Kendrick Lamar has won Best Music Video at the 2025 Grammys. The visual for “Not Like Us” bested music videos by A$AP Rocky (“Tailor Swif”), Charli XCX (“360”), Eminem (“Houdini”), and Taylor Swift featuring Post Malone (“Fortnight”).
A$AP Rocky’s maximalist “Tailor Swif” video was directed by Vania Heymann and Gal Muggia, and filmed in Kyiv, Ukraine, just two months before Russia’s invasion of the capital. The kooky clip is crammed with surreal imagery—from dogs on cellphones, to a six legged child, to a car hood ornament that doubles as an espresso tap. Rocky released “Tailor Swif” in August after the single leaked back in 2022. This marks a first-time Grammy win for A$AP Rocky.
Charli XCX’s “360” video was directed by Aidan Zamiri, and features an all-star cast of it girls including Gabbriette, Julia Fox, Rachel Sennott, Hari Nef, Alex Consani, and Emma Chamberlain, who convene with Charli to elect the next “hot internet girl.” It girl supreme Chloë Sevigny also makes an appearance, as does A. G. Cook, who gets name-checked in the Brat single along with Julia Fox and Gabbriette.
“Houdini” appears on Eminem’s latest album The Death of Slim Shady (Coup de Grâce). Rich Lee directed the zany, comic book-inspired music video, which contains cameos from Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Pete Davidson, comedian Shane Gillis, and others. The visual (and audio) calls back to Eminem’s 2002 hit “Without Me,” and finds Eminem’s alter ego Slim Shady emerging from the past to wreak havoc on the present.
Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us” visual was as much as a sensation as the song itself. Directed by Lamar and his pgLang co-founder, Dave Free, the clip features a number of California figures such as Tommy the Clown, Compton native and former Toronto Raptors All-Star DeMar DeRozan, producer Mustard, Anthony “Top Dawg” Tiffith, and more. Lamar leans into his beef with Drake and October’s Very Own by bashing up an owl piñata, staring down a caged owl, and having a mass of people jumping and shouting “OV-Ho!”
Swift wrote and directed the visual for “Fortnight,” which co-stars featured artist Post Malone as well as actors Ethan Hawke and Josh Charles. The black-and-white video has a moody, Victorian-cum-steam punk aesthetic. Swift’s character receives electroshock therapy, bangs out the song’s lyrics on a typewriter, and at one point, “wipes off” her makeup to reveal Post Malone’s signature tattoos on her face.
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