Used To Know -...: Kendrick Lamar - Somebody That I

There is no official collaboration where Kendrick Lamar is a featured artist on the original Gotye song. However, Kendrick Lamar did release an official remix/cover of the track in 2012 titled "P&V (Problems & Views)."

If you are looking for the "proper" way to format the song title for that specific version, it is:

Kendrick Lamar – "Somebody That I Used To Know (P&V)"

The persistence of this search query stems from a few factors: Kendrick Lamar - Somebody That I Used To Know -...

If you want the feeling of “Somebody That I Used To Know,” here are the three Kendrick tracks you need to hear.

In the landscape of modern hip-hop, cover songs are a rarity. The genre prioritizes originality and the "remix" culture over direct imitation. However, when an artist of Kendrick Lamar’s caliber chooses to deconstruct a chart-topping pop hit, the result is often an exercise in genre-bending alchemy. In 2013, amidst the critical and commercial tsunami of his major-label debut good kid, m.A.A.d city, Lamar visited BBC Radio 1’s Live Lounge. Instead of performing a single from his own catalog, he chose to cover Gotye’s ubiquitous 2011 breakout hit, "Somebody That I Used To Know."

This paper examines how Lamar’s performance is not merely a tribute but a radical recontextualization. By stripping away the indie whimsy of the original and infusing it with the gritty narrative style of his concept album era, Lamar demonstrates the fluidity of emotion across genre lines, proving that the angst of a breakup is universal, though the delivery changes drastically when filtered through the lens of Compton hip-hop. There is no official collaboration where Kendrick Lamar

The enduring search for "Kendrick Lamar - Somebody That I Used to Know" tells us something vital about how we consume music in the 2020s. We are no longer satisfied with a song simply being a song. We want a vibe. We want a theory. We want a mashup that bridges the gap between our indie-loving past and our hip-hop-analytical present.

The track doesn't exist because two record labels couldn't clear the sample. But emotionally? It exists every time Kendrick Lamar turns a mirror on his audience and asks, "Do you love me? Are you playing a role? Or are you just somebody that I used to know?"

If you were under the impression Kendrick was on the original radio hit, the "proper feature" credit actually belongs to New Zealand singer Kimbra. The correct format for the worldwide hit is: The genre prioritizes originality and the "remix" culture

Gotye – "Somebody That I Used to Know" (feat. Kimbra)

At first glance, Gotye’s 2011 minimalist breakup anthem and Kendrick Lamar’s dense, jazz-influenced rap epics live in different genres. But lyrically, both explore a universal wound: the painful realization that someone you loved has become a stranger.