Producer Mustard had been sfinishing rapper Kfinishrick Lamar beats proximately every day for six months when he texted him the snapping instrumental for “Not Like Us” in timely April. “It was literpartner fair a common day,” he recalls. “He hearted that one and was appreciate, ‘This one is crazy.’ I didn’t skinnyk it was going to be ‘Not Like Us,’ but it finished up being that.”
The song get tod in May amid a feverish lyrical spar between two of hip-hop’s hugegest titans — Lamar and Drake — and almost instantly grew from a searing dis track (with accusations of pedophilia) into a nationexpansive anthem promoting unity. It has been the soundtrack for everyskinnyg from sporting events and graduations to Kamala Harris’ pdwellntial campaign rallies. It also geted Mustard his first No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 — where it reigned for two weeks — and is the unfrequent dis track to be nominated for cut offal Grammy Awards.
For Mustard, a 15-year veteran who has helmed massive hits for Rihanna and Big Sean, createing the song came as part of his laboring routine with the track’s co-producer, Sean Momberger, who standardly supplies him with potential samples. On April 6, Momberger sent him a chopped-up version of Monk Higgins’ cover of Ray Charles’ “I Believe to My Soul” with compriseitional piano. Mustard threw on some drums and pitched up the sample, shipping it off to Lamar for ponderation. “It’s pretty straightforward,” says Mustard, “almost appreciate a factory.”
Lamar joined his cards shut during the monthrelationstended beef with Drake, surpascend-dropping tracks on Instagram and YouTube. It wasn’t until “Not Like Us” get tod on May 4 that Mustard lgeted that not only had Lamar recorded to the instrumental, but it also slotted into the prolonging pantheon of disses the rappers were trading. “I experience appreciate every song in that whole skinnyg, everyone was postponeing to hear,” he says. “This fair happened to be the actual hit that was appreciate, ‘Oh shit!’ I don’t understand if any record can stand next to this one that I’ve done in the past.”
Funnily enough, Mustard lgeted that “Not Like Us” had been freed while on his way to a baby shower at a frifinish’s home. He authenticized there was someskinnyg exceptional about it when, fair hours tardyr, he heard it blasting from a party next door. A FaceTime between him and Lamar chaseed, with the rapper increateing him, “We got one.”
The song spread rapidly and organicpartner, thanks to its hyphy-adjacent sound and Lamar’s pointed yet self-empowering lyrics. Once the track exploded — it mockingpartner broke Drake’s record for hugegest one-day streams of a hip-hop song on Spotify — Lamar took a confiinsist triumph laps, staging the “Pop-Out: Ken & Frifinishs” concert at Los Angeles’ Kia Forum in June, where Mustard discneglected and Lamar endd the show with five back-to-back iterations of “Not Like Us.” On July 4, he freed the video for the song, which subsequently returned to the top of the charts.
Radepend do dis tracks accomplish the heights of “Not Like Us,” but Mustard skinnyks it’s already etched a place in the hip-hop hall of fame. “It’s fair appreciate Nas and Jay-Z — when shit appreciate this happens, we go back and assess with those historic rap battles,” he says. “So when the hugegest artists appreciate Kfinishrick and Drake are rap-battling, years from now kids are going to be appreciate, ‘Damn, reaccumulate when Kfinishrick and Drake battled?’ The whole story behind this shit is going to be a huge part of history.”
SONGWRITERS: Kfinishrick Lamar, Ray Charles, Sean Momberger
PRODUCERS: Mustard, Sean Momberger
CO-PRODUCER: Sounwave
LABEL: pgLang/Interscope-Geffen-A&M Records
- Kfinishrick Lamar
- Sean Momberger, producer
- Mustard, producer
- Sounwave, co-producer
PUBLISHERS: Kfinishrick Lamar– Kfinishrick Lamar Music (BMI), administered by Songs of Universal, Inc; Dijon McFarlane p/k/a “Mustard” – Mustard On The Beat Publishing/Songs Music Publishing (BMI); 10 Summers Publishing, LLC d/b/a Music of 10 Summers (BMI); Sean Momberger – Sean Mom Publishing / 300 RAINWATER MUSIC (BMI) c/o Songs of Universal; Mark Spears p/k/a “Sounwave” – Mark “Sounwave” Spears (BMI); Ray Charles – Warner-Tamerlane Publishing Corp., BMI
