Kendrick Lamar's "Mustard!" Shout-Out Has Become a Meme

Few musicians had a more dominant and impressive year in 2024 than Kendrick Lamar. In addition to releasing "Not Like Us," the rapper also dropped a surprise album called "GNX" in mid-November. The album has been met with widespread acclaim and has even launched its own meme.

The meme has to do with the seventh track on the new album, "tv off," which features Kendrick yelling the word "Mustard" for two complete measures. But that's not the only place that Kendrick uses the word "Mustard." In "Not Like Us," he starts the song by saying "Mustard on the beat." Now, many want to know what the rapper meant by that.

The simple answer to this question is that, on "Not Like Us," Mustard was on the beat. Kendrick worked with Dijon Isaiah McFarlane, who goes by Mustard, on "Not Like Us," and gave his producer a shoutout at the top of the track.

It may sound like a random string of words, but it's actually a way to give credit to one of his key collaborators on the mega-hit, which may have fundamentally destroyed Drake's career.

Kendrick offers an even more extended callout on "tv off," where he says Mustard's name for a full five seconds. Mustard also worked with Kendrick on some of the tracks on "GNX," but although he was a producer on "tv off," he hadn't even heard the song until the full album was released.

“You know what’s crazy? It was a surprise for me, just like it was a surprise for everybody else,” Mustard told Billboard.

“I had been thinking maybe it’s going to come at the top of the year, maybe it’s going to come around the Super Bowl or whatever," he continued. "I’m in the gym working out today and I see him post a snippet of a song and I’m like, ‘Oh s--t, this s--t gonna come probably next week,’ I’m thinking Thanksgiving when everybody’s in the house together. 10 minutes later, the album is out.”

“What did I think?” he said when asked about the track. “I was losing it. I mean, I already knew I do me with the beats, you know? But Kendrick is the best rapper, bro. Like, of all time. I think he’s one of the best.”

As for the moment in the song where Kendrick called him out at length, the one that has become a meme, Mustard liked it so much that he's considering making it his producer tag moving forward.

“That s--t was elite. So fire. Like, is that a new tag?" he said. "I can’t wait to perform that song and just hear people just saying that, ‘cause everybody’s going to say that like crazy.”

The collaboration between the two isn't over yet either.

“I got this thing where I’m trying to send [Kendrick] something every day,” he said. “I’m always [wondering] what’s next. You know, this morning I’m texting like, ‘What do you need from me?’ Whatever it is, I’m on board."