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Writer's picturealexisbrison0

Why "Not Like Us" is Bad for the Culture

Updated: May 11


*Photo: Captured at the Saint Louis Art Museum


I will start by saying that I am an avid music listener who genuinely enjoys the entertainment music provides. So saying that, I feel that I must present myself as someone with no bias toward either side of the rap battle. I am simply a music lover who listens to the words within music filled with messages intended to be spread long-term causing potential catastrophic effects on Brown culture. I do not particularly favor Drake over Kendrick, in fact before recent events I considered Kendrick on a platform of sophisticated rap in its own category. I merely held Drake as extremely trendy.


Now let me explain why Kendrick's song "Not Like Us" is toxic for the culture. I'll first remind you briefly of our history's past. Yes! Slavery.... The most terrible dramatic event that could ever happen to a demographic. It was fueled and perpetuated on the principles of division created by William Lynch AKA "Big Willie". He basically wrote the handbook on how to rip apart the Brown race. His writings instruct Whites to intentionally tear down the Brown race by creating pools of opposing groups within the subgroup who constantly in-fight. This means old against young, men against women, rich against poor, and light against dark. He told of inevitable outcomes founded upon continual division. The song "Not Like Us" is a chant founded upon the intentional principles of racial division and they spur a cult like promotion of disunion within the Brown community. First the use of the phrase "They Not Like Us" is too ambiguous of a phrase to culturally carry a minority community that is already small compared to other demographics. It is furthering intentional division within our subgroup, without clarity of who exactly this "They" in "Not Like Us" is? They does not mean Drake, "They" is an ambiguous all encompassing pronoun that should not be chanted inward toward such a small demographic. Kendrick are you saying that mixed people are not apart of the Brown community? If so, what gives you the right to self-proclaim Messiah and exorcise members of our small struggling community at will. All Brown people of the United States did not convene and appoint Kendrick Lemar "Cultural Dictator" with hypocritical veto powers. Kendrick cannot decide for himself what it means to be Brown in America. Especially, since White people have already decided what it means to be Brown. They instituted the "One Drop Rule" explicitly separating members of our community from theirs by merely ONE DROP OF BLOOD. No 21st century cultural leader would ever intentionally spread White Radicalized Racial Theory knowingly. I presumed that Kendrick is extremely intelligent from his music, but maybe this White agenda-driven idea seemed like a good play for Rap King. It was not, it was a toxic move that damages the reputation Kendrick has built over the years. The Brown community should focus on loving each other, not chanting that members who are too "light-skinned" are no longer recognized as one of us. As African Americans we have all been forcibly mixed with White Blood due to the dark history of rape within our community by our WHITE oppressors. It is not fair to start judging members of our community by calculating mixed racial percentages. If we no longer consider 50% Brown enough, it won't be long before 70% Brown or 65% Brown are no longer considered acceptable mixed race percentages by our new oppressive race calculating regime. One person cannot hold the power to decide what it means to be Brown and claim to speak for the culture without ever consulting the culture.

Now I will explain why I believe that Kendrick lost the Rap Battle. There are three key moves that identified Kendrick's loss in this battle including strategy, hypocrisy, and likability. First, the Blitz attack strategy of gang up bullying from multiple "grown men" at once. I am of the mind that if Kendrick wanted to battle Drake for Rap King, he should have done it alone to show strength. Why did Kendrick need such a large formulated team behind him to strike? Also, the intentional media bias buyout is not fooling anyone. It is very clear that who ever truly orchestrated this planned attack on Drake has bought the media, notably TikTok. I have seen extreme support for Kendrick's win without a chance of visibility for Drake fans. The media seemed to have already been prepared for a sweeping movement of support by intentionally prepping and staging chanting clubs and attempting to pass it off as mass support. It is not the dominant view from the culture that Drake is "not like us" or even that the Rap Battle was won by Kendrick. Second, the hypocrisy of Kendricks wife being "mixed", Kendrick's extreme likability and closeness by and towards Whites, and Kendrick's recycling of slave theory manipulation tactics while claiming to be a cultural leader is absurd. Lastly, Kendrick did not win the Rap Battle based on factors of song quality and likability. Music is to be enjoyed, danced to, and sung along. When listening to the works from both artists, I conclusively preferred to sing and dance to Drake's songs. Though they were dis tracks, they still managed to be enjoyable songs. Kendricks songs were too full of obsessive hatred to simply enjoy as music. I even began to feel uncomfortable while listening to "Not Like Us", for fear of supporting internalized racial divisions. The main concern with Kendricks moves in his play for Rap King is his being anti-productive to the progression and strength of the Brown community by continuing to strip and divide the race. I was extremely disappointed in what I viewed as the fall or declination of someone I once herald as a sophisticated intelligent rapper.

It is unwise to allow the oppressive opinions of a few to represent the general cultural opinion without gathering the view of the silenced masses.


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