Has Not Like Us surpassed Ether, No Vaseline, and Hit Em Up?

[-DMP-]

This should’ve been a poll with all the songs listed.

 

[JustCKing]

What gets overlooked are a few things:

1) The other songs were not necessarily singles. "Hit Em Up" was a B Side. The other songs were album cuts.

2) This is the streaming era.

3) The other songs are now at least two decades old and we are still talking about them. "Not Like Us" is still relatively new. Its not even a year old. Yes, the song is huge and is one of the biggest songs ever. Still, we don't know how this song will stand the test of time. I remember "Dre Day" being a big deal when it dropped. It hardly gets brought up among the GOAT diss songs.

 

[Nigerianwonder]

That would be Back To Back

That wasn't hardly as big as Not like Us but corporations jumping in on that was weird also. I didnt like it and thought it was lame. More I think about it.. the problem with these type of comparisons is that the culture has changed so much its like comparing two different genres of music. We are in the era of corporate rap. The rules that used to apply in hip hop don't apply anymore.

Every rapper is a "sell out" for corporate brands. That's the standard and actually their goal now and days. Coprations that used to want nothing to do with rap and black folks feel so comforatble now that will insert themselves directly into rap beefs. Have we become so decensitized to black on black violence that wendys and arbys are cool with promoting it in their commecials without fear of any blowback? The streets of black america used to dictate the culture. Thats no longer the case.

This is also why I don't care that drake sued. The old "rules" of hip hop went out the window a long time ago. Fan calling the fbi and spreading weird conspiracy theories etc... This aint just about raps and rhymes and clever punchlines any more. This is uncharted territory.

 

[Ziggiy]

Some of the greatest RnB records of all time didn’t chart at all. Didn’t even have music videos. Look no further than the Debarge catalog.

Thats why there’s a difference between whats great and what HITS

In my opinion the best diss song of the battle was 6:16 in LA. I still run that joint back almost daily. Kendrick caught the holy muthafukking ghost on that song and we should have ALL known who was going to win after it dropped.


But it didn’t have the IMPACT of Not Like Us. And diss songs by nature are all about the IMPACT you create both with the populace and against your opponent. Not Like Us IMPACT cannot be disputed. By any and every metric its the biggest diss song of all time. Doesn’t mean its the “best” in quality but it did the best job at destroying Drake while simultaneously being the song of the summer, the song of the year, and the song of the industry.


I never thought any diss song would surpass Ether in impact, but as things change and evolve we have to be adaptable to those changes. Its unfair to knock points off NLU because of the internet or it going viral just like its unfair to knock points off Ether because it got radio play on New York’s number 1 station for Hip Hop. If we docked points off every diss song for using the advantages at hand then only The Bridge Is Over and Roxanne’s Revenge would be in the running for best diss song.

Not Like Us is undeniable at this point. Kendrick played the cards he had perfectly and came out with a smash. And even with the advantages he had at his disposal its a once in a generation type of achievement to come out with such a successful song. A song calling another man a PEDOPHILE went number 1 in the country and captivated audiences for an entire YEAR. You can’t fake that.

 

[Dave24]

Ether spawned not one but TWO terms that became verbs in the Hip Hop lexicon

The Bridge is Over was the first diss song that affected someone’s career negatively and essentially put an entire projects on ice for a decade.

No Vaseline was one man going against not only a crew, but an evil white man who was pulling the strings. Ice Cube was the first rap “boogeyman” who could stand up against not only a group of rappers, but the machine that was pushing them.

Hit Em Up was so scathingly disrespectful Biggie didn’t even bother to respond until 2pac was DEAD

Meet The Grahams was so shockingly potent that it euthanized Drake’s “red button” response within THIRTY MINUTES


The Story of Addidon exposed Drake as a whore impregnating, black face wearing, deadbeat with massive insecurity and daddy issues

The Takeover, though only half effective, still managed to make Prodigy a laughing stock, stripping him of his gangsta, and he was never quite the same

Not Like Us thoroughly and irrevocably stomped Drake into the ground. The most commercially successfully diss track of all time. It was so widespread that Drake had to FLEE THE COUNTRY to escape it. Winner of FIVE Grammys, performed live at the muthafukking SUPER BOWL!



These in my opinion are the best diss songs of all time. As far as ranking which ones are the “best” i think it really comes down to which one was the most effective at dismantling their opponent so there’s no question as to whose the winner. Hit Em Up is memorable and effective. Almost 30 years later lines are still quotable. The only thing that “hurts” Hit Em Up is that the Outlawz are damn near unlistenable. They suck. You HAVE to cut the song off after Pac (who blessedly goes first)

Ether has been, for twenty years, considered the pinnacle of dissing. The beat, the lyrical takedown, the performance, the timing of the drop on Jay’s birthday, it was all surgical and strategically perfectly executed. Nas made sure that the story of Jay-Z, with all of its accolades and successes, cannot be told without mentioning his Ether as perhaps his singular Loss.

