"They Not Like Us" emerged as a big winner for last night's Grammy Awards, getting nods as
Record of the Year, Song of the Year, Best Rap Performance, Best Rap Song, and the one category we really track, Best Music Video.
Winners: Dave Free & Kendrick Lamar, video directors; Jack Begert, Cornell Brown, Sam Canter, Jared Heinke, Jamie Rabineau & Anthony Saleh, video producers
Kendrick Lamar's Drake diss "Not Like Us" takes another step towards being the unifying West Coast anthem of the moment with a sprawling and free-spirited video that ends with the OVO owl in a cage.
Billed as a Short Film, "We Cry Together" goes even beyond that: It's essentially a filmed piece of live theater. Kendrick Lamar and Taylour Paige go back and forth at each other as the camera roves around them, capturing the raw conversational rap and the even more NSFW ending.
This shit may be hard, but Kendrick Lamar continues to make it look easy with another tight track and a video filled with unexpected imagery at every turn.
There's a brief tease of escape and wish-fulfillment in the limo — isn't there always? — but otherwise we remain on the street where things are sadly more complicated.
