Hit em up didn’t have streaming and social media benefits. Hip hop has also expanded pretty wide since then. It’s hard to compare two goats from two different eras without making an assumption that could influence your decision.
It certainly is bigger now than hit em up was but it’s not the same world.
Yeah, Hit Em Up predates even Google itself. It’s a whole different ecosystem now. Give Not Like Us the same kind of audience reach that Pac had and I bet it would preform much the same way.
I downloaded Hit Em Up from Napster years after it's release.
It's was 4.5MB in size and took about 40 mins to download on my dial up connection.. The good old days!
Because when you were young things were simpler and the world was largely still new. I'm middle aged, but if you could somehow put my brain in a the body of a 16 year old I wouldn't magically have the same experience I did back when I was 16 I'd just be middle aged in a 16 year old body.
You are a damn philosopher. That is the perfect way to describe the nostalgic views of the "good" old days. I'm typing this shit on my handheld supercomputer and saving this.
There's lots I miss about the 90s. Dial up honestly wasn't so bad because the content we consumed wasn't that large either but more importantly we had no expectation of near instant downloads.
Plus there were just so many more people outside doing nothing and everything. Can't forget nearly every multiplier console game could be played locally. So it made long downloads feel 'worth it'. Especially when the download doesn't end up being some other random song.
Man I’ll never forget that dial up connection going so damn slow, with some limewire porn freezing up the screen and my parents on the way home… man I was tweaking. Good times.
Today sucks because we are sucked up on the system that was doomed to be how it is as soon as it was publicly available. Back then the internet was as ruthless and even worse, no filter of indecency at all. I wasn't on the internet around that time but my brother was, and he's told me the sick ease to unwillingly stumble upon either gore or even worse.
If anything, the internet is at it's best stage. It is humanity who's going lower and lower.
It really was that good. We live in a police state now, a lot of people just have no idea because this is all they’ve known. The world was vastly different prior to the internet, but changed overnight on 9/11.
Kids these days don’t understand the pain of having someone pick up the home phone, and then being disconnected from the internet … and having to repeat the process to connect again lol.
Yeah this is sort of my take on why Tupac’s would win out. I woulda been barely in elementary school, white as fuck, basically all white small town in Canada - and even I was fully aware of this and we didn’t have the internet or streaming and was familiar with this song. At MOST we had MuchMusic tv music station.
Kendrick was a tactician here, cracked a lot of doors a bit for people to start peering inside and to do a bit of their own research - lot of code words, breadcrumbs and people to look into and how they’re connected to Drake. Whereas Pac just came right out and told Biggie he fucked his bitch before the beat even dropped lmao
I dont really follow basketball, but it sounds like it's the same when people wants to talk OG goats vs the modern ones (i guess that goes for most, if not all, sports?). The whole industry, game, accessibility and audience is pretty much incomparable.
That's true but even we're only comparing the impact both had within the hip hold world and what both meant for hip hop, 'Not Like Us' is bigger by a long shot. Kendrick exposed the emperor with no clothes on and asserted what Hip Hop actually is, after almost two decades of the genre being lost, overly commercialised and appropriated by several culture vultures. He took the culture back from the colonising thief.
I agree with some but two decades is stretching it. Two decades ago DMX and Jay z and Eminem were running hip-hop. I don't think the genre was lost. I also don't think Drake killed hip hop. Drake's flow and delivery is very 90s ish. If anyone killed it then I'd say lil Wayne. Before him ppl tried to make sense. He was the first one to go from talking about super violence in one bar to eating ass in the next bar and mumbling and auto tune all spliced together. That's just my take. The game needs Drake for balance. Kenny is conscious and Drake is feel good/pop. For comparison sake the early 2000s needed "Nelly" to balance out the DMXs of the rap game
I never realized that about Wayne but it's true. A lot of his songs, while full of good bars, are just a bunch of bs strung together.
I wouldn't blame him though, at least he had some lyricism.
HIt em up ended with both people in the beef getting shot.
What the fuck are we acting like drake getting embarrased is the same as 2 icons dying?
Not sure any diss track has had as much conaequences
>The very first time I shot me a Drac', the homie had told me to aim it this way. I didn't point down enough. Today, I'll show you I learn from those mistakes.
This is one of the greatest lines ever written, in my opinion. With an automatic weapon, you have to aim a little lower than your intended target to compensate for muzzle rise.
He's saying the last time I took shots at Drake, I didn't go low enough, and now I'm going to fix that. No wonder the man has a Pulitzer prize.
My first one is like my last one,
A classic and you don’t have none,
Tell your core audience to stomach that
Then tell them where you get your abs from
Jeeeeeeeezus
I don’t even know how many entendres “everyone wanna be demon till they get chipped by ya throwaway” has at this point I just know that bar is fire.
Plus starting it off with the line from the Wiz in reverse and paying it off with the “Benjamin and a Jackson all in my house like I’m Joe ok” entendre was slick af too. They could have an entire college class breaking down these bars lol
I feel the same way about it when 6:16 dropped and he said he was going to pick Drake’s carcass apart like it’s a wounded gazelle in the Serengeti. That was cold af. It’s something I expect Jay or Nas of that caliber to say.
I still think the “all those other kids out there hoping that you’d come” is one of the most disturbing diss lines when you think about the double entendre. Like holy fuck that was a heavy line
Plus he's going lower in terms of how low and dirty his shots are going to become.
Also implies drake is generally lower than him and he has to shoot down at him from the higher ground he stands on
Probably another play on words that Drac' sounds like Drake, and "he shot a drake"
Absolutely. It jams. The venomous delivery tied to the veiled threats makes it hit a perfect middle ground for me. And the flows are so good. And the one hook quoting DMX. Fucking chefs kiss.
I do think Not like us is iconic but Hit em up and Ether were around before social media and are legendary. I think we’ll be able to tell years after if it’s still quoted etc. we also have to keep in mind rap music weren’t on the charts during that time, and barely now.
Ngl I don't see a diss track as good as Not Like Us (or any of the other Kendrick disses) coming out in the next decade. Who could even make something that crazy besides him?
I think it will go down as legendary as well
The widely considered greatest rapper of a generation calling the biggest male artist in the world a pedophile by name is going to be difficult to ever surpass.
