Like That (Future, Metro Boomin And Kendrick Lamar Song)

"Like That" is a song by American rapper Future and American record producer Metro Boomin with fellow American rapper Kendrick Lamar. It was sent to US rhythmic radio through Freebandz (under the business name Wilburn Holding Co.), Boominati Worldwide, Epic Records, and Republic as the third and final single from Future and Metro's collaborative studio album, ''We Don't Trust You'', on March 26, 2024.

Solely produced by Metro himself, the three artists wrote the song alongside Kobe Hood; Rodney-O & Joe Cooley are also credited as songwriters as the bass line in the song contains samples of their 1986 song, "Everlasting Bass". "Like That" also has additional elements that contain samples of Eazy-E's 1989 single, " Eazy-Duz-It", and contains a vocal sample of Michel'le. A remix of the song featuring the American supergroup ¥$, composed of Kanye West and Ty Dolla Sign, was released on April 20, 2024.

A trap and hardcore hip hop song that is predominantly composed of lively percussions, "Like That" received positive reviews from music critics, who primarily praised Lamar's performance. His verse, which attracted significant media coverage, is a diss aimed at fellow rappers Drake and J. Cole in response to their 2023 collaboration, "First Person Shooter." "Like That" was quickly met with commercial success, debuting atop the ''Billboard'' Hot 100, Global 200, and Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs charts simultaneously. It was both Future and Lamar's third number-one single on the former chart, and Metro's first as a credited artist. The song also topped the Canadian Hot 100 and peaked within the top ten of several countries in Europe and Oceania.

Background

On October 6, 2023, Drake released the song "First Person Shooter" as part of his album ''For All the Dogs'' with rapper J. Cole, in which the latter shouts out the two rappers and Kendrick Lamar as the "big three" of rap music. Additionally, Drake indirectly called out Metro Boomin in December 2023 for being a "tweet and deleter" after the latter posted a tweet on Twitter aimed at him.

Record producer Metro Boomin announced a collaboration with rapper Future, set to release in 2023. He later tweeted that he had lost three instrumentals due to a power outage. A trailer was released on YouTube, revealing the record's name to be ''We Don't Trust You''. It was teased at Rolling Loud California 2024. It was released on March 22, 2024. "Like That" was licensed to US rhythmic radio and released as the final single of the album on March 26, 2024.

Composition and lyrics

"Like That" is a "bouncy" trap and hardcore hip hop track driven by "rapid" and "uniquely southern" percussions, as well as a "menacing" bassline. It samples two songs: Rodney-O & Joe Cooley's "Everlasting Bass" (1988) and Eazy-E's " Eazy-Duz-It" (1989). Metro Boomin, who has greatly admired the former group, contacted Rodney-O through his record companies and asked for his permission to use the sped-up sample on "Like That". He approved after listening to a version of the song that cut off before Lamar's verse started.

Lyrically, Lamar uses his surprise appearance to directly respond to "First Person Shooter", rapping: "Yeah, get up with me, fuck sneak dissing / "First Person Shooter", I hope they came with three switches". He also rejected J. Cole's idea of the three rappers representing hip hop as its "big three" and claims that he alone takes the top spot: "Motherfuck the big three, nigga it's just big me". Throughout his verse, Lamar compares his rivalry with Drake to Prince's reported feud with Michael Jackson ("What? I'm really like that / And your best work is a light pack / Nigga, Prince outlived Mike Jack"). Drake has notably compared himself to Michael Jackson on numerous occasions, including during the final verse of "First Person Shooter", and Lamar has similarly compared himself to Prince. Lamar also makes references to the Click ("Niggas clickin' up, but cannot be legit / No 40 Water") and Stephen King's 1983 novel '' Pet Sematary'' (" 'Fore all your dogs gettin' buried / That's a K with all these nines / He gon' see ''Pet Sematary"'').

Critical reception

"Like That" received positive reviews from critics. Angel Diaz of ''Billboard'' ranked "Like That" as the third best song on ''We Don't Trust You''. Diaz wrote that the track is "Hip-Hop in its purest form" and described it as "the album's thesis".

Andrew Sacher of ''BrooklynVegan'' argued that the Lamar appearance feels "like an event" and "another great one" at that, as he shows up in a "chest-out, no-bullshit mode" on the track. Carl Lamarre at ''Billboard'' thought that Lamar appeared on the track with "vitriol" while delivering "an explosive verse". ''HotNewHipHop''s Alexander Cole called the beat a perfect fit for Future, "who glides over the track at the beginning and end". Dylan Green of '' Pitchfork'' thought, "It's guest Kendrick Lamar who provides the song's showstopping moment, dropping the therapeutic malaise of 2022's '' Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers'' in favor of coming directly at contemporaries J. Cole and Drake after years of subliminals."

