Watts, CA – June 22: Kendrick Lamar dances during the music video shoot for “Not Like Us” at Nickerson Gardens on Saturday, June 22, 2024 in Watts, CA. (Michael Blackshire / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

Who’s surprised?

Here we go again… Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us” has broken yet another Spotify record once held by his rival Drake’s 2018 hit, “God’s Plan.” This time, it’s for the fastest rap song ever to surpass 700 million streams on the platform, and you probably already know the discourse around it. K.Dot fans are rejoicing in the victory, and OVO fans want Kendrick to thank the 6ix God for his success. Either way, both groups are arguing with each other over pointless numbers talk. Nothing will change the Compton lyricist’s victory, and it would take about 85 more tracks of this level of success to even begin to creep up on the Toronto superstar’s numbers on DSPs.

What’s more is that their post-beef movement is also further polarizing fans into making judgement calls about the Kendrick Lamar and Drake beef, confusing their preference for either artist as analysis on the isolated battle itself. The former popped out for a Juneteenth show and music video, keeping quiet throughout it all. The latter just dropped a new set of tracks which many believe he’s using to try to revive his various 2024 feuds. So folks are either labeling this as desperate or are fully content with just the existence of new music regardless of quality… Such is the state of public discourse in this year’s music culture.

Kendrick Lamar Breaks Another “God’s Plan” Spotify Record

Kendrick Lamar fans even pointed to him predicting some of Drake’s new angles on these IG drops, although that’s just a speculative theory up for interpretation. That’s just one example of how this beef became more about fans versus fans rather than rapper versus rapper ever since “The Heart Part 6” dropped. Another is how Drizzy’s every move has fallen victim to public scrutiny, irremovable from the context of the battle in many’s eyes. Much like Big vs. ‘Pac and Jay vs. Nas before them, we’re now at the exhausting point in which the least talked about parts of their rivalry are their actual lyrics against each other.

For hip-hop culture and music fans at large, this is a pretty disappointing level of animosity. At least many folks instead focused on both the gang unity that Kendrick Lamar promoted and on Drake’s commitment to giving fans what they love from him. But for every new record that “Not Like Us” breaks in the future – and trust us, it will – fans will once again display their blind support in full colors. Many lines from the battle have aged like fine wine, but “Hey, Drake, they’re not slow” is certainly on the opposite end of the spectrum for both extreme fanbases.