Why Kendrick Lamar's “Not Like Us” will be the song of the summer of 2024

Drive east along Lake Shore Blvd in Toronto, weaving through bumper-to-bumper traffic full of Canadians eager to break a few polite cliches, and you'll catch a glimpse of October's Very Own logo. It sits next to the Toronto Raptors emblem on the OVO Athletic Center, a training facility for basketball players that was founded in 2016, when Drake's megastardom was at its peak. Back then, Drake was a new Canadian institution, a champion three years ahead of the Raptors. In the summer of 2024, the stainless steel owl is more of an albatross.

There was something permissive about the vitriol that fueled the rap feud between Kendrick Lamar and Drake—nothing, be it family or speculation about sex crimes, was off limits. Every kind of online denizen, from multimillionaire streamers to penniless Twitter addicts, participated in the metastasizing discourse. And yet, as improbable as it may seem, “Not Like Us” managed to escape the maelstrom that engulfed the rest of the diss tracks. Lamar positioned the song as a West Coast anthem that transcends feuds, an approach that likely wouldn't have worked without the boisterous joy of the Pop Out concert.

Canada was already having a miserable summer before “Not Like Us.” The cost of living crisis has exploded to absurd levels, and the upcoming 2025 election looks set to bring a far-right prime minister to power with an overwhelming majority of MPs. When I heard my teenage neighbor blaring “Not Like Us” from his car stereo, it sounded like the final nail in the coffin, driven in from the inside.