Filmmaker M. Night Shymalan has clearly listened to Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us” once or twice in his household.
Shymalan, who releases his next film Trap on August 9, was a guest on radio show Way Up With Angela Yee alongside his daughter, singer-actress Saleka. On “Euphoria,” Lamar possibly referenced Haley Joel Osment’s iconic line “I see dead people” from The Sixth Sense, but the rapper directly mentioned the phrase in “Not Like Us.”
Since Shyamalan directed the 1999 thriller, Yee naturally asked him around the 14:45-minute mark of the interview how he felt about “Not Like Us.”
“We do kind of lightly know each other,” Shymalan said. “He was very gracious with me and I love him, and again, speaking of integrity…My kids won’t even recommend music–they know what I’m gonna say. It can be anything, any form of music, but it has to be from the right place, coming from the right place. And Kendrick comes from the right place.”
Although Shyamalan didn’t get a heads-up from Kendrick, he alluded to being aware of “Euphoria” before it became widely popular. When Yee joked about Saleka not being able to collaborate with Drake, Shyamalan responded, “We love everybody.”
Shyamalan’s classic thrillers have been referenced by hip-hop artists before, most notably by Kanye West/Ye, who name-dropped Mr. Glass from the 2000 film Unbreakable in “Through the Wire.”