Back in April, Billboard magazine, the music industry’s recordkeeper for chart success, took the chance to try to predict what would be the song of the summer. At the time the publication considered Beyoncé’s “Texas Hold ’Em” and Ariana Grande’s “We Can’t Be Friends” to be front-runners, as well as “Like That,” the collaboration by rappers Future, Metro Boomin and Kendrick Lamar.
Two weeks after Billboard asked what would be the song of 2024’s summer, Drake released “Push Ups.” The track insulted a number of people in the rap industry, but Drake took particular aim at Lamar, going so far as to mock his height and shoe size. Drake came at Lamar directly the following week with “Taylor Made Freestyle.” And on the last day of April, Lamar responded with the six-minute dissertation “Euphoria.”
Eventually Billboard selected Post Malone’s “I Had Some Help” featuring Morgan Wallen as the “song of the summer.” Lamar’s chart topper “Not Like Us” — the fourth track in his back and forth with Drake — was somehow ranked third. I was a little shocked. To be honest, I thought the “song of summer” conversation was over in June after Lamar performed “Not Like Us” five times at his Pop Out concert at the Forum.
Two Americas, I guess.
Then again, “Not Like Us” is not a song, it’s a revelation as Lamar would say.
A rather prescient one, considering how much racial tension and identity politics shaped the general election, particularly after Vice President Kamala Harris became the nominee. On “Like That” and “Euphoria,” Lamar threw haymakers at Drake. However, by the time we heard “Us,” Lamar was simply using Drake as a symbol to provoke a larger conversation about authenticity, accountability and manhood.
Through that lens, including “Us” on a best-of-summer list is akin to referring to the locs on my head as a hairstyle — technically true, yet culturally tone-deaf.
“Let me tell you what that record did do. It united the West,” Snoop Dogg said recently on the podcast “The Champs,” adding it made “everybody out here start looking at each other like how much love we got for each other … so we should speak on that.”
Absolutely. We certainly don’t have a problem talking about conflicts in hip-hop — whether a beef between two stars or a clash between Bloods and Crips. So why can’t we acknowledge the love?
While other forms of music are routinely acknowledged for their healing power, the vulnerability embedded in the lyrics of hip-hop is often overlooked. And because of that, the humanity of the artist rapping those lyrics is easily overlooked. Lamar’s seven Grammy nominations this year, the Super Bowl gig lined up for next year and the streaming records are all outstanding. And none of that would have been possible without the social commentary that accompanies the music.
This includes “GNX,” the surprise album Lamar released Friday. While he does continue to hammer away at Drake personally, the power of Lamar was always his ability to make a single story about an individual feel like an analogy about all of us. Where “Not Like Us” left off, “TV Off” and “Man at the Garden” picked up in terms of production value and searing observations.
It’s funny to think that back in April, Lamar was somewhere minding his own business before Drake came for his crown — and missed. Since then, the culture has gone back and forth between headlines about something outlandish from the election and social media going crazy about another Kendrick Lamar surprise.
Song of the summer?
Record of the year?
Those monikers couldn’t begin to encapsulate just how brilliant and bright Lamar has been in a year full of dark moments.
Think of it this way: In 2012, LeBron James won the regular season MVP, an NBA title, Finals MVP and Olympic gold in London. Only one other player had accomplished all of that in a single year — Michael Jordan. That’s when the debate over who is better began in earnest. After cementing his legacy with a historic summer, James started the following season wearing a pair of gold gym shoes in honor of his Olympic achievement and officially announcing his arrival among the game’s greatest.
As life would have it, the week before that game, Lamar announced his arrival among the greats as well, dropping “Good Kid, m.A.A.d City.”
And like James he’s been breaking records ever since. However unlike for James, the debate over the greatest in Lamar’s game is over.
