Season 7 Bonus "Not Like Us"
This week's episode "Not like Us" examines the high-profile feud between rap titans Kendrick Lamar and Drake, dissecting the tensions between maintaining artistic credibility and achieving mainstream popularity. Through this lens, the host Henry K reflects on the importance of genuine, impactful artistry in genres like reggae and hip hop, drawing parallels to cultural appropriation issues. With references to historical and contemporary music figures, the discussion underscores the need for music that reflects real-life struggles and experiences, advocating for a balance between feel-good hits and socially conscious art. Rootsland also reflects on the aftermath of Hurricane Beryl's impact on Jamaica, highlighting the resilience of the island's people and the challenges faced, particularly in agriculture.
Rootsland "Reggae's Untold Stories"
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Produced by Henry K in association with Voice Boxx Studio Red Hills, Jamaica
Intro by Michelle "Kim" Yamaguchi
Home | ROOTSLAND Reggae Music, Podcast & Merchandise "Wear Your Culture"
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Intro features Jacob Miller "Mixed Up Moods" Drake "Hot Line Bling" Kendrick Lamar "Not Like Us" Explicit Version
Transcript
The Roots land podcast stories that are.
Sia:Music to your ears.
Kendrick Lamar:I've got no time, but I've got.
Henry:Some time to in your story.
Henry:Whats up?
Henry:Roots land?
Henry:Battered but not broken, Hurricane Beryl came barreling its way across Jamaica, and while the island was spared a direct hit, the storm left a trail of destruction in its wake that will impact the island for some time.
Henry:Some of the hardest hit areas were in the agricultural region, the parishes of Clarendon, Manchester, St.
Henry:Elizabeth, and even heavy damage in St.
Henry:Thomas, the parish where Sia is from.
Henry:So, how is mommy?
Sia:Mommy's all right, but she had me worried for a minute because she's diabetic, so that was concerning.
Henry:Uh huh.
Sia:You know our medication has to be refrigerated.
Henry:Yeah, I know.
Henry:It's got to stay cool or it goes bad.
Sia:Luckily, the neighbors step in, you know, and was able to get her some ice to put it in a cooler.
Henry:Yeah.
Henry:See, his mom lives deep in the country, in the bush.
Henry:We want to send a special thanks to Misses Blossom's neighbor who brought over that ice to help mommy keep her medication cool.
Sia:Well, thanks, mom's neighbor.
Henry:It wasn't only Jamaica that took it, but so many people in the Caribbean had their homes flooded, small farmers had their crops destroyed, and they were livestock that perished in the store.
Henry:I'm just hoping that the farmers and bush doctors were able to save some of that sweet sense, Amelia, before wicked Beryl came and tore up the place.
Sia:Lol.
Sia:Henry, that's what you're thinking about?
Sia:Ganja?
Henry:Yeah, that's right.
Henry:I worry about all God's creations.
Sia:That's funny.
Henry:It's legal now, remember?
Henry:It's a livelihood for so many people.
Henry:And besides, the Ola herb, it's the healing of the nation.
Sia:Mmm.
Sia:You like that, huh?
Henry:Of course.
Sia:Really?
Henry:Anyway, the studio up in Red Hills, we lost our power for a few days and the Internet for over a week.
Henry:But give thanks and praises because the frequency has been reset and the red light is back on.
Henry:And what does that mean, Sia?
Sia:It's time for stories that are music to your ears.
Henry:Good improv.
Henry:So, originally, I was planning this bonus episode as a tribute to one of the most underrated reggae singers of our generation.
Henry:A friend, a colleague, an artist extraordinaire, who passed away a little over a year ago.
Henry:Someone I viewed as a humble rastaman who was thrust into a complicated life.
Henry:A man abandoned by the business, deserted in his time and need by the very people who should have had his back.
Henry:While the details of this portrayal and the shadowy aftermath are murky at best.
Henry:This is an artist who needs to have his story told, but it needs to be told right.
Henry:So without sounding too cryptic, I need to hold off on this one for now, as one of the singers family members who happens to be a fan of our show, wants to share the real story with us.
Henry:And apparently things go a lot deeper than even I was aware.
Henry:And for the moment, they need to refrain from making any public comments.
Henry:But as the mighty diamonds say, when the right time comes, some I go charge for treason.
Henry:So when the right time does come, I promise the truth will be revealed.
Sia:Who you talking about, Henry?
Sia:Tell me.
Henry:Sia.
Henry:Hold off.
Henry:What did I just say?
Sia:Which singer is that?
Henry:They can't say anything right now.
Henry:I don't want to get anyone in trouble.
Sia:Whoa, Henry, that sounds mysterious.
Henry:Don't worry.
Henry:Stay tuned.
Henry:In the meantime, let's discuss another hurricane making headlines.
Henry:A category five storm that caused major damage in the last few weeks by tearing through the career of one of the world's best selling and most beloved pop and hip hop artists.
Sia:What?
Sia:There was another hurricane.
Henry:Hurricane Kendrick originally formed on the west coast in the city of Compton, located in southern Los Angeles county, and it quickly developed into a fast moving storm with a song titled not like us, a category five street anthem that banged its way up to Canada, knocking out most of the power and a lot of the prestige of the Toronto born singer rapper actor Aubrey Drake Graham, professionally known as Drake.
Sia:Wow.
Henry:The song, not like us was a culmination of what started out as a low key musical rivalry almost a decade ago between Drake and fellow rapper Kendrick Lamar, and recently it exploded into a no holds bar death match and one of the most talked about rap battles in hip hop history.
Sia:I must be really out of it.
Sia:How come I didn't know that was going on?
Henry:Sia, where have you been?
Henry:The reason why this musical beef is so relevant to our show is that many of the accusations leveled at Drake by his rival echo so many of the sentiments that we touch on here at cultural authenticity versus commercial success, artist credibility and the influence of corporate media on the music.
Henry:The Kendrick Lamar diss track has ignited a conversation that has spilled over into pop culture and politics.
Henry:With everyone weighing in.
Henry:From President Obama to Joe Rogan and Serena Williams to Seth Rogen, Drake and Kendrick Lamar are trending.
Sia:After taking aim at one another.
Henry:There is a lot to unpack in.
Kendrick Lamar:The Drake and Kendrick Lamar Field, the.
Henry:Two legendary rappers going at it all weekend, each making some very wild accusations.
Henry:If Drake and Kendrick Lamar got in a rap battle, who do you think would win?
Henry:Gotta go with Kendrick.
Henry:So.
Henry:Hi Jody.
Henry:Winner in music.
Henry:A big surprise, Kendrick Lamar.
Henry:I've never seen a rap battle give us this much music.
Henry:Sosia, since this has become such a cultural phenomena, I figured I'd take the opportunity to break down this rap battle to our audience.
Henry:Some are getting on in years.
Henry:You know, we have a few AARP members out there.
Henry:Maybe not on top of the latest rap battles like you.
Sia:Wait, Henry, stop it.
Sia:What are you doing this in the audience calling them old and I'm not old.
Henry:Oh, please.
Henry:No, it's no disrespect.
Henry:I mean, look at us.
Henry:The only reason why I learned about Drake was because our daughter had a crush on him when she was back in high school.
Sia:Yeah, I remember that.
Sia:Yeah, she loved him.
Sia:Didn't she have a crush on him when he was on a tv show?
Henry:Yes, actually that's true.
Henry:And a great place to start.
Henry:Aubrey Drake Graham is a former childhood star who appeared on the popular tv series Degrassi next Generation.
Henry:Drake is biracial, half jewish, half black, and grew up in the middle class suburbs of Toronto.
Henry:He attended jewish day school, was bar mitzvahed at the age of 13, and was a celebrated high school hockey star until his overprotective jewish mom forced him to quit after getting hurt in a match.
Henry:No, thats not the typical background for a rapper that had spent the last 15 years dominating hip hop music.
Henry:But the savvy teenager was able to leverage his childhood stardom and had his first record released on the soundtrack for his hit tv series.
Henry: In: Henry:In the years since his debut, Drake has been credited and commended for helping hip hop cross over to wider, more mainstream audiences by adding a more melodic r and b flavor to the genre.
Henry:His smooth, catchy hooks and hand waving party anthems cross racial and geographical boundaries and have earned him every award in the business and kept him a relevant, uncontested chart topper since he entered the game.
Henry:However, Drake is not without his critics, who have labeled him a culture vulture, many who consider the incorporation and adaptation of various musical styles and cultural identities into his work as being unauthentic and opportunistic.
Henry:I know that in Jamaica, the music fraternity still believes that his collaborations with rising dancehall superstar popcorn was more about boosting Drake's street credibility than actually advancing popcorn's career.
