Solely produced by Metro, 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", which in turn samplesBarry White's 1973 hit "I'm Gonna Love You Just a Little More Baby". "Like That" also has additional elements that contain samples ofEazy-E's 1989 single, "Eazy-Duz-It", and contains a vocal sample ofMichel'le. A remix of the song featuring the American supergroup¥$, composed ofKanye West andTy Dolla Sign, was released on April 20, 2024.
Atrap andhardcore hip-hop song that is predominantly composed of lively percussions, "Like That" received acclaim from music critics, who primarily praised Lamar's performance and Metro's production. His verse, which attracted significant media coverage, is adiss aimed at fellow rappersDrake andJ. Cole in response to their 2023 collaboration, "First Person Shooter." "Like That" was quickly met with commercial success, debuting atop theBillboard Hot 100, where it would spend three weeks, as well as topping theGlobal 200 and theHot 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 theCanadian Hot 100 and peaked within the top ten of several countries in Europe and Oceania.
On October 6, 2023,Drake released the song "First Person Shooter" as part of his albumFor All the Dogs with rapperJ. Cole,[1] in which the latter shouts out the two rappers andKendrick Lamar as the "big three" ofrap music.[2] Additionally, Drake indirectly called out Metro Boomin in December 2023 for being a "tweet and deleter" after the latter posted a tweet onTwitter aimed at him.[3]
Record producer Metro Boomin announced a collaboration with rapper Future, set to release in 2023.[4] He later tweeted that he had lost three instrumentals due to a power outage.[5][6] A trailer was released on YouTube, revealing the record's name to beWe Don't Trust You.[7] It was teased at Rolling Loud California 2024. It was released on March 22, 2024.[7] "Like That" was licensed to USrhythmic radio and released as the final single of the album on March 26, 2024.[8]
"Like That" is a "bouncy"trap andhardcore hip-hop track driven by "rapid" and "uniquelysouthern"percussions, as well as a "menacing"bassline.[9] Itsamples two songs:Rodney-O & Joe Cooley's "Everlasting Bass" (1988) andEazy-E's "Eazy-Duz-It" (1989).[9] 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.[10]
Lyrically, Lamar uses his surprise appearance to directly respond to "First Person Shooter", rapping: "Yeah, get up with me, fucksneak 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".[11] Throughout his verse, Lamar compares his rivalry with Drake toPrince's reported feud withMichael Jackson ("What? I'm really like that / And your best work is a light pack / Nigga, Princeoutlived Mike Jack").[12] 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 tothe Click ("Niggas clickin' up, but cannotbe legit / No40 Water") andStephen King's 1983 novelPet Sematary ("'Fore all your dogs gettin' buried / That's a K with all these nines / He gon' seePet Sematary").[13]
"Like That" received positive reviews from critics. Angel Diaz ofBillboard ranked "Like That" as the third best song onWe Don't Trust You. Diaz wrote that the track is "Hip-Hop in its purest form" and described it as "the album's thesis".[14]
Andrew Sacher ofBrooklynVegan 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.[15] Carl Lamarre atBillboard thought that Lamar appeared on the track with "vitriol" while delivering "an explosive verse".[11]HotNewHipHop's Alexander Cole called the beat a perfect fit for Future, "who glides over the track at the beginning and end".[16] Dylan Green ofPitchfork felt that Lamar's verse provided the song's "showstopping" moment.[17]
On April 5, on his mixtapeMight Delete Later, J. Cole would go on to diss Lamar on the song "7 Minute Drill".[20] 2 days later, Cole would go on to apologize to Lamar for the diss[21] and later deleted the track from all streaming platforms.[22]
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 andRick Ross. Two versions of the track were leaked, the first containing a sample ofJunior M.A.F.I.A.'s track "Get Money", most famously sampled in rapperTupac Shakur's diss track "Hit 'Em Up", and the latter omitting the sample and adding an extended sung outro.[23][24][25][26] On April 19, Drake officially released the latter version as "Push Ups".[27]
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 featuredAI vocals of Tupac Shakur andSnoop Dogg, as well as references toTaylor Swift's albumThe 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.[28]
On April 20, 2024, the "Like That Remix" featuringKanye West andTy 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.[29]
Lamar is absent from this remix. The remix features new vocals from theInter Milanultras, who West refers to as the "Hooligans." They were also featured on the duo's 2024 hit song "Carnival" from their debut collaborative album,Vultures 1,[30] and would further collaborate with West on further endeavors, most recently on the single "Heil Hitler" (2025), from his upcoming thirteenth studio albumIn a Perfect World. The remix also features additional production fromthe Legendary Traxster.
On May 13, 2025,Rodney-O filed a lawsuit against Metro Boomin, Future, and Kendrick Lamar, allegingunpaid royalties and lack of proper clearance of "Everlasting Bass" that was sampled for "Like That". The latter reason is due to the fact that Rodney-O was unaware of Lamar's verse, having been sent an earlier version with only Future on vocals.[31] He would also allege that he had been left off of the footnotes for "Like That" during its Grammy nominations, stating:
"So, to come to me, take my record, make all this money, out on tour, do this and that and act like we're not a part of it? Even left me off the Grammy nominations. How can you do that? No respect at all and that's how a lot of old school artists get treated [...] At a time when I should be celebrating, I don't even want to hear the record."[32]
Barry White's estate would sue Rodney-O after the release of "Like That", as the sample of "I'm Gonna Love You Just a Little More Baby" had never been cleared; a lawsuit Rodney-O has dismissed as acash grab due to never being approached by White's estate prior to the success of the "Like That".[33]
Upon the release ofWe Don't Trust You, "Like That" earned 10.26 million on-demand streams in the United States and 7.21 million streams onSpotify globally.[34][35] It peaked atop the Spotify U.S. chart with 3.73 million first-day plays, besting its closest competitor by nearly 400,000 streams.[36] Within its first three days of availability, the song accumulated 25.62 million streams in the country.[34] 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).[34]
"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.[37] 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" bythe Weeknd (2019) and "Bad and Boujee" byMigos featuringLil Uzi Vert (2016).[37] "Like That" also debuted atop theBillboard 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.[38]
The single premiered atopBillboard'sStreaming Songs chart as Lamar's fourth, Future's third and Metro's first number-one song.[39] It marked the largest opening week for a track sinceTaylor Swift's 2022 single "Anti-Hero" (59.7 million),[37] and the best streaming week for a hip-hop song since Drake's 2021 single "Way 2 Sexy" featuring Future andYoung Thug (67.3 million).[39] 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 sinceMiley Cyrus' 2023 single "Flowers" (59.7 million streams during its second week of charting).[37]
^"ČNS IFPI" (in Czech). Hitparáda – Digital Top 100 Oficiální. IFPI Czech Republic.Note: Select 13. týden 2024 in the date selector. Retrieved April 2, 2024.
^"Top Singles (Week 13, 2024)" (in French). Syndicat National de l'Édition Phonographique.Archived from the original on April 4, 2024. RetrievedApril 5, 2024.
^"ČNS IFPI" (in Slovak). Hitparáda – Singles Digital Top 100 Oficiálna. IFPI Czech Republic.Note: Select 13. týden 2024 in the date selector. Retrieved April 2, 2024.
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