Yahoo News Fans Cringe At Sacramento Kings Owner's Hilariously Awkward Kendrick Lamar Joke
Sacramento Kings owner Vivek Ranadivé’s apparent attempt to quote Kendrick Lamar wasn’t exactly a slam dunk.
In a video shared online Monday, Ranadivé is seen talking to NBA veteran DeMar DeRozan — who recently joined the Kings in a reported sign-and-trade deal — about DeRozan being a sought-after free agent before he then references Lamar’s hit song “Not Like Us.”
“So I know, DeMar, that everybody wants you — every team, every city, all the players,” Ranadivé says while standing next to DeRozan. “But I got one thing to tell you: They’re nothing like us!”
DeRozan is shown breaking out in laughter before dapping it up with Ranadivé. But hip-hop fans were quick to call a foul on the tech entrepreneur’s butchering of Lamar’s lyrics. (Ranadivé has previously served as a contributor for HuffPost.)
The lyrics to the Compton, California, native’s catchy four-word chorus for his acclaimed song — a brutal diss track aimed at fellow rapper Drake — are “they not like us.”
Some social media users on X, formerly Twitter, called the Ranadivé video “cringe.”
Author Marc Lamont Hill, a former host of the now-defunct HuffPost Live who has also served as a columnist for HuffPost’s Opinion section, joked on Tuesday that the CEO’s “Not Like Us” reference marked the end of the song’s cultural moment.
“Welp. It’s a wrap, family,” he wrote on X.
“When your grand dad tries to make a culturally relevant joke during the thanksgiving photo with the grandkids,” another X user wrote.
Others joked that DeRozan laughing with Ranadivé demonstrated a relatable workplace situation.
“This was part of Demar’s contract: laugh at Vivek’s jokes,” one X user said.
“Demar is a good guy to sympathetically laugh along like that,” another wrote.
A third user said that DeRozan had a “fake corporate laugh.”
The NBA star, meanwhile, has had his own fun celebrating Lamar’s “Not Like Us.”
DeRozan, also a Compton native, was name-checked in the song, with the rapper making a reference to the basketball player getting traded by the Toronto Raptors in 2018 after nine seasons with the team.
Lamar took a shot at Drake and his hometown of Toronto with the track, saying, “I’m glad DeRoz’ came home, y’all didn’t deserve him neither.”
DeRozan made a cameo in the song’s music video, which was released Thursday.