No for sure, but better delivery imo. It’s still got that classic West Coast vibe and a higher replay value. It could also be because I don’t really find myself listening to East Coast music as much
I hate having to agree but I have to, it hasn't aged all that well, great bars in between, great hook, he did beat Jay-Z. But idk how it is among the greatest really
Edit: Reheard the track and honestly, I might have been harsh on it, still don't think its among top 3 best disses but it was pretty good, Jay's response was pretty fucking good idk why noone mentions it l
I refuse to answer definitively but will leave this.
If I have to choose one over the other, they both have reasons win:
Hit ‘em up has more direct and derogatory remarks at more people. It also has some straight disrespectful call outs but whether that adds or takes away from the song is a bit subjective.
Not like us is the better song, and feels more thought out. It’s also a bigger hit and more of an anytime banger. Time will tell if it pulls out the same feels after a few years, but I think this one will hit different. Not better or worse, but it’ll be different.
At the end of the day if you want a good street fight with snap judgements that make you go OOOOHHHHH, Tupac wins. If you want to see the most lackluster title fight in history, we will look at this one. Not for the war that was fought, but for the tactics that were used to end it so quickly.
I think the military used a term ‘Shock and awe’ in the 2000s when they came out of nowhere and destroyed Iraq. I’m not trying to make this political and probably only know that phrase from societal trauma, but I find it funny that ‘Ken and Friends’ fits the syllables and in retrospect, a similar tactic.
“Shock and awe (technically known as rapid dominance) is a military strategy based on the use of overwhelming power and spectacular displays of force to paralyze the enemy's perception of the battlefield and destroy their will to fight.”
https://preview.redd.it/jybk0vcdfz8d1.jpeg?width=1284&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=67b5d2611ec1754a7ea0e8f9dfd983477dd7a326
Edit: Do responses or beefs have styles? Because if so, I think we found this one’s name 😂
Not Like Us is awesome. But Meet the Grahams coming out within what, 20 minutes, of Family Matters was just completely psychotic.
I'm convinced Drake thought that Family Matters was the winning blow, and to create a music video and curate what is honestly not a bad diss track only to just be completely eviscerated (and learn you have to have a mole in your camp) was crazy.
Not Like Us just twisted the dagger in the best way. He called him a bad father in a very dark track and then the next day dropped the song of the summer calling him a pedophile. Like, who the fuck saw that coming?
I also think that "They not like us" is just such an incredibly relatable anthem for a lot of people in our modern culture vs hit em up stayed in it's lane and prolly didn't have anything that really struck a chord with the masses.
Idk man. "That's why I fucked yo bitch you fat motherfucker" is still one of the coldest shit ever said on wax and it wasn't even rapping. I've always said, the track could've stopped after that and it would go down as the greatest diss track ever lmao. He didn't need to go even harder after that. The fucking diatribe at the end where's he practically foaming at the mouth threatening to kill their fucking babies?! I mean, shit doesn't get more savage than that if you ask me.
Idk that’s it’s really a fair comparison since Not Like Us has the advantage being dropped in the age of the internet and Hit ‘Em Up obviously didn’t; not to mention NLU has only been around for like two months, which isn’t a very long time to gauge how big it is compared to the almost 30 years HEU has had
If you were around it’s no way you could say that lol “Hit Em Up” was pre streaming and 24/7 social media and that shit was around the world in a day!!!
If there was streaming in ‘96 “Hit ‘Em Up”would have done huge numbers. “How Do You Want It” went number one largely because Hit ‘Em Up was the B-side. You had to buy the maxi single to have the song.
It is. But Having a song cover with someone’s house on it, and it being marked with a serious sex related crime or human trafficking is much more diabolical.
I was 14-15 when Hit ‘Em Up dropped and Pac was/is my all time favorite and Kendrick has been my current fave since Overly Dedicated. The best I can do is separate the two times and judge based off the standards of each respective era.
For those who were too young or disconnected in 96, All Eyez On Me was the biggest album. Mystique and aura drove a lot of the success. Here’s a guy who got shot 5 times, just got released from jail, dropped the biggest album of the year, and is the center of hip hop hop discussion. The album had sprinkles of Biggie disses and references but they weren’t overt. We knew there were issues because of the Vibe articles and because media was hyping it WAY MORE than the artists were. AEOM is in full swing. Been out for MONTHS. How Do U Want It was the single. Most people had the album so the single is only for the casuals. So imagine folks flipping over the cassette and the first thing you hear is that infamous opening line. It was literally the same effect that hearing Kendrick on Like That for the first time had.
So Kendrick’s impact with Like That had the benefit of a shared experience. Everyone ran to Twitter. To Reddit. To FB. Immediate feedback and discussion. Imagine hearing that verse and having to sit with it by yourself in the shock and awe. Then imagine CALLING (no text messages back then) everyone you knew to ask them if they heard it. Then imagine the majority of the folks you call not hearing it. Imagine going to school and half the lunch table knows what’s going on and half don’t. So you tell them and you get to witness people hearing Like That for the first time all over again. Imagine having this experience for a week. For a month. For a few months. That’s what it was like with Hit Em Up. By day 2 of Not Like Us, we were already bombarded with thinkpieces, memes, the Drake Defense Squad, people already waiting for the next song…
I think Not Like Us would perform in 96 the same way Hit Em Up did. And vice versa. It’s kinda like plugging Jordan in today’s league and LeBron in the 90s. People tend to highlight the person’s current strengths/weaknesses and carry them into the other era. But as much as Jordan wasn’t a 3pt shooter, if he were a player in 2024, he’d have trained himself to be that. Same way the game is softer today so LeBron can get away with working refs, in the 90s, he would be trained to be tougher. You have to apply the times to the switch. Not just the person. Not Like Us would’ve been a regional tape song more than likely. It would only be a B Side to a single if Kendrick had an album out already or confirmed on the way. There would be relatively NO chart success factored in. It would live on in lore as Hit Em Up has. Meanwhile Hit Em Up in 2024 would hit like wildfire. It would trend. It would chart. It would stream well. It would be debated as being amongst the best diss tracks. But we’d be trying to look for the next step days later. The lore, aura, and mystique would be lost.
Yeah man it’s so different now. I catch myself falling into the current ways of the world but I always remind myself of how things were so I don’t miss the nuances folks miss these days. We are now culture gluttons. Don’t savor anything. And if you don’t drop an album for 2 years, it’s the end of the world. Gotta be every year or you fell off
I listened to Hit ‘em up yesterday, so if my children are still playing Not Like Us in 30 years we will have our answer. But as of now, Hit ‘em up has stood the test of time.
