It seems like every week since their battle began, there’s a new accolade to add to either Drake or Kendrick Lamar’s success.
The beef that refused to die just keeps on making Kendrick Lamar and Drake more money, and they don’t even have to outright reference it for that narrative to create all the more interest in their music. For example, Drizzy’s new 100 GIGS drop recently placed him over Kendrick in Spotify monthly listening numbers, which K.Dot had dethroned him for due to the streaming success of cuts like “Euphoria,” “Like That”… and, of course, “Not Like Us.” The Toronto superstar has a massive fanbase that was going to eat his stuff up either way, but the battle has more casual fans as well as ardent haters hanging onto every word more so than usual.
As for Kendrick Lamar, his numbers have always been great, but they’ve never been as much of a direct and disrespectful challenge until the aforementioned West Coast banger dropped. Now, a song that makes its PDF-file allegations crystal clear and clowns Drake for being a conniving colonizer that should go fetch Gatorade for the real players is making almost as many numbers as either artist’s most accessible and widely palatable material. In fact, “Not Like Us” recently surpassed Tupac’s “Hit ‘Em Up” as the most streamed diss track of all time; while only the Spotify numbers show up here, they most likely indicate activity across all major platforms.
Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us” Is The Most Streamed Diss Track Of All Time
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Not only that, but it will likely rival some of Drake and Kendrick Lamar’s biggest hits numbers-wise when it’s all said and done. It’s also ironic but oddly fitting that “Not Like Us” surpassed a Tupac classic as the most streamed diss track of all time. After all, ‘Pac played a more integral role in this battle than many might have expected at its onset thanks to A.I. vocal manipulations, lyrical references, and arguments over The Boy’s purchase of his ring.
Meanwhile, there are still some people out there who were saddened by this whole battle, including the legendary André 3000. Maybe they would rather live in a world in which cuts like “Tuscan Leather” or “The Art Of Peer Pressure” get the frenzied streaming love that “Push Ups” and “Not Like Us” have. But we can’t deny the sheer quality of these battle tracks, and neither can a lot of fans out there. So whether you’re a Drake fan who refused to like the song to begin with or a Kendrick Lamar fan who’s already tired of it… it looks like you’re going to have to step this way and then step that way for a while longer.
