Kendrick Lamar‘s former label president has revealed the reason his smash hit “Not Like Us” was not included on his latest album GNX.
Top Dawg Entertainment executive Terrence “Punch” Henderson was answering questions from fans on X (formerly Twitter) on Monday (February 3) when one person asked him: “Hey @iamstillpunch do you have some education for us as to why Dot didnt include the mega smash on the album?” — referring to the Drake diss song.
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The TDE president simply replied: “Integrity. That record was for the battle. The album was a separate thing. Could have put it on there to boost overall sales but [chose] to leave it for what it was. Integrity.”
Check out his post below.
Integrity. That record was for the battle. The album was a separate thing. Could have put it on there to boost overall sales but choose to leave it for what it was. Integrity.
— Punch TDE (@iamstillpunch) February 4, 2025
“Not Like Us” wouldn’t have made an impact on GNX‘s initial chart performance as previously released singles aren’t counted by Billboard when calculating first-week sales (although they do count towards total sales after this point).
The album hardly struggled without it, opening with almost 319,000 equivalent units — good enough for a number one debut on the Billboard 200.
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It also spawned its fair share of hits, with “Squabble Up” soaring to the top of the Billboard Hot 100 and “TV Off,” “Luther,” “Wacced Out Murals” and “Hey Now” cracking the top five.
Had “Not Like Us” been included on the tracklist, however, GNX would have sped past one million units within two weeks of its release, according to Chart Data.
“Not Like Us” itself raced to the million sales mark in just two weeks — the fastest song of last year to achieve the feat — and has since surpassed over six million units in the U.S., making it one of the biggest selling songs of 2024.
The track has also been a huge success among critics, winning all five awards it was nominated for at the 2025 Grammys this past weekend, including Record of the Year and Song of the Year.
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“Not Like Us” is the first ever diss song to win a Grammy and the most decorated rap song in the awards show’s history.
While the Mustard-produced anthem was a devastating lyrical missile that secured Kendrick victory in his high-profile feud with Drake, this concept of integrity was at the heart of the deeper meaning behind the hit song.
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The Compton rapper shared his definiton of “Not Like Us” in an interview with Harper’s Bazaar last year, saying: “Not like us is the energy of who I am, the type of man I represent. This man has morals, he has values, he believes in something, he stands on something.
“He’s not pandering. He’s a man who can recognize his mistakes and not be afraid to share the mistakes and can dig deep down into fear-based ideologies or experiences to be able to express them without feeling like he’s less of a man.”
He added: “If I’m thinking of ‘Not Like Us,’ I’m thinking of me and whoever identifies with that.”
