Kendrick Lamar’s ‘Not Like Us’ Tops the Charts After Super Bowl Performance
“Not Like Us” is back on top. A week after Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl halftime performance, the diss track skyrocketed back to Number One on Billboard’s Hot 100, giving the song its third non-consecutive week atop the chart.
“Not Like Us” garnered 49 million streams last week, according to Luminate, while racking up 33,000 song sales. It jumped from the 15-spot, dethroning Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars’s “Die With A Smile” to take the crown. The diss track was the standout song in last year’s feud between Lamar and Drake, becoming one of the biggest songs of the year as Lamar accused Drake of being a pedophile.
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Those claims didn’t come without controversy, with Drake filing a defamation lawsuit against Universal Music Group, the record company for both rappers. Drake hasn’t taken legal action against Lamar personally, but he claimed that the music company “decided to publish, promote, exploit, and monetize allegations that it understood were not only false, but dangerous.” (UMG denied Drake’s allegations, stating that he was trying “to weaponize the legal process to silence an artist’s creative expression and to seek damages from UMG for distributing that artist’s music.”)
Lamar hinted at Drake’s lawsuit during his performance, teasing about whether or not he should perform the song as “you know they love to sue.” Playing the song at halftime was the exclamation point in Lamar’s victory lap in the feud. A week before the Super Bowl, “Not Like Us” won five Grammy Awards, including for Record of the Year and Song of the Year.
Along with the boost in streams for the song itself, consumption for much of Lamar’s catalog jumped as well. GNX, Lamar’s latest album, climbed back to the top of the Albums Chart this week, while Damn and good kid m.A.A.d city both landed back in the top 10.
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