"One More Time!" Chants Erupt in Toronto After Kendrick's "Not Like Us" Performance

Kendrick Lamar getting a standing ovation is not the phrase you would expect to describe the scene in Toronto where its hometown hero was laid to waste, but Thursday night (June 12) helped that happen.

In what is fast becoming one of the tour's most indelible moments, Kendrick took his Grammy-winning, controversy-soliciting diss track "Not Like Us" deep into the belly of the beast Drake's hometown. 

Videos from the night capture Lamar looming over a sea of fans at a packed venue, venomous verses delivered with laser focus. The second he crouched, a cheer broke, and though not boos, not breath-stopped silence, the brash riposte of a chant: "One more time! One more time!"

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That was more than just a polite encore request. It was a moment, a musical middle finger, a sign that Kendrick's message had landed even back in the 6.

Fans in the surging crowd could be heard in another clip screaming "certified pedophile" and "A-Minor" specific responses to Lamar's stinging allegations in the song. Similarly, other people in the crowd were throwing "OVHoes" at Drake's OVO brand, chanting the terms back at him like an alternate gospel.

The performance hit differently because of the place where it took place because Toronto isn't just Drake's city but his kingdom. Is it okay for Kendrick to land a coup like this here and get away with it? That's not just bold. 

"Not Like Us" crashed the rap world in 2024, closing in among a lyrical shootout between Kendrick and Drake. It was the kind of heavyweight back-and-forth with fans choosing sides and scrutinizing bars like courtroom evidence.

But in his follow-up Super Bowl halftime performance, Kendrick turned the track from diss to declaration. He didn't simply perform it but planted a flag in Hip-Hop history.

Now multiplatinum and draped in Grammys, the song's success hasn't been without fallout. In January 2025, Drake filed a federal defamation suit against Universal Music Group, alleging that the company has been contributing to "a widely reported and misleading narrative regarding him being a predator." UMG shot back, saying it's protected speech and an artistic expression. The site adds that the case is being discovered, with Drake having access to any internal documents related to the song's promotion.

So, Kendrick's performance of this tune in Toronto is more than tour window dressing; it is performance art with legal and cultural incisors.

Thursday night proved that diss tracks can exist outside the four walls of a studio. They can reverberate in stadiums, inspire lawsuits, and still have thousands of people screaming for an encore.