Photo Credit: Spotify
Streams for Kendrick Lamar’s ‘Not Like Us’ spike over 430% on Spotify following his halftime show performance, with other songs from his set list seeing greatly increased activity.
No matter which team you were rooting for during this year’s Super Bowl, Kendrick Lamar got fans hyped all across the country. Eager to hear more of the Grammy-winning rapper’s catalog, and especially his diss track, “Not Like Us,” viewers made Kendrick Lamar’s Spotify listenership spike drastically after his performance on Sunday night.
“Not Like Us,” K.Dot’s scathing Drake diss track turned viral sensation and cultural moment, saw the biggest boost of the night with an increase of over 430% within the hours following his halftime performance. That’s not surprising, given fan enthusiasm for the track earned the rapper five Grammy Awards just last week.
But that song was only one of many to see tremendous growth in listenership across Spotify — Kendrick Lamar’s catalog overall saw an increase of 175%.
Specifically, other songs from his halftime show set list saw the largest numbers: “Humble” saw an increase of 300%; “All the Stars,” his duet with SZA, enjoyed a 290% boost; “man at the garden,” “DNA.,” “euphoria,” “squabble up,” and “peekaboo” experienced a 230-260% jump; “luther,” and “tv off” both saw more than 170% additional listenership.
And it wasn’t just Kendrick who’s already enjoyed a huge spike in streaming numbers. His special guest, songbird SZA, also saw an 80% increase in Spotify streams following her appearance.
Fans of Lamar and followers of his well-documented beef with fellow Universal Music rapper Drake have been speculating in the lead-up to the halftime show whether he would perform “Not Like Us.” Drake’s legal team has indicated that their ongoing defamation suit with UMG would escalate into the billions should the label giant and the NFL allow Kendrick to perform the song during Sunday night’s show.
Ultimately, Lamar performed the massive hit, keeping its Drake disses and overall anti-OVO commentary intact, but notably omitting the use of the word “pedophile.” But that didn’t stop the entire stadium from singing along to the song’s biggest line: “trying to strike a chord and it’s probably ‘A minor.’”
One of the biggest hits of 2024, “Not Like Us” was released during Lamar’s ongoing feud with Drake, and one of several diss tracks aimed at the Certified Lover Boy rapper. These include “euphoria,” which he also performed at the Super Bowl.
“Not Like Us” spent two weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100, and a whopping 20 weeks atop the Hot Rap Songs chart. It also won Lamar all five of the Grammy Awards for which it was nominated, bringing his career total Grammy wins to 22.