The track has been haunting Drake since a certain Compton icon dropped it in May 2024, quickly becoming a cultural phenomenon. This past February, Lamar won both song and record of the year at the Grammys for "Not Like Us," which he performed on the world's biggest stage just one week later at the 2025 Super Bowl.

Mamdani spoke a bit about Kendrick and Drake's 2024 feud in an interview with Pitchfork back in June, noting that Lamar "absolutely destroyed" Drizzy. He then tied in Lamar's songwriting approach to the way he approaches his campaign's focus on affordability in New York.