Kendrick Lamar Says ‘Not Like Us’ Represents His ‘Morals’

Kendrick Lamar said a whole lot about “Not Like Us” and the type of person it’s about, without saying too much at all, in a new interview with SZA for Harper’s Bazaar. 

During the conversation, SZA asked Lamar what “Not Like Us” — his scathing, smash Drake diss — “means” to him. Lamar reportedly laughed and replied, “Not like us? Not like us is the energy of who I am, the type of man I represent.” 

Asked to describe that man, Lamar continued: “This man has morals, he has values, he believes in something, he stands on something. He’s not pandering. He’s a man who can recognize his mistakes and not be afraid to share the mistakes and can dig deep down into fear-based ideologies or experiences to be able to express them without feeling like he’s less of a man.”

Tying a neat, shady bow on the brief discussion of one of the year’s biggest songs, Lamar dismissed the notion that the diss track came from a place of anger. “I don’t believe I’m an angry person,” he said. “But I do believe in love and war, and I believe they both need to exist. And my awareness of that allows me to react to things but not identify with them as who I am.”

Elsewhere in the interview, SZA spoke about her own creative process and how she tries to express herself with the right amount of vulnerability, without going overboard. She mentioned writing a song last summer, for instance, that was “too honest,” and she “couldn’t put it out.” 

“I just be telling on myself so crazy and I can’t stop,” she continued. “It’s like I have to tell on myself so I’m not bored. Because otherwise, I’m just like, what’s the point?”

SZA went on to say that sometimes when she’s in the studio it “hurts too much,” which is why she occasionally pretends to be other artists — like Lamar, Frank Ocean, or Future. “It’s easier to be me through their eyes than it is to sit with some of the really harsh things that I say about myself to myself,” she said. “I guess I want to say nicer things about myself. So I’m like, I guess I shouldn’t look through my eyes. I should look through somebody else’s.”