BURBANK, CALIFORNIA - APRIL 09: Rapper Kendrick Lamar speaks onstage during the 2016 MTV Movie Awards at Warner Bros. Studios on April 9, 2016 in Burbank, California. MTV Movie Awards airs April 10, 2016 at 8pm ET/PT. (Photo by Emma McIntyre/Getty Images for MTV)
With a clean sweep in all nominated categories, Kendrick Lamar‘s hit song “Not Like Us” won five awards at the 2025 Grammy Awards despite the song being shrouded in controversy.
K-Dot came into the 67th annual Grammy Awards on Sunday (Feb. 2), with 17 career wins. The Compton, Calif. rapper significantly added to that total as his chart-topping 2024 single “Not Like Us” won five awards out of five nominations. The L.A. anthem won in the categories of Best Rap Song, Best Rap Performance, Best Music Video Record of the Year and Song of the Year.
Kendrick Lamar himself took the stage to accept the award with Mustard in tow. After acknowledging his aunt Sharon, who had recently passed, and shouting out West Coast icon Dr. Dre, Kendrick dedicated his big win to his home city of Los Angeles.
“We’re going to dedicate this one to the city,” Kendrick declares in the video below. “Compton, Watts, Long Beach, Inglewood, Hollywood. Out to the Valley, Pacoima, I.E., San Bernardino, all that. This is my neck of the woods that has held me down since a young pup. I was in the studio, scrapping to write the best raps and all that in order to do records like these.”
Kenny then took the time to give his fellow Californians a sense of hope amid the recent wildfire relief efforts. “I can’t give enough thanks to these places that I rolled around since high school. Most importantly, the people and the families out in the Palisades and Altadena. This is a true testament that we’re going to continue to restore this city. We’re going to keep rocking,” he adds.
