Kendrick did not mince his words on “Like That,” sending several direct shots at Drake and some subliminals for J. Cole.
Midway through the verse, Kendrick raps, “Fuck sneak dissin', ‘First Person Shooter,’ I hope they came with three switches,” referencing Drake and Cole’s collaborative track on For All The Dogs. Kendrick is calling out how Drake notoriously loves sending subliminal shots without dropping names in his disses, and Cole gets included in the diss because of how Kendrick says he “hopes they came with three switches.” It seems Kendrick hasn’t enjoyed seeing Drake and Cole forming such a close public alliance recently, going on tour together and constantly praising each other, so he includes bars like, “Niggas clickin' up, but cannot be legit.”
Kendrick goes on to rap, “Motherfuck the ‘Big 3,’ nigga, it’s just big me/I’m really like that/And your best work is a light pack/Nigga, Prince outlived Mike Jack.”
Here, he overtly rejects the concept of the “Big 3” narrative that positions Drake, Cole, and Kendrick as the three best rappers alive, choosing instead to crown himself as the lone king, like he’s done before. He also shits on Drake’s discography by calling his best project a “light pack,” before slyly using Drake’s affinity for Michael Jackson against him by likening himself to Prince, another music legend who lived longer, before closing the verse with his most clever wordplay on the track: “For all your dogs getting buried/That’s a K with all these 9s, he ‘gon see Pet Semetary.” The “K” and “9” refer to Kendrick’s initial and a 9-millimeter gun, as well as “canine,” which connects to his previous line that’s about Drake’s For All The Dogs album.
The verse is littered with shots at Drake. Earlier in the verse, Kendrick raps, “D-O-T, the money, power, respect/The last one better/It’s a lot of goofies with a check,” calling back the iconic LOX song, but also saying that respect is more important than money and power, leading to a double entendre about “a lot of goofies with a check,” which references Drake’s Nike endorsement.