"Why he is ruining the song"- Fans divided as G-DRAGON performs Kendrick Lamar's Not Like Us at LA festival

G-Dragon's latest performance of Kendrick Lamar's Not Like Us at the Head In The Clouds Los Angeles music festival had the internet divided. For those unversed, he headlined the North American stage on May 31, 2025, which took place in the proximity of the Rose Bowl in Brookside, Pasadena, California.

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The X user @TheFlopKpop shared a video of G-DRAGON singing Kendrick Lamar's track Not Like Us. Subsequently, netizens were divided into two major factions regarding the song choice, with many stating that it was not appropriate for him to sing the piece at the festival.

Some also referred to the previous examples of G-Dragon's alleged cultural appropriation. They added that the track was about individuals who appropriate everyone's culture. An X user criticizing G-DRAGON for singing Kendrick Lamar's Not Like Us tweeted:

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"Why is he ruining the song."

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Netizens shared multiple tweets expressing their dislike of the artist, covering Not Like Us by Kendrick Lamar.

"Not him thinking the song wasn’t about pple like him," a fan reacted.

"I dont think he got the memo when Kendrick said, 'not like us,'" a fan shared.

"Kendrick is literally talking about people like him in the song," a fan mentioned.

Some internet users extended their support for the artist and shared varied opinions about his latest cover of Not Like Us.

"People just hating not knowing that GD sang his own lyrics. It’s not Kendrick’s lyrics. At least don’t be stupid. Joke’s on you, haters," a user reacted.

"He uses the melody *only*. The lyrics and subject belong to Gd, which are his ancient works. The artists are part of the same music distribution company. They have permission, and that's the confused! So relax," a user shared.

"Genuine genuine question: what’s the problem with a mash up of three songs where not like us is the beat and the rest is gd’s own two songs. It’s not a version of not like us, it’s a mash up.Is the beat forbidden? What?" a user mentioned.

Recent activities of G-DRAGON

On March 29, 2025, the artist kickstarted his fourth world tour titled G-DRAGON 2025 World Tour (Ubermensch) from Goyang, South Korea. Subsequently, he visited multiple locations, including Tokyo, Osaka, and others.

He released his third full-length album Ubermensch on February 25, 2025, through Galaxy Corporation and Kakao Entertainment. The record featured eight tracks, including Home Sweet Home (feat. Taeyang & Daesung), Power, Too Bad (feat. Anderson. Paak), Drama, Ibelongiiu, Take Me, Bonamana, and Gyro-drop.

The artist will perform at K-STAR SPARK IN VIETNAM 2025 on June 21.

About the author

Kirti holds a Bachelor's degree in Journalism & Mass Communication and has been a Kpop writer at SK POP since 2022. She has been following Kpop and Kdramas since the last 6 years and but has worked in the genre only in the last 3-4 years donning several several caps - social media intern, copywriter, article writer and academic writer.

Kirti likes to pen down insightful features based on Korean dramas, especially the 'Ending Explained' categories. It gives her the satisfaction of creating the most authentic content rather than simply replicating what media outlets generally do.

Her process of creating content is time-consuming, yet methodical; she prefers to use original sources of information, which in her case are Korean outlets. She watches entire episodes, writes them down, cross-checks/fact-checks the details/event timelines off the web and eventually creates her copy.

Kirti likes Lee Je-hoon, IU, and Kim Seon-ho since she feels that their dramas are inspiring and have good plotlines. When she is not writing about K-dramas, she can be found watching them.

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Edited by Arunava Dutta