Kendrick Lamar’s Drake diss “Not Like Us” has achieved another honor to accompany its dominance on the charts and its position as the best-selling song in America this year: it is the most-played song globally on Apple Music for the year.
The streaming platform announced it on Tuesday (November 3) while launching its “Top Songs of 2024: Global” playlist. Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” ranked fourth, and Post Malone’s collaboration with Morgan Wallen, “I Had Some Help,” took the sixth position.
Kendrick made the top 10 once again, thanks to his feud-inducing feature on Future and Metro Boomin’s “Like That” (no. 8).
Take a look at the announcement from Apple Music below.
“Not Like Us” gained even more attention recently after Drake’s shocking legal documents against Universal Music Group.
The hit diss track lies at the center of the controversy, as Drizzy claims UMG is artificially enhancing the song’s success by employing streaming bots and payola.
He has asserted that UMG — the parent organization of his label Republic and Kendrick’s long-standing residence at Interscope — slandered him by intentionally publishing a song that labels him a pedophile.
Since he submitted the petitions on November 25, sales of “Not Like Us” have surged by an astonishing 440 percent, and streams of the track have risen by 20 percent, as reported by Talk of the Charts.
“Not Like Us” has similarly surged back up the rankings on both Apple Music and Spotify, experiencing a 16-position rise on the latter’s Global chart.
Legal and music industry experts recently cautioned Drake that his ongoing legal clash with UMG might unintentionally advantage his rap competitor.
“Audiomack co-founder Brian ‘Z’ Zisook stated to Rolling Stone, ‘No sum of money globally is worth the damage to Drake’s reputation resulting from these lawsuits.’”
“If Drake had discovered Kendrick was set to drop an album featuring these assertions, and he initiated legal action to prevent the song’s launch, that would be more logical.” However, the song has been released. It has been released. The entire globe has listened to the record.
“Submitting these lawsuits acts as a reminder to the globe.” This exemplifies a typical instance of the Streisand effect.
The Streisand effect describes Barbra Streisand’s efforts to prevent the release of a 2003 photograph of her Malibu residence, which unintentionally highlighted the previously little-known image.
Entertainment attorney Kevin Casini told Rolling Stone: “[It] truly serves primarily to draw more focus to the lyrics that offend or disturb Drake. “I believe the streaming statistics for the song will increase once more.”