Responses

On April 5, on his mixtape '' Might Delete Later'', J. Cole would go on to diss Lamar on the song " 7 Minute Drill". 2 days later, Cole would go on to apologize to Lamar for the diss and within the same week the track was removed from all streaming platforms.

On April 13, a diss track by Drake, unofficially titled by fans as " Push Ups" or "Drop and Give Me 50", leaked on social media, targeting Future, Metro Boomin, Lamar, the Weeknd and Rick Ross. Two versions of the track were leaked, the first containing a sample of Junior M.A.F.I.A.'s track " Get Money", most famously sampled in rapper Tupac Shakur's diss track " Hit 'Em Up", and the latter omitting the sample and adding an extended sung outro. On April 19, Drake officially released the latter version as “Push Ups”.

On April 19, the same day as "Push Ups" was officially released, Drake posted a second diss track targeted at Lamar, titled " Taylor Made Freestyle", to his Instagram and Twitter profiles. The track featured AI vocals of Tupac Shakur and Snoop Dogg, as well as references to Taylor Swift's album '' The Tortured Poets Department'', which was released on the same day. The track would later be deleted from Drake's profiles due to a lawsuit threat from Shakur's estate over the unauthorized use of the late rapper's AI vocals.

Remix

On April 20, 2024, the "Like That Remix" featuring Kanye West and Ty Dolla Sign, known collectively as ¥$, was previewed on radio stations. It was later played in full on Justin LaBoy's podcast, ''The Download''. The remix was released the following day on West's website, Yeezy.com, as a video file that simply shows the song's cover with the song playing in the background. The song was later released on West's YouTube channel.

Lamar is absent from this remix. The remix features vocals from the Inter Milan ultras, who West refers to as the "Hooligans." They were also featured on the duo's 2024 song "Carnival".

Commercial performance

Upon the release of ''We Don't Trust You'', "Like That" earned 10.26 million on-demand streams in the United States and 7.21 million streams on Spotify globally. It peaked atop the Spotify U.S. chart with 3.73 million first-day plays, besting its closest competitor by nearly 400,000 streams. Within its first three days of availability, the song accumulated 25.62 million streams in the country. Several of Drake's songs saw a noticeable increase in streams due to "Like That", such as "First Person Shooter" (10 percent) and "What Would Pluto Do" (34 percent).

"Like That" debuted at number one on the U.S. ''Billboard'' Hot 100 for the chart issue dated April 6, 2024, with 59.6 million streams, 9,000 digital downloads sold, and an airplay audience of 5.6 million. It marked Future and Lamar's third number-one single in the country and Metro's first as a billed recording artist, having co-written and co-produced previous chart-toppers "Heartless" by the Weeknd (2019) and "Bad and Boujee" by Migos featuring Lil Uzi Vert (2016). "Like That" also debuted atop the ''Billboard'' Global 200 with 91 million streams and 10,000 copies sold worldwide, becoming Future, Lamar, and Metro's first number-one single, and at number six on the Global Excl. US chart with 31.9 million streams.

The single premiered atop ''Billboard'''s Streaming Songs chart as Lamar's fourth, Future's third and Metro's first number-one song. It marked the largest opening week for a track since Taylor Swift's 2022 single " Anti-Hero" (59.7 million), and the best streaming week for a hip hop song since Drake's 2021 single " Way 2 Sexy" featuring Future and Young Thug (67.3 million). Additionally earning the biggest streaming week of any song in the U.S. in 2024 so far, it tallied the most streams in a single week since Miley Cyrus' 2023 single " Flowers" (59.7 million streams during its second week of charting).

Charts

Certifications

Release history

References

{{Kendrick Lamar songs

2024 singles
2024 songs
Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles
Billboard Global 200 number-one singles
Canadian Hot 100 number-one singles
Diss tracks
Epic Records singles
Future (rapper) songs
Kendrick Lamar songs
Metro Boomin songs
Republic Records singles
Song recordings produced by Metro Boomin
Songs written by Future (rapper)
Songs written by Kendrick Lamar
Songs written by Metro Boomin
Songs about Drake (musician)
Songs involved in the Drake–Kendrick Lamar feud