Not Like Us similarly was perfectly written, performed, and timed. Its also a great SONG on its own right. It resurrected Mustard’s career. It put an entire coast at the forefront of the genre. It will go down in history as the defining song of an entire year. Drake will NEVER live the song down. Similar to Ether, the story of Drake cannot be told without Not Like Us being mentioned as a stain on not just his career, but his LIFE.



Going by effectiveness its reallllllly hard to argue against Not Like Us for number 1.

The Ziggmeister

 

[JustCKing]

Also, "Back to Back" was pretty big too when it came out. People were using the charts to bolster its status. Fast forward to 2025, and its an after thought.

 

[Kooze4524]

Also, this thread should really be "Meet The Grahams" vs. "No Vaseline", "Hit 'em up", "Dollaz and Sense" (this track is a classic that should be up there with the rest) and "Ether". "Not Like Us" is a victory lap, not a true, cutting deep diss track like the other ones listed.

I've said it a couple times though, but would have LOVED if Kendrick jumped on the "Dollaz and Sense" beat to bury

Meet the Grahams is more nasty but no. In my opinion, a diss track’s power isn’t just in its lyrics… it’s in its ability to control the narrative. Not Like Us has made Drake a joke on a massive worldwide scale, which is something Meet the Grahams simply can’t match. Drake can brush off Meet the Grahams, but he can't escape a diss track that’s become a global anthem, with crowds everywhere chanting that he’s a pedo. Meet the Grahams is a deep cut personal diss track, but it doesn’t have replay value outside of rap discussions. Not Like Us is a song that people will be playing for years around the world, ensuring Drake’s humiliation isn’t just a moment, it’s a lasting stain.

 

[Ziggiy]

Props to Kendrick for making hip hop proud but with that being said, let's not forget he studied Nas

EVERYBODY studied Nas. At this point we can’t name a rapper Nas ain’t influenced. It just goes without saying.

 

[tehparadox]

What gets overlooked are a few things:

1) The other songs were not necessarily singles. "Hit Em Up" was a B Side. The other songs were album cuts.

2) This is the streaming era.

3) The other songs are now at least two decades old and we are still talking about them. "Not Like Us" is still relatively new. Its not even a year old. Yes, the song is huge and is one of the biggest songs ever. Still, we don't know how this song will stand the test of time. I remember "Dre Day" being a big deal when it dropped. It hardly gets brought up among the GOAT diss songs.

Not like us wasn't released as a single either, it's not on any album and matter of fact, it was released as a free track for the first couple of days before even being uploaded on streaming services.

 

[tehparadox]

Also, "Back to Back" was pretty big too when it came out. People were using the charts to bolster its status. Fast forward to 2025, and its an after thought.

Back to back was nowhere near as big as NLU. NLU isn't just the first diss track to ever reach #1, it's one of the biggest songs ever, in any musical genre. This shyt is also rewriting rules and reaching spots we never thought was possible for rap music

Not Like Us literally has the impact a Michael Jackson song would have in his prime.

 

[Bigbigguy]

Impact probably but I put Euphoria ahead of Not like us personally

 

[Kooze4524]

Also, "Back to Back" was pretty big too when it came out. People were using the charts to bolster its status. Fast forward to 2025, and its an after thought.

Back to Back peaked at #21 on the Billboard Hot 100. It remained on 100 charts for 8 weeks. Please don’t compare it to Not Like Us lol.

 

[JustCKing]

Not like us wasn't released as a single either, it's not on any album and matter of fact, it was released as a free track for the first couple of days before even being uploaded on streaming services.

Amd again that's thanks to this era. Literally every song on a streaming platform is a single because everybody has access to it. Without radio, buying the single, or an album, the songs "NLU" is being compared to wouldn't get the airplay. "Ether" didn't even have a video.

 

[SymbolicOne09]

Highly doubt it. Not Like Us was more impactful than any song in MUSIC when it came out. This shyt transcended hip hop.

I doubt Hit Em Up and Ether would have been able to remove Taylor Swift, Bruno Mars and co from the radar for the rest of the world. Not Like Us did.

 

[JustCKing]

Back to Back peaked at #21 on the Billboard Hot 100. It remained on 100 charts for 8 weeks. Please don’t compare it to Not Like Us lol.

Ya'll need to stop the stanning. I only brought that song up to make a point. "Back To Back" charted higher than the diss songs we are comparing "NLU" to. "Back To Back" is nowhere near as great as these songs, but at the time it came out, it was a "bigger" song than "Ether", "Hit Em Up" and "No Vaseline".