World Humble Pie Day – 2 February 2025

When historians look back on the events of Sunday 2 February 2025 they will conclude it a historic day for humblings. Humble pies were cooked, delivered and consumed in two very public arenas. Today, we will look at two seemingly unrelated events, one in London, England and the other in Los Angeles, California and see the role that Kendrick Lamar played in both:

Humbling #1: Arsenal vs Manchester City – The Stay Humble Game

To compound Manchester City’s season from hell, their woeful title defence was all but murdered at the Emirates in front of 60,000 baying North Londoners. Scores were settled, in what is undoubtedly the best Premier League rivalry at the present. 

It might be a while before we get a resolution in City’s second greatest rivalry: Manchester City vs 115 FFP Charges, which has been delayed more than Tyson Fury vs Anthony Joshua and both of which will finally be settled when the world has moved on.

If you somehow missed the first great sporting event of 2025, here’s a quick recap:

Game 1 September 22, 2024: Manchester City 2–2 Arsenal

An exciting heavyweight showdown at the Etihad Stadium, Arsenal were about to win and take command when John Stones scored in injury time to break Arsenal hearts and unleash Gladiator-style bedlam after the final whistle.

In these scuffles, TV cameras recorded Erling Haaland telling Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta to ‘stay humble’ – presumably as Manchester City were seriously considering the possibility of winning a fourth consecutive title.

Halaand was also pictured asking then 17-year-old Myles Lewis-Skelly – who are you?

The 24-year-old Norwegian was instigating problems with everyone he could and the Arsenal players didn’t forget when they hosted the defending champions on Sunday.

Game 2  February 2, 2025: Arsenal 5–1 Manchester City

Arsenal dominated from start to finish, taking the lead in the 10th minute through Martin Ødegaard. Arsenal had a slight edge, but Haaland equalsed in the 55th minute. However, within a minute, Thomas Partey restored the lead with a deflected shot from outside the box.

Lewis-Skelly made it 3-1 and immediately hit Haaland’s trademark celebration and from that moment, the game was all but over. Two extra goals added to the humiliation and suddenly the ‘humble’ memes were out in force.

It was difficult to keep track of how many scores were being settled, but Haaland took the brunt of the abuse from players and fans online. It was telling that the Manchester City players immediately retreated to the dressing room rather than stick around for post-final whistle handbags.

And the song chosen to end the match?

Since Kendrick Lamar’s “Humble” came out in 2017, I can’t think of a time where people were talking about humblings in such a consistent fashion. 

Google Trends [UK] data confirms that this is a high water mark for the phrase:

Google Trends - Humble searches

If you bought stocks of the word humble last week, you’d be richer than that guy who paid for pizza using Bitcoin in 2010.

Humbling #2 – Kendrick Lamar vs Drake XIII

In the other big humbling of the day Drake sat at home watching the Grammy Awards and saw Kendrick Lamar’s devastating diss ‘Not Like Us’ win five Grammys: Record of the Year; Song of the Year; Best Rap Performance; Best Rap Song, and Best Music Video.

I still can’t get my head around how Song of the Year and Record of the Year are different awards and the difference between Best Rap Performance and Best Rap Song. The same song usually wins both awards, so it’s largely redundant.

Nevertheless, Kendrick swept the awards in an unprecedented fashion. Usually, Record of the Year goes to the Taylor Swift song the committee has heard most recently, but in a rare move, this year’s award went to 2024’s more discussed and impactful song.

kendrick lamar grammy awards 2025

I’ve shied away from writing about the Kendrick Lamar vs Drake beef because I find it a little sad that these two artists had to stoop so low in their takedowns of each other. It was a beef that I was excited to hear after literal decades of simmering tension, but hearing two respected artists attack each other’s characters, and home lives so thoroughly was disappointing.

Kendrick Lamar finished first in a race between two losers.

However, history is written by the victors and Kendrick convincingly won the beef. It even caused the unflappable Drake’s visage to crack, to the point that he tried to take his own label to court for releasing the song.

Watching Kendrick claim five Grammys for a song with some of the most brutal lines in Hip-Hop beef history was incredible to witness. He didn’t even bother to collect all the awards, letting DJ Mustard collect three gongs instead.

When Kendrick finally bounced on stage to collect his Record of the Year award it was as his and Drake’s peers were singing along to the infamous ‘a-minor’ line.

For a well-produced, but one-dimensional track like ‘Not Like Us’ to receive so much mainstream recognition and award success is remarkable. It’s four minutes of Drake character assassination, zero nuance, all personal attacks. Truly Kendrick Lamar is one of the greats in Hip-Hop history and has played an immense role in the acceptance of Hip-Hop.

It will get worse next week when Kendrick performs ‘Not Like Us’ at the Super Bowl. He’s untouchable right now in a way that we’ve only ever seen from Drizzy himself. The only question left is: how many times will he perform the song at the halftime show?

Host of Culture Hash, writer of music, TV and film opinions

2 Responses

    • Thank you for your support, althought I doubt I’ll ever write such a pro-Arsenal post again. I needed a hot bath after all that

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