Kendrick Lamar's "Not Like Us" Breaks Drake's Record For Most Single-Day Rap Song Streams On Spotify

BYGabriel Bras Nevares8.2K Views
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US rapper Kendrick Lamar performs during the 2023 Governors Ball Music Festival at Flushing Meadows Corona Park in New York City on June 11, 2023. (Photo by Yuki IWAMURA / AFP) (Photo by YUKI IWAMURA/AFP via Getty Images)
Drake previously held the record for most streams for a rap song in a single day with his Lil Baby collaboration, "Girls Want Girls."

Kendrick Lamar's Drake diss "Not Like Us" continues to rack up stream after stream, and it seems more likely than ever that folks will be ringing this song off for the whole summer. Moreover, it now officially holds the records for the most single-day streams for any rap song in global Spotify history, with around 12.809 million streams presumably on Friday (May 10). This officially dethrones Drake and Lil Baby's Certified Lover Boy collab "Girls Want Girls," which held this record ever since 2021 with 12.385 million streams. This newest diss track had gotten very close to breaking this record the previous day, so this shouldn't come as much of a surprise.

However, if we're talking numbers, neither artist should really see this as anything less than an overall net positive for them. Drake is still breaking records and seeing similar commercial success to Kendrick Lamar with his own diss tracks, even if there is a winner in this tight race. But perhaps this is the only metric we'll be able to use to compare the two now that the battle seemingly died down. At least, that's what Top Dawg himself suggested in a recent tweet, claiming K.Dot's victory over the 6ix God.

Kendrick Lamar Surpasses Drake's Spotify Record By Dissing Him

But is this really the end? Drake may have recently re-listed his Beverly Hills property, but there are still plenty of theories and rumors going around that he could want revenge with another drop. Also, Kendrick Lamar himself did not claim victory in this battle, which rings especially true when you consider his promise that he could still go further down the rabbit hole. As such, perhaps we're in for a different kind of beef to anything we've ever seen in the genre: a war with multiple battles, differently timed engagements, and no guarantee of decisive, eternal glory.

Alas, more likely than not, that's just a speculative fantasy. But Drake and Kendrick Lamar's battle was about as ugly as people wanted, even uglier than they expected, and highly entertaining for at least a brief moment for even the most hardened skeptic. Now Twitter die-hards are coming up with excuses to fight each other's claims and others are calling to attention the more troublesome and exploitative aspects of this feud as it relates to female trauma, the culture, the music industry, and entertainment/celebrity culture at large. As for the actual back-and-forth, we'll have to see if the battlefield remains quiet until we get an official stand-down.

About The Author
Gabriel Bras Nevares is a staff writer for HotNewHipHop. He joined HNHH while completing his B.A. in Journalism & Mass Communication at The George Washington University in the summer of 2022. Born and raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Gabriel treasures the crossover between his native reggaetón and hip-hop news coverage, such as his review for Bad Bunny’s hometown concert in 2024. But more specifically, he digs for the deeper side of hip-hop conversations, whether that’s the “death” of the genre in 2023, the lyrical and parasocial intricacies of the Kendrick Lamar and Drake battle, or the many moving parts of the Young Thug and YSL RICO case. Beyond engaging and breaking news coverage, Gabriel makes the most out of his concert obsessions, reviewing and recapping festivals like Rolling Loud Miami and Camp Flog Gnaw. He’s also developed a strong editorial voice through album reviews, think-pieces, and interviews with some of the genre’s brightest upstarts and most enduring obscured gems like Homeboy Sandman, Bktherula, Bas, and Devin Malik.
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