I am sure that Yorkshire Pudding visitors will be delighted to learn that at yesterday's Grammy Awards, the "song of the year" category was won by Kendrick Lamar's "Not Like Us". It is widely acknowledged that thirty seven year old Kendrick is the second greatest rap artist of all time after Jay-Z. Not only did "Not Like Us" win "song of the year", it also won "record of the year" which is of course something very different.
You must have heard "Not Like Us"? Surely you have. In the song, Kendrick Lamar reveals his rapping genius and his lyrical brilliance. He's like the Percy Bysshe Shelley of the rapping world.
People will be humming "Not Like Us" far off into the future because that's what happens with great songs isn't it? First of all, I am going to put up a video of "Not Like Us"- just in case you missed it somehow and then I will copy and paste in a sample of the incredible lyrics ...
Say, Drake, I hear you like 'em young
You better not ever go to cell block one
To any bitch that talk to him and they in love
Just make sure you hide your lil' sister from him
They tell me Chubbs the only one that get your hand-me-downs
And Party at the party playin' with his nose now
And Baka got a weird case, why is he around?
Certified Lover Boy? Certified pedophiles
Wop, wop, wop, wop, wop, Dot, fuck 'em up
Wop, wop, wop, wop, wop, I'ma do my stuff
Why you trollin' like a bitch? Ain't you tired?
Tryna strike a chord and it's probably A minor
⦿
As you may have already guessed, I was being facetious about "Not Like Us". I have always detested rap music and imagined that by now the trend would have died a death.
"Not Like Us" is typically delivered in such a swift, badly enunciated manner that you just cannot make out the words. And when you read the lyrics - as with the sample above - you seem to find aggression, rudeness and banality.
But is there something amiss with my judgement? Am I straitjacketed by my age and my white Anglo Saxon perspective? Is there an element of subconscious racism in my distaste for the rap recordings of Jay-Z, Kendrick Lamar and all the others whose fake names interest me as much as what is languishing in our rubbish bin?
It's hard to know. Maybe I should be more charitable and open-minded about rap music - make more of an effort to appreciate it as, apparently, millions of rap fans do. However, at present, I must be honest, I find all rap songs pretty much the same - impenetrable, superficial, nasty and inherently forgettable. How "Not Like Us" could become both the "song of the year" and the "record of the year" is beyond me. Let's sing along...
Mm
Mm-mm
He a fan, he a fan, he a fan (Mm)
He a fan, he a fan, he a
Freaky-ass nigga, he a 69 God
Freaky-ass nigga, he a 69 God
Hey, hey, hey, hey, run for your life
Hey, hey, hey, hey, run for your life
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