Rap titan Kendrick Lamar boldly strutted into Drake’s hometown and performed the culture-shifting track, “Not Like Us,” before a rapturous crowd in Toronto.
It has been over a year since K. Dot and Drizzy engaged in indisputedly one of the most profound and consequential rap battles in hip hop history. However, based on the crowd’s uproarious reaction to Lamar, the song still resonates in pop culture 14 months after it detonated in the music world.
The Toronto multitude welcomed Kendrick Lamar
While Kendrick Lamar and SZA were in Toronto last night for the first Canadian stop of their Grand National Tour, Drake was originally scheduled to counter K. Dot’s concert by doing a livestream with Kai Cenat but reportedly pulled out of it at the last minute.
Toronto fans begged Kendrick Lamar for an encore
Back at the concert, when Lamar finally got to the climax of his show and performed his ubiquitous hit “Not Like Us,” Toronto fans reportedly gave Lamar a two-minute ovation and then broke into a chant for him to perform the song again.
Fans react strongly to Kendrick Lamar’s performance
Concert attendees and pop culture observers had a field day reacting to the boldness of Lamar to high-step into Drizzy’s stomps to perform the song that destroyed him in his own backyard.
Fan reaction was split amongst the populace, with some hip hop heads believing that K. Dot performing the song in Toronto further lowered the boom on Drake’s image and future as an artist.
“It’s over for Drake!,” one person exclaimed on X, while another was incredulous that the packed Toronto arena not only chanted Lamar’s name during the concert, but begged for more after the concert concluded. “Imagine your hometown praying on your downfall,” another user wondered.
“Guess it really is friendzone in his city…Guess this how he’s big stepping with a size 7 mans on (boot emoji),” opined a third respondent.
A fourth person said in awe, “Kendrick’s got Toronto in the palm of his hand, encore energy on another level.”
Not everyone was impressed with K. Dot’s appearance or performance of “Not Like Us.” In fact, some have grown weary of the feud lingering into a second year and wish the song would simply dissipate into the ether.
“Ngl this is getting old Bro,” one fan surmised, while a second person declared, “This doesn’t mean anything. Drake still won the beef.”
A third person was even so bold as to say that “the song (is) not even that good.”