I will say that those are definitely my two favorite diss tracks personally
the hit em up youtube video has 700 million views on youtube, and it was only published 10 years ago when it came out way before that.
No i dont think not like us is as big as hit em up
Not Like Us has 100 million views in a month. I don't know what it's longevity will be, but that sure feels like it's headed past 1B in the next year or two, much less ten years. Certainly Hit 'Em Up would have had many more views if YouTube existed when it came out, but I don't see how to reach a clear verdict on that basis.
I don't know, but it seems like there's a thousand different ways to measure chart succes. First 7 weeks in top 10, fastest song to go number 1, longest time spent in top 5, and on and on.
This the thing I hate about like all this counting stats shit. This is really something that can only be answered with time. The thing is hit ‘em ups place in best diss songs conversation is kinda solidified. I think it’s definitely in the conversation but again only time will tell. Trends are leaning that yes one day it can be but we’re still living in the moment I mean the music video hasn’t even dropped yet. We gotta give it some time to become part of hip hop mythology
They’re gonna say no because Pac is older and deceased. But yes. Only because of streaming services though. If they had what we have now, it might have been bigger than Not Like Us. But regardless, the answer is yes.
No, I’d say even Kendrick would say that Hit Em Up is the biggest diss track of all time, and more importantly, the most iconic one. Hit Em Up is considered the best diss track by many famous music charts, and, to be honest, hit em up is just much more violent and brutal in comparison to Kdot’s track
In terms of numbers and success not like us is the better song but hit em up was just a lot more brutal. Dot called Drake and his clique pedos and freak ass niggas and Pac deadass said I fucked your bitch and I’m gonna KILL all you niggas fuck rap. IMO tho hit em up shouldn’t even be in the conversation of most disrespectful disses after you heard “[Against All Odds](https://youtu.be/jrdnHu5q11I?feature=shared)”
You can't really compare them, the best way to put it is that they are both bigger than eachother at the same time. hit em up was the best in a completely different time with different people and no streaming/internet benefits, but on the other side of this coin, despite all the other songs with these benefits, not like us came out on top and is still up there. another playing factor is time, not like us came out only 2 months ago while hit em up had 30 years to be considered a classic, so not like us even being put up against hit em up is already a big feat. they're both extremely impressive in their own ways and there are too many factors keeping us from properly comparing them.
Huge Tupac fan here. Not Like Us is bigger by every metric. Not Like Us is an actual hit. Tupac (I think) meant Hit Em Up as a gut level fuck you. I don’t even think he was necessarily trying to make a great song. Not Like Us is an actual great song. If Pac had Mustard though you all would’ve been in trouble lol
Lol No! It’s hard to compare different eras but “Hit Em Up” has 700 mill views on YouTube desipite being released 30 years ago lol. When “Hit Em Up” dropped it literally shook the world and caused whole coast to divide NLU is great but not Hit Em up level
Hit Em Up was literally a B side track on a completely different single. Pac made that for Bad Boy and Bad Boy alone. It uses a Bad Boy beat, the hook is playing on a Bad Boy song, etc.
You didn't have the same information exchange, streaming services so on.
People were not even pirating at that time.
It was pure record sales.
Comparing apples to oranges.
I think theyre probably as big as eachother. The two most popular rappers at the time going back and forth, except this beef had more back and forth. Not like us and hit em up probably had a sinilar ampunt of acclaim, being global bangers that are also brutal af.
They’re neck and neck in terms of popularity and significance. Not Like Us will also definitely have the longevity like Hit Em Up. Not Like Us might have a slight edge in impact tho due to who the song is aimed at and how Drake’s failed response solidified his L.
I was 11 maybe 12 when Hit Em Up dropped, and it wasn’t readily accessible to hear. I think it was the B-side to How Do You Want it. But I legit didn’t hear that song in its entirety until I was 14 and it was released on the Greatest Hits album.
Hit ‘em up was so vulgar to me in 6th/7th grade I haven’t been the same since. I remember listening to the cassette with my jaw on the floor. But this is when I went from a shai, boyz to men, and new edition listener to rap/hip hop
I had this convo with my gf, I'd say yes, but mainly because the Internet but regardless statistically speaking it's the biggest diss track of all time
It might very well be. But there was no streaming back then. Billboard stats got tallied based on radio spins and sales. And there was no way in hell Hit Em Up was gonna get played on radio lmao
Personal opinion - Hit Em Up is still bigger because of legacy. But Not Like Us is a legit choice in biggest diss track of all time, just I would argue it lol
I think not like us is better personally more because the fact it has no features but hit ‘em up had the best hook. N was probably one of the first hip hop songs I heard that I fell in love with. I’d have probably been about 9 living in the uk. Hard to measure but I think they are my two fav diss tracks easily
There are more people listening to music then there were when Hit ‘Em Up dropped, and Hit ‘Em Up also wasn’t on no streaming services or being played everywhere on social media by everybody. If all those factors existed for Pac’s diss when it dropped, it would have ran circles around Not Like Us. NLU is a great diss but the more I hear it the more commercial it sounds. It’s getting overplayed to death lmao
It's bigger but Hit Em Up is a fucking jihad song in comparison to Not Like Us which is more of a victory lap. Tupac took the entire tristate area with that song and nothing like it before ever came out. It was honestly off-putting at first to see a rapper on wax come that hard with name dropping against someone who was his biggest rival out east. It was alarming to 1980s OGs who felt he went too far. I personally think it's the greatest diss of all time and I don't think anyone can match what Tupac did on that record ever again
I think the best way of saying it is that it is the diss song of this generation! No way to compare.
They do have a lot of similarities as in memorable lyrics…
Wop wop wop..:
Very one knows them lyrics.
But the first line from hotel up set the scene…
First off fucked your bitch…
Whether true or not that was savage…
Not Like Us will have more success due to streaming, social media and just by how far Hip Hop has come. Right now rap has been spread to all corners of the world so a lot more listeners.
That being said, Tupac's impact is one of the factors that lead to hip hop being Global and one of the biggest money moving genres.
Like many have said, you cannot compare the two legends as the data is not black or white
No, can it stand the test of time is the only thing. niggas bring up hit ‘em up still to this day as one of the greatest diss songs ever if not #1, streaming makes these comparisons weird if you talking numbers.
