Kendrick Lamar - Somebody That I Used To Know -... __top__ 【Trusted】

The most literal reading comes in songs like “The Art of Peer Pressure,” where Kendrick recounts committing crimes with friends who have since faded into prison, death, or estrangement. He raps, “Me and my nigga, we was scheming again / That’s all we knew, wasn’t nothing to it.” Those friends are now “somebodies he used to know”—not because of a dramatic falling out, but because survival and fame created an unspoken distance. The chorus of Gotye’s song insists, “We’re just somebody that we used to know.” For Kendrick, the tragedy is that both parties still remember the bond, but the context has rotted it away.

While it doesn't sample Gotye directly, its chorus was repurposed for the powerful "Mother I Sober" . It explores his deepest fears—being "just a puppet on stage" and the worry that his art won't live forever. 4. The Modern Successor: Doechii’s "Anxiety" Kendrick Lamar - Somebody That I Used To Know -...

to trick fans into thinking Kendrick had dropped a new diss. Fan Edits: The most literal reading comes in songs like

While this specific remix was a viral moment in 2012, Kendrick’s fascination with the concept of "Somebody" evolved over time: "Memories Back Then": While it doesn't sample Gotye directly, its chorus

Kendrick’s major-label debut is a concept album about losing innocence. The “somebody” he used to know is not a person but a version of his environment—before the peer pressure, before the van carrying Sherane’s cousins, before the drive-by. The album’s skits and voicemails from his mother ground the story in intimacy. By the end, when he raps “I pray my dick get big as the Eiffel Tower / So I can fuck the world for 72 hours,” the boy who just wanted a working stereo and a girl’s affection is gone. In his place is a scarred storyteller. Compton, too, becomes somebody he used to know: still beloved, still violent, but viewed from a tour bus rather than a back seat.

However, I want to clarify that "Somebody That I Used to Know" is actually a song by Gotye, featuring Kimbra, not Kendrick Lamar. The song was released in 2012 and became a huge hit.

Fans were sent into a frenzy when a Kendrick track titled simply leaked online in 2020. Recorded around 2019, the song features a vocal style Kendrick later refined for Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers .