To name “Not Like Us” a cultural second could be an understatement at this level. Kendrick Lamar’s epic diss observe has taken the world by storm because it dropped final summer season, however as of the final two weeks, the file has reached new heights, gaining its widest viewers but after profitable a number of Grammy awards, Kendrick’s Tremendous Bowl efficiency and now, a hilarious send-up on “Saturday Night time Stay.”
As Lamar reaches his wider listener base but, nonetheless, will that in the end change the legacy of the track and this main second total? We’re asking ourselves this after SNL’s “The Homecoming Live performance” at Radio Metropolis Music Corridor, when Will Ferrell and Ana Gasteyer reprised their roles of The Culps.
“The Culps” are a music educating couple whom Ferrell and Gasteyer conceived within the Nineteen Nineties to hilariously carry out prim and correct covers of well-liked songs of the time, together with pop, rock and Hip-Hop hits of the second. For the live performance, they lined huge hits from Chappell Roan, Megan Thee Stallion and sure, Kendrick Lamar.
The gang, after all, went wild as they descended into a canopy of “Not Like Us.” Ferrell, as Marty Culp, then mentioned within the skit, “Are Kenny Lamar and Drake Graham in the home, by the best way? Perhaps you two can hug it out tonight within the title of affection and fellowship? No? Not in Hell?”
A parody on “SNL” is among the biggest honors in Hollywood, however is that this an indication of one thing greater occurring with this track? To be honest, the purpose of a sketch like “The Culps” is for them to do a “classical” cowl of successful track, and what track is greater proper now than Lamar’s no 1 hit on the Scorching 100? However nonetheless, does this imply that Lamar’s observe might not merely be “ours” anymore, however a track for everyone now, one which white listeners will settle for as their very own?
The Sklar Brothers podcast makes this argument of their viral Instagram reel, as they declare Kendrick might have “gained by an excessive amount of” with all of his accolades and his record-breaking efficiency on the Tremendous Bowl. Within the clip, the 2 white comedians warn Lamar, saying, “you don’t need these followers,” quipping that he did so nicely that now his fanbase will inevitably embrace extra white listeners.
“Would you like Bachelorette events of white girls displaying as much as your reveals, drunk on a bunch of white claws, simply culturally appropriating every thing of yours?”
To be clear, an artist can merely make the artwork, they haven’t any management over its consumption, and this argument is one which comes up usually with well-liked Black artists, going all the best way again to frequent pushbacks towards Whitney Houston’s huge recognition with white audiences, all the best way to Beyoncé’s biggest achievements (bear in mind when followers all of a sudden remembered she was Black again when “Lemonade” got here out?)
So, sure, “Not Like Us” could also be reaching new heights (and time will inform what the group appears to be like like at his upcoming tour with SZA), however irrespective of who parodies or consumes Kendrick’s artwork, it’s nonetheless his artwork and it’s nonetheless ours to eat. “Not Like Us” will probably be an anthem eternally and that was decided months in the past, lengthy earlier than these Grammys, the Tremendous Bowl and the “SNL” stage.