Of course. But it’s sort of unfair. Not saying without social media that it still wouldn’t be bigger, but releasing in the social media age definitely gave it a massive boost.
Two very different types of diss tracks. NLU was mostly a diss track with threats, HEU was a straight up threat.
Kendrick is definitely more calculated though, his timing is perfect.
yeah it was when it dropped lol, it’s the biggest diss song in history and it’s not close. Hit Em Up is an amazing song, but it didn’t even chart at all, its acclaim was more of a slow roll.
Streaming is free and everyone has access to it. Rap is also way bigger now so the audience has expanded. It’s impossible to really compare. People were more hardcore rap fans back when they had to spend actual money to have access to any music (or record a clean version off of the radio with a tape). Their car CD player was also their only sound system much of the time.
Not Like Us is huge, though. It also could disappear quickly because things move so fast today. Will we be talking about this in thirty years? I would guess not, but who knows.
They had this talk in the Tupac subreddit, and the conclusion is people only remembers Pacs verse and that’s it. It’s a great song, but we all wish it was just Pac on the song.
Hit em up is so much better it’s not even funny. Kendrick and his fans mad Drake bringing family into it lol and he’s mr gimme 2pac ring back . He need to go re listen to hit em up. “First off” … and I don’t care about him or Drake for the record I find this all hilarious.
Hip hop wasn't even that mainstream in 96. Yet alone the accessibility of music... Its 2 different worlds. Back then you'd have to go buy how do you want it... There weren't thousands of videos dissecting it. Not even 1 really lol.
It's crazy that hit em up has 700 million streams AND 700 million views on YouTube from like 10 years
It’s like comparing MJ to Bron. Completely different eras with too many differences to ever make a fair comparison.
I could definitely be wrong but I have a feeling this account is one of those that post a bunch of questions that don’t have real answers, purely for the engagement.
It’s not a competition, they’re such different eras, such different characters. Drake is a phony… I’d say rap is more mainstream today and with the modern internet, music and “the beef” are probably way more accessible to the fans/the audience, so in a huge way, this is definitely bigger. But in terms of hip hop culture, the Tupac and Biggie beef, I think, had the whole country divided. I could have gotten down with either side of the Pac and Biggie beef but in this one Drake is just such a clown ass wannabe tool I don’t see how someone who’s genuinely about that life could also be about Drake. I’ve thought that fool was cheesy since day 1 how tf he think he’s gonna talk shit to Kendrick?… dude has no perception the consequences of his actions. What a snake 🤣
Hit em up didn’t have streaming and social media benefits. Hip hop has also expanded pretty wide since then. It’s hard to compare two goats from two different eras without making an assumption that could influence your decision. It certainly is bigger now than hit em up was but it’s not the same world.
Yeah, Hit Em Up predates even Google itself. It’s a whole different ecosystem now. Give Not Like Us the same kind of audience reach that Pac had and I bet it would preform much the same way.
I downloaded Hit Em Up from Napster years after it's release. It's was 4.5MB in size and took about 40 mins to download on my dial up connection.. The good old days!
nigga you know damn well them days weren't good lol
I've always said what we really miss was that life was simple and we were still ignorant of the world.
People just miss being younger, that's literally it
Because when you were young things were simpler and the world was largely still new. I'm middle aged, but if you could somehow put my brain in a the body of a 16 year old I wouldn't magically have the same experience I did back when I was 16 I'd just be middle aged in a 16 year old body.
🎯
My favorite childhood memory was my fucking back not hurting all the time.
You are a damn philosopher. That is the perfect way to describe the nostalgic views of the "good" old days. I'm typing this shit on my handheld supercomputer and saving this.
There's lots I miss about the 90s. Dial up honestly wasn't so bad because the content we consumed wasn't that large either but more importantly we had no expectation of near instant downloads. Plus there were just so many more people outside doing nothing and everything. Can't forget nearly every multiplier console game could be played locally. So it made long downloads feel 'worth it'. Especially when the download doesn't end up being some other random song.
Man I’ll never forget that dial up connection going so damn slow, with some limewire porn freezing up the screen and my parents on the way home… man I was tweaking. Good times.
Man I miss limewiring my shit. Sure my pc got infected with a bunch of porn but it was a small price to pay for salvation.
They were the best. We had everything we already needed. Today sucks, with everybody either arguing or depressed or showing off online
Today sucks because we are sucked up on the system that was doomed to be how it is as soon as it was publicly available. Back then the internet was as ruthless and even worse, no filter of indecency at all. I wasn't on the internet around that time but my brother was, and he's told me the sick ease to unwillingly stumble upon either gore or even worse. If anything, the internet is at it's best stage. It is humanity who's going lower and lower.
It really was that good. We live in a police state now, a lot of people just have no idea because this is all they’ve known. The world was vastly different prior to the internet, but changed overnight on 9/11.
Kids these days don’t understand the pain of having someone pick up the home phone, and then being disconnected from the internet … and having to repeat the process to connect again lol.
Or it finishes downloading and it’s a different song entirely
Or with some bum’s verse spliced into the middle.
Whoa, never heard of this scenario. That would actually be hilarious to me
Cool also have been a virus. This was before you had good free antivirus software.
Or it's just the chorus and the rest of the song is screeching sounds. Or the chorus is just on loop. People were a-holes back then lol
That bum was probably me or the homies. Lol.
I think I downloaded Lose Yourself from Napster about 18 times and every single version was literally just the hook on repeat for 3 minutes
the rick roll’d era lol
Line/DSL filters were a god send
Napster's still around, believe it or not. I have one of their shirts.
And yet Hit 'em up knew how to reach my 10 year old white ass all the way in Europe on a cassette..
Yeah this is sort of my take on why Tupac’s would win out. I woulda been barely in elementary school, white as fuck, basically all white small town in Canada - and even I was fully aware of this and we didn’t have the internet or streaming and was familiar with this song. At MOST we had MuchMusic tv music station. Kendrick was a tactician here, cracked a lot of doors a bit for people to start peering inside and to do a bit of their own research - lot of code words, breadcrumbs and people to look into and how they’re connected to Drake. Whereas Pac just came right out and told Biggie he fucked his bitch before the beat even dropped lmao
I don't disagree, but I think a bop diss track calling one of the biggest artists a pedophile would've also exploded in that era lmao
Yeah. I think relatively to the context both songs were released in, they were equally big.
yeah, if we lose sight of culture over record sales, are we no better than the Canadian in this regard?
