Kendrick Lamar achieved a milestone on the Billboard charts this week along with his Drake diss “Not Like Us” – simply as Drizzy made a surprising departure.
This week, “Not Like Us” entered its twenty first week atop the Billboard Hot Rap Songs chart, formally changing into the longest-running No. 1 on the chart since its inception in 1989. Lil Nas X‘s 2019 smash “Old Town Road” previously held the record at 20 weeks.
The song is also No. 1 on Billboard’s Rap Streaming Songs chart, the place he ties with Lil Nas for third longest-running No. 1 there at 20 weeks. Desiigner’s “Panda” and Psy’s “Gangnam Style” share first place at 23 weeks.
In the meantime, for the primary time since April 2022, Drake doesn’t have a single track or characteristic on the Billboard Hot 100 this week.
In associated information, J. Coleunexpectedly addressed the meat between Kendrick Lamar and Drake, in addition to his determination to bow out of it, on a brand new track referred to as “Port Antonio.”
A shock on Wednesday night time (October 9), the five-minute observe finds the Dreamville rapper defending his determination to step again from his temporary battle with longtime good friend and occasional collaborator Kendrick.
“I pulled the plug because I seen where that was ’bout to go / They wanted blood, they wanted clicks to make they pockets grow / They see this fire in my pen and think I’m dodgin’ smoke / I wouldn’t have lost a battle, dawg, I woulda lost a bro / I woulda gained a foe,” he raps.
Cole then references the salacious accusations made by each Drake and Kendrick on their respective diss songs: “Jermaine is no king if that means I gotta dig up dirt and pay the whole team / Of algorithm bot n-ggas just to sway the whole thing / On social media, competing for your favorable memes to be considered best.”
He additionally means that each rappers went too far of their feud: “I understand the thirst of being first that made ’em both swing / Protecting legacies, so lines got crossed, perhaps regrettably / My friends went to war, I walked away with all they blood on me.”
Cole later addresses his “First Person Shooter” collaborator instantly: “They say I’m pickin’ sides, aye, don’t you lie on me, my n-gga / To start another war / Aye, Drake, you’ll always be my n-gga / I ain’t ashamed to say you did a lot for me, my n-gga / Fuck all the narratives / Tapping back into your magic pen is what’s imperative.”
The North Carolina native closes out the track by making a wider plea to Hip Hop: “Reminding these folks why we do it / It’s not for beefing, it’s for speaking our thoughts / Pushing ourselves, reaching the charts / Reaching your minds, deep in your heart / Screaming to find emotions to touch / Somethin’ inside to open you up / Help you cope with the rough times and shit / I’m sending love, ’cause we ain’t promised shit.”
Away from the headline-grabbing bars about his “Big Three” contemporaries, “Port Antonio” samples Lonnie Liston Smith’s “A Garden of Peace,” which rap heads will acknowledge from JAY-Z‘s “Dead Presidents,” in addition to Cleo Sol‘s “Know That You Are Loved,” which was additionally just lately sampled by Massive Sean on “Boundaries.”
