advertisement
Rb Hip Hop

Kendrick Lamar Gets Former Toronto Raptor DeMar DeRozan For 'Not Like Us' Music Video

Drake is the global ambassador of Canada's lone NBA team, and one of its most beloved former players makes a cameo in the diss track targeted at him.

DeMar Derozan in Kendrick Lamar's 'Not Like Us' Music Video

DeMar Derozan in Kendrick Lamar's 'Not Like Us' Music Video

YouTube

On America's Independence Day, Kendrick Lamar just made things personal for Canadian basketball fans.

The rapper dropped his much-anticipated music video for "Not Like Us" tonight (July 4), which is filled with thinly veiled visual shots at Drake. The diss track's video was filmed in Compton, and it feels like the whole city came out to celebrate at Drake's expense.


For fans in Toronto, though, there's one cameo that cuts especially deep: DeMar DeRozan.

The NBA player appears at the 2:43 mark during this line: "I'm glad DeRoz' came home, y'all didn't deserve him neither."

For those who didn't catch the reference initially, or who thought he was somehow referring to D-Rose (another NBA player, Derrick Rose), it's now painfully obvious who it's about.

advertisement

The Compton-born professional basketball player is now a member of the Chicago Bulls, but was drafted by the Toronto Raptors — Canada's lone NBA team, for which Drake serves as the global ambassador.

He was traded in 2018 for Kawhi Leonard, who then led the Raptors to their first NBA championship that season. In multiple interviews since then, DeRozan has talked about how he felt betrayed by the trade and had wanted to play his whole career in Toronto. But he never had a bad word for the city or the fans, who continue to treat him like a hometown hero every time he returns.

DeRozan was once close enough to Drake that he accidentally spilled the beans on an upcoming mixtape, so it's hard not to interpret this as him picking his hometown rapper Kendrick Lamar's side.

DeRozan also appeared onstage at Kendrick's Juneteenth "Pop Out" concert in Los Angeles, so this doesn't come fully out of nowhere. But his brief cameo looking into the camera in the "Not Like Us" video feels another direct hit.

advertisement

advertisement
Sum 41
Courtesy Photo

Sum 41

Rock

Sum 41 Release Two Swan Song Spotify Singles Ahead of Final Performance at 2025 Junos

The stripped back version of hit "Landmines" and cover of Rage Against The Machine's "Sleep Now In The Fire" are available now on Spotify as the pop-punk band veterans prepare for their last bow.

Sum 41 are making some final noise before they call it day.

The Canadian pop-punk icons have released two Spotify singles ahead of their final broadcast performance at the 2025 Junos this Sunday, March 30.

keep readingShow less
advertisement