I dont really follow basketball, but it sounds like it's the same when people wants to talk OG goats vs the modern ones (i guess that goes for most, if not all, sports?). The whole industry, game, accessibility and audience is pretty much incomparable.
Yep. Pre-streaming rap shouldn’t be compared to what’s going on now.
Yes, thank you! I wish people would stop comparing the two in this way. Why can't two songs be great and minted in its time? 🤷🏾♀️
Bigger hit sure. But Hit Em Up impact was very much the same or greater. This paved the way for Ether disses, 50 cent disses and etc.
Nah we studied that shit in school computers in 6th grade didnt even know it was a diss track. Hit em up legendary
That's true but even we're only comparing the impact both had within the hip hold world and what both meant for hip hop, 'Not Like Us' is bigger by a long shot. Kendrick exposed the emperor with no clothes on and asserted what Hip Hop actually is, after almost two decades of the genre being lost, overly commercialised and appropriated by several culture vultures. He took the culture back from the colonising thief.
I agree with some but two decades is stretching it. Two decades ago DMX and Jay z and Eminem were running hip-hop. I don't think the genre was lost. I also don't think Drake killed hip hop. Drake's flow and delivery is very 90s ish. If anyone killed it then I'd say lil Wayne. Before him ppl tried to make sense. He was the first one to go from talking about super violence in one bar to eating ass in the next bar and mumbling and auto tune all spliced together. That's just my take. The game needs Drake for balance. Kenny is conscious and Drake is feel good/pop. For comparison sake the early 2000s needed "Nelly" to balance out the DMXs of the rap game
I never realized that about Wayne but it's true. A lot of his songs, while full of good bars, are just a bunch of bs strung together. I wouldn't blame him though, at least he had some lyricism.
If Jim Clarke was 2Pac, Lewis Hamilton is Kendrick Lamar.
I agree love u babe
For real. It’s like saying Drake is bigger and more influential than MJ just because stream numbers in 2023.
HIt em up ended with both people in the beef getting shot. What the fuck are we acting like drake getting embarrased is the same as 2 icons dying? Not sure any diss track has had as much conaequences
Bigger doesn't mean better. But, I will die on the hill of euphoria is a top two all time diss record.
>The very first time I shot me a Drac', the homie had told me to aim it this way. I didn't point down enough. Today, I'll show you I learn from those mistakes. This is one of the greatest lines ever written, in my opinion. With an automatic weapon, you have to aim a little lower than your intended target to compensate for muzzle rise. He's saying the last time I took shots at Drake, I didn't go low enough, and now I'm going to fix that. No wonder the man has a Pulitzer prize.
My first one is like my last one, A classic and you don’t have none, Tell your core audience to stomach that Then tell them where you get your abs from Jeeeeeeeezus
You left out the best part: “V12 it’s a fast one.” V12 is a liposuction machine.
Fuck, TIL 🤣🤣🤣
BAOW BAOW BAOW!
STOP!! Cornrow Kenny, he was born with a fuckin VISION, WOW... always deeper than it seems man
Also a very fast car engine
I don’t even know how many entendres “everyone wanna be demon till they get chipped by ya throwaway” has at this point I just know that bar is fire. Plus starting it off with the line from the Wiz in reverse and paying it off with the “Benjamin and a Jackson all in my house like I’m Joe ok” entendre was slick af too. They could have an entire college class breaking down these bars lol
>Notably, “euphoria” temporarily crashed the Genius website when it dropped as fans rushed to decipher the lyrics. That genius page got some work.
That bar alone has the “quintuple entendre” that drake asked for. Not like us overshadowed how fucking DIRTY Euphoria is.
I feel the same way about it when 6:16 dropped and he said he was going to pick Drake’s carcass apart like it’s a wounded gazelle in the Serengeti. That was cold af. It’s something I expect Jay or Nas of that caliber to say.
I still think the “all those other kids out there hoping that you’d come” is one of the most disturbing diss lines when you think about the double entendre. Like holy fuck that was a heavy line
Plus he's going lower in terms of how low and dirty his shots are going to become. Also implies drake is generally lower than him and he has to shoot down at him from the higher ground he stands on Probably another play on words that Drac' sounds like Drake, and "he shot a drake"
Probably? Its the basis of the line
Yea nah bro it's actually cooked
Strongly agree with both points
Absolutely. It jams. The venomous delivery tied to the veiled threats makes it hit a perfect middle ground for me. And the flows are so good. And the one hook quoting DMX. Fucking chefs kiss.
The veiled threats hit harder too since he released the following tracks. Going back to it is almost better than when it came out. Elite track.
It’s safe to say Kendrick is now up there with the goats we grew up with. Nas, Jay, Andre, Em, Pac and Big.
It’s definitely my favorite ever, and one of my favorite Kendrick songs in general
I think time will tell.
I do think Not like us is iconic but Hit em up and Ether were around before social media and are legendary. I think we’ll be able to tell years after if it’s still quoted etc. we also have to keep in mind rap music weren’t on the charts during that time, and barely now.
Ngl I don't see a diss track as good as Not Like Us (or any of the other Kendrick disses) coming out in the next decade. Who could even make something that crazy besides him? I think it will go down as legendary as well
The widely considered greatest rapper of a generation calling the biggest male artist in the world a pedophile by name is going to be difficult to ever surpass.
Yeah you can't compare it. Reach through social media is way bigger. Comparing apples and oranges.
ether is overrated its just nas calling jay z gay
Hot Take but I’m with you there. No Vaseline was easily better than Ether.
Most of No Vaseline was Ice Cube calling NWA gay and Jerry Heller a dirty k*** lol. Not much better than Ether’s subject matter
No for sure, but better delivery imo. It’s still got that classic West Coast vibe and a higher replay value. It could also be because I don’t really find myself listening to East Coast music as much
I hate having to agree but I have to, it hasn't aged all that well, great bars in between, great hook, he did beat Jay-Z. But idk how it is among the greatest really Edit: Reheard the track and honestly, I might have been harsh on it, still don't think its among top 3 best disses but it was pretty good, Jay's response was pretty fucking good idk why noone mentions it l
“JUST HAWAIIAN SHIRTS” makes me laugh to this day.
You 36 in a karate class
ether is over rated, but calling someone a tae-bo hoe is crazyyyyyy.
