Snoop Dogg has said he did not have a side in the Kendrick Lamar–Drake feud, but thinks ‘Not Like Us’ united the West Coast.
The two rappers traded a series of back-and-forth diss tracks earlier this year, stemming from Lamar’s verse on Future and Metro Boomin’s ‘Like That‘ in March. ‘Not Like Us’ was Lamar’s most successful diss, becoming his fourth Number One song and breaking Spotify’s record for the most streams of a hip-hop song in one day.
Speaking about the feud on the Drink Champs podcast, Snoop said that ‘Not Like Us’ “unified the West.”
“So, it may have been disrespectful, but it’s hip hop, so it’s part of hip hop,” he said. “I chose no sides because I have no individual cause. That’s a grown man going against a grown man. But what it did do was unite the West, and make everybody out here start looking at each other like how much love we got for each other.”
During a special live episode of @drinkchamps at #ComplexCon, Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre spoke on the overarching impact of Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us” pic.twitter.com/PR7TkdTJVQ
— Complex Music (@ComplexMusic) November 18, 2024
“The Bloods had a peace treaty,” he added. “You had certain Crip gangs that came together and became, you know, real friends as opposed to being enemies. So that record did a lot for us on the West as far as uniting, so we should speak on that.”
Snoop did inadvertently play some part in the feud when Drake used an AI-generated version of his voice on his track ‘Taylor Made Freestyle’ in April. “You gotta show this fucking owl who’s boss on the West / Now’s a time to really make a power move”, the AI Snoop raps on the track.
Kendrick recently spoke about the deeper meaning of ‘Not Like Us’, describing it as “the energy of who I am, the type of man I represent”.
In other Snoop news, he is preparing to release ‘Missionary’, the follow-up to his 1993 debut ‘Doggystyle’. It will see him reunite with producer Dr. Dre and is due out on December 13 via Death Row Records. It is set to feature a host of stars, including Sting.
Dre had previously said he hoped for a November release date, and explained that ‘Missionary’ differs from ‘Doggystyle’ because: “This one’s gonna show a different level of maturity with his lyrics and with my music. I feel like this is some of the best music I’ve done in my career.”
Snoop also recently spoke about meeting Sexyy Red for the first time and telling her “you got star power”. He is also reported to have made $9million (£7.1million) for his spotlight-stealing antics at this year’s Olympic Games in Paris.
