At the 67th Grammy Awards on February 2, 2025, Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us” won record of the year, song of the year, best rap performance, best rap song and best music video. The result can be reported from the Recording Academy’s own winners list without reproducing the song’s accusations or turning an awards outcome into a finding about people named or alluded to in the recording.
In this explainer ↓
The five-category sweep
The official Grammy winners list marks “Not Like Us” as the winner in five categories. Two were general-field prizes presented across genres: record of the year and song of the year. Two were rap-field awards: best rap performance and best rap song. The fifth, best music video, recognized the visual work. The Recording Academy’s ceremony report described the sequence as a sweep after the song collected three awards during the Premiere Ceremony and the two general-field awards during the televised event.
“Five Grammys” does not mean five identical honors. Each category recognizes a different object or contribution. The total is clearest when the categories travel with the number.
Source record: Recording Academy [1] · Recording Academy [2]
Record and song are not synonyms
Record of the year recognizes the released recording and credits the performing artist along with eligible production, engineering, mixing and mastering contributors. Song of the year is a songwriter’s award for the composition. In this case, the official list names Kendrick Lamar as songwriter for “Not Like Us.” Best rap performance focuses on the performance, while best rap song again centers songwriting within the rap field.
That taxonomy explains how one track can win both “record” and “song” without the Academy duplicating an award. Best music video adds a separate visual category. A precise recap should not collapse all five trophies into an undefined claim that the Grammys voted it the “best song” five times.
Source record: Recording Academy [1]
What an award does—and does not—establish
The Grammys document peer-recognized achievement under the Academy’s category and voting rules. They are not a court, fact-checking body or adjudicator of claims contained in lyrics. “Not Like Us” emerged from a highly publicized exchange between artists and includes allegations this article does not need to quote, summarize or amplify. Naming the recording and its awards is sufficient to explain the record.
This boundary is especially important when an artwork draws power from a real-person conflict. Cultural success can be measured through awards, charts or audience response; none automatically proves every assertion inside the work. Keeping the content dispute separate also prevents an awards archive from becoming a fresh distribution channel for allegations.
Source record: Recording Academy [1] · Recording Academy [2]
The bounded historical record
The awards occurred on February 2, 2025 in Los Angeles. The Recording Academy’s results page supplies the nominees and winner labels, while its ceremony report supplies the order and context of the sweep. Those pages support a finite claim: the track won every category in which it was nominated that year.
Later performances, chart movements, lawsuits or arguments about the song are separate stories with their own evidence requirements. The value of an awards ledger is restraint. It records the institution, ceremony, date, category and credited work, then stops before converting cultural recognition into a verdict on the underlying feud.
Source record: Recording Academy [1] · Recording Academy [2]
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Read the original record.
Reviewed Sep 19, 2026. These sources support the bounded claims described below; editorial interpretation and hypothetical examples are identified in the text. No historical site publication date is implied.
Recording Academy · Source publication: Feb 2, 2025 · Reviewed Sep 19, 2026
Official category-by-category results; used only for award outcomes and credit distinctions.
Recording Academy · Source publication: Feb 3, 2025 · Reviewed Sep 19, 2026
Official ceremony recap confirming the five-category sweep and presentation sequence.