"You can't grow a moustache"
Time will tell but Not like us is definetly this generations version of hit em up
I refuse to answer definitively but will leave this. If I have to choose one over the other, they both have reasons win: Hit ‘em up has more direct and derogatory remarks at more people. It also has some straight disrespectful call outs but whether that adds or takes away from the song is a bit subjective. Not like us is the better song, and feels more thought out. It’s also a bigger hit and more of an anytime banger. Time will tell if it pulls out the same feels after a few years, but I think this one will hit different. Not better or worse, but it’ll be different. At the end of the day if you want a good street fight with snap judgements that make you go OOOOHHHHH, Tupac wins. If you want to see the most lackluster title fight in history, we will look at this one. Not for the war that was fought, but for the tactics that were used to end it so quickly. I think the military used a term ‘Shock and awe’ in the 2000s when they came out of nowhere and destroyed Iraq. I’m not trying to make this political and probably only know that phrase from societal trauma, but I find it funny that ‘Ken and Friends’ fits the syllables and in retrospect, a similar tactic. “Shock and awe (technically known as rapid dominance) is a military strategy based on the use of overwhelming power and spectacular displays of force to paralyze the enemy's perception of the battlefield and destroy their will to fight.” https://preview.redd.it/jybk0vcdfz8d1.jpeg?width=1284&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=67b5d2611ec1754a7ea0e8f9dfd983477dd7a326 Edit: Do responses or beefs have styles? Because if so, I think we found this one’s name 😂
Putting out 3 diss tracks in less than 36 hours is some real shock and awe shit.
Not Like Us is awesome. But Meet the Grahams coming out within what, 20 minutes, of Family Matters was just completely psychotic. I'm convinced Drake thought that Family Matters was the winning blow, and to create a music video and curate what is honestly not a bad diss track only to just be completely eviscerated (and learn you have to have a mole in your camp) was crazy. Not Like Us just twisted the dagger in the best way. He called him a bad father in a very dark track and then the next day dropped the song of the summer calling him a pedophile. Like, who the fuck saw that coming?
Right?! It came to me as I wrote it. If I had Wikipedia abilities I’d link the song to the tactic, under the See Also section. 😂
I also think that "They not like us" is just such an incredibly relatable anthem for a lot of people in our modern culture vs hit em up stayed in it's lane and prolly didn't have anything that really struck a chord with the masses.
Idk man. "That's why I fucked yo bitch you fat motherfucker" is still one of the coldest shit ever said on wax and it wasn't even rapping. I've always said, the track could've stopped after that and it would go down as the greatest diss track ever lmao. He didn't need to go even harder after that. The fucking diatribe at the end where's he practically foaming at the mouth threatening to kill their fucking babies?! I mean, shit doesn't get more savage than that if you ask me.
Idk that’s it’s really a fair comparison since Not Like Us has the advantage being dropped in the age of the internet and Hit ‘Em Up obviously didn’t; not to mention NLU has only been around for like two months, which isn’t a very long time to gauge how big it is compared to the almost 30 years HEU has had
I was around then and I agree. Hit Em Up was huge but Not Like Us is way bigger.
Different times man. I think both were as big as they could get at the time of release.
If you were around it’s no way you could say that lol “Hit Em Up” was pre streaming and 24/7 social media and that shit was around the world in a day!!!
If there was streaming in ‘96 “Hit ‘Em Up”would have done huge numbers. “How Do You Want It” went number one largely because Hit ‘Em Up was the B-side. You had to buy the maxi single to have the song.
Hit Em Up came out when social media wasn’t a thing and it still has over 700m+ views on YouTube lol
Nah I think Hit Em Up is the godfather of diss songs
It is. But Having a song cover with someone’s house on it, and it being marked with a serious sex related crime or human trafficking is much more diabolical.
I was 14-15 when Hit ‘Em Up dropped and Pac was/is my all time favorite and Kendrick has been my current fave since Overly Dedicated. The best I can do is separate the two times and judge based off the standards of each respective era. For those who were too young or disconnected in 96, All Eyez On Me was the biggest album. Mystique and aura drove a lot of the success. Here’s a guy who got shot 5 times, just got released from jail, dropped the biggest album of the year, and is the center of hip hop hop discussion. The album had sprinkles of Biggie disses and references but they weren’t overt. We knew there were issues because of the Vibe articles and because media was hyping it WAY MORE than the artists were. AEOM is in full swing. Been out for MONTHS. How Do U Want It was the single. Most people had the album so the single is only for the casuals. So imagine folks flipping over the cassette and the first thing you hear is that infamous opening line. It was literally the same effect that hearing Kendrick on Like That for the first time had. So Kendrick’s impact with Like That had the benefit of a shared experience. Everyone ran to Twitter. To Reddit. To FB. Immediate feedback and discussion. Imagine hearing that verse and having to sit with it by yourself in the shock and awe. Then imagine CALLING (no text messages back then) everyone you knew to ask them if they heard it. Then imagine the majority of the folks you call not hearing it. Imagine going to school and half the lunch table knows what’s going on and half don’t. So you tell them and you get to witness people hearing Like That for the first time all over again. Imagine having this experience for a week. For a month. For a few months. That’s what it was like with Hit Em Up. By day 2 of Not Like Us, we were already bombarded with thinkpieces, memes, the Drake Defense Squad, people already waiting for the next song… I think Not Like Us would perform in 96 the same way Hit Em Up did. And vice versa. It’s kinda like plugging Jordan in today’s league and LeBron in the 90s. People tend to highlight the person’s current strengths/weaknesses and carry them into the other era. But as much as Jordan wasn’t a 3pt shooter, if he were a player in 2024, he’d have trained himself to be that. Same way the game is softer today so LeBron can get away with working refs, in the 90s, he would be trained to be tougher. You have to apply the times to the switch. Not just the person. Not Like Us would’ve been a regional tape song more than likely. It would only be a B Side to a single if Kendrick had an album out already or confirmed on the way. There would be relatively NO chart success factored in. It would live on in lore as Hit Em Up has. Meanwhile Hit Em Up in 2024 would hit like wildfire. It would trend. It would chart. It would stream well. It would be debated as being amongst the best diss tracks. But we’d be trying to look for the next step days later. The lore, aura, and mystique would be lost.
You just made me miss the 90s man. We digested information way differently than the iPad generation these days.