Henry:Like many artists that have had crossover success with an art form derived from the ghetto.
Henry:Drake has been accused of diluting raps authentic voice and message and exploiting it for mass consumption.
Henry:You used to call me on my cell phone late night when you need my love call me on my cell phone late night when you need my love and I know when there high.
Sia:Line bling.
Henry:Meanwhile, Drake's rival in this rap battle is popular west coast rapper Kendrick Lamare.
Henry:Hailing from Compton, an area in south LA known as a mecca for hip hop music and culture, a tough inner city riddled with gangs, violence and systemic poverty, Kendricks origin story is a true urban legend that begins even before he was born, when his father, a reformed gang member working at a Kentucky fried chicken, miraculously had his life spared by a would be armed criminal who was attempting to rob the police, ready to shoot up the whole staff.
Henry:But Kendricks dad engaged the gun, humored him, eventually convincing him to leave the premises without injuring anyone.
Henry:Fast forward almost two decades later when that same gunman from KFC would now be a reformed businessman trying to make it in the music business.
Henry:Hed start top dog entertainment and his burgeoning label would make a name for itself by discovering the hottest young talent from the hood and putting out mixtapes that earn the respect of the ever critical Compton streets.
Henry:First to break out from the pack was a local rapper named J Rock, who would sign with Warner Bros.
Henry:Records and release his first single with Lil Wayne and Will am I as features.
Henry:Next to break out from the label was J Rocks insightful and introspective hype man, a youth from Compton named Kendrick Lamar, known as K Dot.
Henry:Thats right.
Henry:In this divine double twist of fate, it turns out that top dog, the man responsible for discovering and believing that Kendrick Lamar would become one of the greatest in the game, was also the same armed gangster that almost killed Kendricks father all those years ago.
Henry:And if he would have pulled the trigger, there would have never been a Kendrick.
Henry:Now, of course, Drake being signed to one of raps most successful and powerful hip hop collectives, young money, along with Lil Wayne, Nicki Minaj, DJ Khaled and others, gave him an honorary hall pass, sort of a qualified immunity from any fallout or critique from his atypical rap background, lack of street credibility, or even use of the n word.
Henry:And in those times when Drake was confronted and tested in battle, he had a billion dollar army at his back.
Henry:The top writers, tough as beats and best producers and marketing machine at his beck and call like a well armed assassin.
Henry:Drake had always been able to eliminate any threat quickly and efficiently.
Henry:Enter the inner city dragon.
Henry:Kendrick Lamar Ghetto poet a Pulitzer Prize winner in music, an award that's usually given to the very upper echelons of music composers and authors in KDOT series of methodical and surgical musical takedowns.
Henry:He was able to accomplish in just a few months what no rapper has been able to do in the past decade, break Drakes shield of invincibility and expose him as raps emperor with no clothes.
Henry:Growing up in Compton, seeing the daily struggles all around him, Kendrick made a conscious choice to start focusing his music on social issues, going against the wishes of a more commercial leaning music industry.
Henry:However, to fans and critics, this decision was seen as meaningful, impactful, and it was profitable.
Henry:His last tour was the highest grossing for a solo rap artist in history.
Henry:You see, Kendrick had spent his career building up significant cultural capital in the community, and when he cashed it in with the song not like us, it turned him into a ghetto gagillionaire.
Henry:No, im not sponsored by at and t.
Henry:I just like that too.
Henry:In dismantling Drake, Kendrick used the Toronto rappers own lyrics and songs against him, casting dispersion on his street credibility, coining him Malibu's most wanted, mentioning Drakes obsession for dating young woman very young, the shady side characters in his orbit, and the use of strategic guest artists with street credibility to boost his own standing in the community.
Henry:But perhaps the most stinging rebuke in the song is when Kendrick raps that Drake is not a colleague, he's an effen colonizer, a line particularly brutal and savage in a post Covid, post Ferguson, post awokaliptic world where the term colonizer has wider implications beyond music, especially given Drake's ethnic background.
Henry:The general consensus by industry insiders and laypeople alike is that this was a war that Drake should have avoided his credibility, his legacy.
Henry:Both took a hit.
Henry:He should have stayed in his lane, kept making songs that, as Kendrick says, make you wave your hands in the air and feel good.
Henry:But as we know, when many artists reach the top, they become disconnected from their roots.
Henry:They forget who they are, what got them there in the first place.
Henry:Instead, they buy into and believe all the B's that their legions of yes men spew on a daily basis.
