake claimed that Kendrick and his partner were having issues, going as far as accusing Kendrick of physically abusing Whitney.
The Canadian rapper also alleged that one of Kendrick’s kids is fathered by his childhood friend, business partner and co-director of the Not Like Us video, Dave Free.
At this moment, Not Like Us stands as the biggest diss song in rap history. At the time of writing this article the song sat just below 500 million streams on Spotify.
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It broke the record for the biggest single-day streams of a hip hop song in Spotify history, earning about 12.8 million streams on 11 May, 2024; surpassing Drake’s Girls Want Girls featuring Lil Baby.
Numerous renditions of the song have been created by fans on social media. The funniest is probably a parody video of a mother describing her day-to-day life experience of taking care of her kids.
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A fan randomly and innocently tagged South African muso Toya Delazy on X virtually patting her on the back for her 2014 collaboration with Mzansi artist Cassper Nyovest on My City.
But instead on acknowledging the benign gesture, Toya Delazy used it as an opportunity to express her regret of making the song with Cassper.
Real name Latoya Buthelezi, granddaughter to late Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) leader and Zulu Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi, Toya Delazy responded to a number of people on social media who criticised her for the comment about Cassper.
On Friday morning she seemed to have a more benevolent approach, tweeting that “Forgiveness is a superpower.”
NOW READ: WATCH: “Why get married at night,” Stilo Magolide questions Cassper Nyovest
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