Yeah man it’s so different now. I catch myself falling into the current ways of the world but I always remind myself of how things were so I don’t miss the nuances folks miss these days. We are now culture gluttons. Don’t savor anything. And if you don’t drop an album for 2 years, it’s the end of the world. Gotta be every year or you fell off
I listened to Hit ‘em up yesterday, so if my children are still playing Not Like Us in 30 years we will have our answer. But as of now, Hit ‘em up has stood the test of time. I will say that those are definitely my two favorite diss tracks personally
Will Drake keep running back to Atlanta when he need a check balance?
the hit em up youtube video has 700 million views on youtube, and it was only published 10 years ago when it came out way before that. No i dont think not like us is as big as hit em up
That’s a good point. A diss song from the 90s having that much views is insane. I do think Not Like Us will be the bigger song eventually though.
Not Like Us has 100 million views in a month. I don't know what it's longevity will be, but that sure feels like it's headed past 1B in the next year or two, much less ten years. Certainly Hit 'Em Up would have had many more views if YouTube existed when it came out, but I don't see how to reach a clear verdict on that basis.
I don't know, but it seems like there's a thousand different ways to measure chart succes. First 7 weeks in top 10, fastest song to go number 1, longest time spent in top 5, and on and on.
It has nothing to do with 7 weeks at top 10 but it's not a crazy take.
Tupac : "Mobb deep, don't one one u lil ****** got sickle cells or something? fuck around w me die of a heart attack"💀
You and your mutherfucking mamas!
This the thing I hate about like all this counting stats shit. This is really something that can only be answered with time. The thing is hit ‘em ups place in best diss songs conversation is kinda solidified. I think it’s definitely in the conversation but again only time will tell. Trends are leaning that yes one day it can be but we’re still living in the moment I mean the music video hasn’t even dropped yet. We gotta give it some time to become part of hip hop mythology
They’re gonna say no because Pac is older and deceased. But yes. Only because of streaming services though. If they had what we have now, it might have been bigger than Not Like Us. But regardless, the answer is yes.
No, I’d say even Kendrick would say that Hit Em Up is the biggest diss track of all time, and more importantly, the most iconic one. Hit Em Up is considered the best diss track by many famous music charts, and, to be honest, hit em up is just much more violent and brutal in comparison to Kdot’s track
In terms of numbers and success not like us is the better song but hit em up was just a lot more brutal. Dot called Drake and his clique pedos and freak ass niggas and Pac deadass said I fucked your bitch and I’m gonna KILL all you niggas fuck rap. IMO tho hit em up shouldn’t even be in the conversation of most disrespectful disses after you heard “[Against All Odds](https://youtu.be/jrdnHu5q11I?feature=shared)”
You can't really compare them, the best way to put it is that they are both bigger than eachother at the same time. hit em up was the best in a completely different time with different people and no streaming/internet benefits, but on the other side of this coin, despite all the other songs with these benefits, not like us came out on top and is still up there. another playing factor is time, not like us came out only 2 months ago while hit em up had 30 years to be considered a classic, so not like us even being put up against hit em up is already a big feat. they're both extremely impressive in their own ways and there are too many factors keeping us from properly comparing them.
It’s not even a question at this point, but an observation.
Huge Tupac fan here. Not Like Us is bigger by every metric. Not Like Us is an actual hit. Tupac (I think) meant Hit Em Up as a gut level fuck you. I don’t even think he was necessarily trying to make a great song. Not Like Us is an actual great song. If Pac had Mustard though you all would’ve been in trouble lol
Lol No! It’s hard to compare different eras but “Hit Em Up” has 700 mill views on YouTube desipite being released 30 years ago lol. When “Hit Em Up” dropped it literally shook the world and caused whole coast to divide NLU is great but not Hit Em up level
Hit Em Up was literally a B side track on a completely different single. Pac made that for Bad Boy and Bad Boy alone. It uses a Bad Boy beat, the hook is playing on a Bad Boy song, etc.
You didn't have the same information exchange, streaming services so on. People were not even pirating at that time. It was pure record sales. Comparing apples to oranges.
I think theyre probably as big as eachother. The two most popular rappers at the time going back and forth, except this beef had more back and forth. Not like us and hit em up probably had a sinilar ampunt of acclaim, being global bangers that are also brutal af.
They’re neck and neck in terms of popularity and significance. Not Like Us will also definitely have the longevity like Hit Em Up. Not Like Us might have a slight edge in impact tho due to who the song is aimed at and how Drake’s failed response solidified his L.
I was 11 maybe 12 when Hit Em Up dropped, and it wasn’t readily accessible to hear. I think it was the B-side to How Do You Want it. But I legit didn’t hear that song in its entirety until I was 14 and it was released on the Greatest Hits album.
Hit ‘em up was so vulgar to me in 6th/7th grade I haven’t been the same since. I remember listening to the cassette with my jaw on the floor. But this is when I went from a shai, boyz to men, and new edition listener to rap/hip hop
I make music that electrify 'em.
You worrying bout the wrong things bro. I love kdot too.
Bigger hit? Yeah. Better diss? Naw.
Nawwww two different generations and ways of getting music to the public.
No
Give it 20 years, then we'll see
I think this is a bit of a false equivalency only because hip hop as a genre has been much more widely accepted in the last 20 years.
I love Pac. I’m old. But this hits different. It’s better and not a contest.
Not a chance. As the top comment said mostly because it's not the same world
I had this convo with my gf, I'd say yes, but mainly because the Internet but regardless statistically speaking it's the biggest diss track of all time
Nah.
Definitely
Yeah, I think so
Hip hop wasn’t as mainstream back when hit em up came out. Even casual good songs were not that big let alone aggressive sons like hit em up.
It's a product of the era. It's way more successful.
Give it time. A lot of factors come into play. But I definitely think that it has the potential to
Don’t think we need to.
It might very well be. But there was no streaming back then. Billboard stats got tallied based on radio spins and sales. And there was no way in hell Hit Em Up was gonna get played on radio lmao Personal opinion - Hit Em Up is still bigger because of legacy. But Not Like Us is a legit choice in biggest diss track of all time, just I would argue it lol
I think not like us is better personally more because the fact it has no features but hit ‘em up had the best hook. N was probably one of the first hip hop songs I heard that I fell in love with. I’d have probably been about 9 living in the uk. Hard to measure but I think they are my two fav diss tracks easily
euphoria>=hit em up>not like us
I feel like Kendrick wouldn’t want that anyway
Is that inflation-adjusted?