Henry:On July 4, when Kendrick dropped the record setting video for the song not like us, which features him rolling around the streets of Compton surrounded by hordes of LA's hip hop faithful from all walks of life, from rival gangs and disparate camps, all uniting, coming together to celebrate ghetto life and culture.
Henry:By contrast, that same day, Drake was pictured attending billionaire Mike Rubins star studded white party in the Hamptons, surrounded by Hollywood celebrities, elite financiers, and tech bros.
Henry:All bending over backwards to show how down they are with black culture by attending an all white party.
Henry:Not a great look for Drake.
Henry:In fact, every photo from that party could have easily had the caption, not like us.
Henry:Like Jerry Seinfeld says, who are these people?
Henry:In the past season of crucifixion of the ghetto, we address this question of appropriation and authenticity, this uptown downtown divide where the corporate interests have hijacked kero culture in order to make it a more palatable and marketable commodity.
Henry:Reggae and dancehall need to take notice of this musical feud.
Henry:Learn from what this moment tells us about the evolving face of music in the 21st century.
Henry:In my view, this is a defining moment in modern music.
Henry:And to break it down, simple Jamaica needs more kendricks and less drakes.
Henry:And im not saying the world doesnt need feel good party music and songs that make us escape the stress and monotony of everyday life.
Henry:Its just that we also need artists that understand the fundamental struggles and pressures of life on the streets, especially in reggae and hip hop.
Henry:And when given the choice, authentic art and culture will always win out.
Henry:The great Confucius says, it's by three methods we learn reflection, which is the noblest, imitation, which is the easiest, and experience, which is the bitterest.
Henry:Why do you think it is that Bob Marley had, like, 17 children, many of them singers and musicians, artists that I rate as being top tier talent.
Henry:Yet out of all his children and now grandchildren, none of their very best music even comes close to their father.
Henry:Bob's most average songs.
Henry:Why is that?
Henry:You think it's an accident?
Henry:No.
Henry:Bob had something that isn't passed down through genes or DNA.
Henry:Bob Marley had the experience of growing up in Trench town, Jamaica, getting a chance to see his fellow mandarin at their lowest moments of depravity and at their greatest hours of triumph, he survived the ghetto, endured the hardships so his children wouldnt have to.
Henry:In Bob Marley providing his family with a better life, free from the shackles of poverty, he also deprived them of their ability to fully understand or experience the deep despair that those chains can inflict.
Henry:Thats what Bob Marley meant when he sang the words.
Henry:Who feels it, knows it?
Henry:And it's what Kendrick Lamar means when he raps the words.
Henry:They not like us.
Kendrick Lamar:Any rat nigga he a freak though, man damn call an amber lambs tell him breathe, bro.
Kendrick Lamar:Nella nigger to the cross, he walk around like Tzo.
Kendrick Lamar:What's up with these jabroni ass niggas?
Kendrick Lamar:Trying to see Compton?
Kendrick Lamar:The hindustry can hate me, fuck em all, ain't they?
Kendrick Lamar:Mama, how many opps?
Kendrick Lamar:You really got too many options.
Kendrick Lamar:I'm Finna pass on this body.
Kendrick Lamar:I'm John Stockton, beat your ass and hide the bible if God watching, sometimes you gotta pop out and show niggas certified boogeyman, I'm the one that up to score with him, walk him down whole time I know he got some hoe in him, pole on him, extort shit, bully the floor on him.
Kendrick Lamar:Say, Drake, I hear you like I'm young, you better not ever go to sell black one to any bitch that talk to em and they in love, just make sure you hide your little sister from em.
Kendrick Lamar:They tell me chubbs the only one that get your hemi downs and party at the party playing with his nose now and Baka got a weird case why is he around?
Kendrick Lamar:Certified lover boy, certified pedophiles that fuck em up.
Kendrick Lamar:I'ma do my stuff why you trolling like a bitch?
Kendrick Lamar:Ain't you tired?
Kendrick Lamar:Trying to strike a chord and it's poly, a minor.
Kendrick Lamar:They not like us, they not like us.
Kendrick Lamar:They not like us.
Kendrick Lamar:They not like us.
Kendrick Lamar:They not like us.
Kendrick Lamar:They not like us.
Kendrick Lamar:You think the bagel let you disrespect pop nickel?
Kendrick Lamar:I think that Oakland show go beyond stock nickel.
Henry:They cold.