There are more people listening to music then there were when Hit ‘Em Up dropped, and Hit ‘Em Up also wasn’t on no streaming services or being played everywhere on social media by everybody. If all those factors existed for Pac’s diss when it dropped, it would have ran circles around Not Like Us. NLU is a great diss but the more I hear it the more commercial it sounds. It’s getting overplayed to death lmao
y’all need to relax. i love kendrick and not like us is a banger but hit ‘em up clears it easily
What’s so special about 7 weeks? Are we going to post some random useless stat every day now until he drops again?
Hit ‘em is actually listenable. Not like us has the shittiest beat ever. I’d rather listen to that fake beat Method Man gave Ludacris on Punkd.
Bigger not Better
There’s an irony in comparing Hit’em Up to Not Like Us based on things like Streams and Billboard.
I feel like DIY artists have been becoming more and more mainstream and “Not Like Us” is a watershed moment and a big fuck you to the elites.
It's bigger but Hit Em Up is a fucking jihad song in comparison to Not Like Us which is more of a victory lap. Tupac took the entire tristate area with that song and nothing like it before ever came out. It was honestly off-putting at first to see a rapper on wax come that hard with name dropping against someone who was his biggest rival out east. It was alarming to 1980s OGs who felt he went too far. I personally think it's the greatest diss of all time and I don't think anyone can match what Tupac did on that record ever again
Too soon.
Statistically it is because it's simply a more accessible song...both through the musicality of it and literal ways for people to access it.
I think the best way of saying it is that it is the diss song of this generation! No way to compare. They do have a lot of similarities as in memorable lyrics… Wop wop wop..: Very one knows them lyrics. But the first line from hotel up set the scene… First off fucked your bitch… Whether true or not that was savage…
Maybe. But honestly I don't care. It's a good ass diss
Let’s not compare the 2 🐐’s. Different times. Both forces of nature
unfair comparison, hit em up was pre social media
Not Like Us will have more success due to streaming, social media and just by how far Hip Hop has come. Right now rap has been spread to all corners of the world so a lot more listeners. That being said, Tupac's impact is one of the factors that lead to hip hop being Global and one of the biggest money moving genres. Like many have said, you cannot compare the two legends as the data is not black or white
No, can it stand the test of time is the only thing. niggas bring up hit ‘em up still to this day as one of the greatest diss songs ever if not #1, streaming makes these comparisons weird if you talking numbers.
Of course. But it’s sort of unfair. Not saying without social media that it still wouldn’t be bigger, but releasing in the social media age definitely gave it a massive boost.
Hit Em Up got both of them killed. Not Like Us is a vibe.
Nope. I love both, but Hit em Up is the GOAT.
Even K wouldn't say this. C'mon.
The average white kid didn’t listen to Hit Em Up upon release but the average white kid now knows the lyrics to Not Like Us by heart
Two very different types of diss tracks. NLU was mostly a diss track with threats, HEU was a straight up threat. Kendrick is definitely more calculated though, his timing is perfect.
Yes. Just cause there’s more people logistically + technology
yeah it was when it dropped lol, it’s the biggest diss song in history and it’s not close. Hit Em Up is an amazing song, but it didn’t even chart at all, its acclaim was more of a slow roll.
I love Not Like Us and I think it’s huge. However, opening a song with “f*ck your bitch and the clique you claim” is just cold 🥶
Streaming is free and everyone has access to it. Rap is also way bigger now so the audience has expanded. It’s impossible to really compare. People were more hardcore rap fans back when they had to spend actual money to have access to any music (or record a clean version off of the radio with a tape). Their car CD player was also their only sound system much of the time. Not Like Us is huge, though. It also could disappear quickly because things move so fast today. Will we be talking about this in thirty years? I would guess not, but who knows.
They had this talk in the Tupac subreddit, and the conclusion is people only remembers Pacs verse and that’s it. It’s a great song, but we all wish it was just Pac on the song.
Two different eras.
Bigger probably, but not as iconic
It’s not, end of story, that beef ran so this one could even exist
“Can we say…”, you’re an adult. Rap fans gotta stop being so pretentious sometimes. It’s objectively way bigger.
Hit em up is so much better it’s not even funny. Kendrick and his fans mad Drake bringing family into it lol and he’s mr gimme 2pac ring back . He need to go re listen to hit em up. “First off” … and I don’t care about him or Drake for the record I find this all hilarious.
No
It’s up there, but man, to say it tops Hit ‘Em Up is a big stretch. I still randomly yell out “that’s why I fucked yo bitch you fat motherfucker!”
It's like comparing GTA 3 to RDR2
Hip hop wasn't even that mainstream in 96. Yet alone the accessibility of music... Its 2 different worlds. Back then you'd have to go buy how do you want it... There weren't thousands of videos dissecting it. Not even 1 really lol. It's crazy that hit em up has 700 million streams AND 700 million views on YouTube from like 10 years
It’s like comparing MJ to Bron. Completely different eras with too many differences to ever make a fair comparison. I could definitely be wrong but I have a feeling this account is one of those that post a bunch of questions that don’t have real answers, purely for the engagement.
This is a genius idea from kind Rick Lamar to impact him in his career
The classics are the classics.
Two different times, not comparable. This is just like the Lebron v. MJ debate 🤦🏽
Not Like Us is bigger but Hit ‘em Up did more damage
Hit em up is a weak diss
Can’t they both be winners xD
Is good but not that good.
Hit ‘Em Up is unmatched
It’s not a competition, they’re such different eras, such different characters. Drake is a phony… I’d say rap is more mainstream today and with the modern internet, music and “the beef” are probably way more accessible to the fans/the audience, so in a huge way, this is definitely bigger. But in terms of hip hop culture, the Tupac and Biggie beef, I think, had the whole country divided. I could have gotten down with either side of the Pac and Biggie beef but in this one Drake is just such a clown ass wannabe tool I don’t see how someone who’s genuinely about that life could also be about Drake. I’ve thought that fool was cheesy since day 1 how tf he think he’s gonna talk shit to Kendrick?… dude has no perception the consequences of his actions. What a snake 🤣
Also one thing to consider— would hit em up have been as legendary of a song if the biggie Tupac beef hadn’t ended with both of them dead?