It is sung following Kovu being permanently banished and exiled from Pride Lands by King Simba for his supposed betrayal in an attempt to kill him set up by Kovu's mother Zira. After the song, Rafiki, who was watching the event, sighs very sadly realizing that Simba has defied his father Mufasa's paw prints that he himself must "follow" and broke the Circle of life. This was the first time the animals outside of the main characters (they talk in the second film) and the Pridelanders in both movies (they congratulate Simba's daughter Kiara when she hunts) have been seen talking as they are driving Kovu out of the Pride Lands.
Before the song started, an enraged Zira struck Kovu in his face (which leaves a scar) and blames him for Nuka's death, Kovu disowned Zira as a mother and leaves the Outlands, then Zira orders the Outsiders they would take down Pride Lands by force. And after the song ended with Rafiki sighing very sadly at Simba's defiance and disobedience, Kiara (who believed in Kovu's innocence) pleaded with Simba to reconsider his decision, but Simba refused and banned Kiara from going anywhere unescorted, intending to stop her from seeing Kovu again. Simba also stated that Kovu was following in Simba's uncle Scar's pawprints and that Simba himself must follow in Mufasa's unaware he was not following it. Then Kiara made Simba feel shocked by saying that he would never be his father and ran away.
Animals: Deception... Disgrace...
Evil as plain as the scar on his face Zebras: Deception
(An outrage!) Giraffes: Disgrace (For shame!) Hippo: He asked for trouble the moment he came Animals:He can't change his stripes!
Zebras: Deception (An outrage!) Giraffes: Disgrace
For shame! All Animals:You know these outsider types!
Evil as plain as the scar on his face! See you later, agitator! Just leave us alone!
Zebras: Deception (An outrage!) Giraffes: Disgrace (For shame!) Animals:Traitor, go back with your own! Hippo: He asked for trouble the moment he came Animals:See you later, agitator!
Chorus: Born in grief
Raised in hate
Helpless to defy his fate
Let him run
Let him live
But do not forget
What we cannot forgive
And he is not one of us
He has never been one of us
He is not part of us
Not our kind
Someone once lied to us
Now we're not so blind
For we knew he would do what he's done
And we know that he'll never be one of us
He can't change his stripes! You know these outsider types!
See you later, agitator!
Just leave us alone!
Traitor, go back with your own! See you later, agitator!
Born in grief, Raised in hate. Helpless to defy his fate
Let him run. Let him live
But do not forget what we cannot forgive
And he is not one of us
He has never been one of us
He is not part of us
Not our kind
Someone once lied to us
Now we're not so blind
For we knew he would do what he's done
And we know that he'll never be one of us
He is not one of us
Deception
Disgrace
Deception. Disgrace. Deception
"Oooh..."
Trivia[]
This is the only song to not have an equivalent to the first film.
When Kovu sees Scar's reflection instead of his, it is exactly the same image used in the first film when Scar orders the hyenas to kill Simba, merely distorted by the rippling water.
It doesn't mean Scar lives in Kovu like the time in the first film that Mufasa lives in Simba.
The shot of Rafiki looking over the scene mirrors his reaction to Scar announcing his takeover of the Pridelands in the first film.
In the 1998 VHS release, there is an error in the closed captions. During the line, "He is not one of us," the captions include Kiara's name.
This track is often erroneously referred to as "Not One of Us", after the repeated "He is not one of us" line that fits the song's theme. This is similar to how people tend to refer to a number of songs incorrectly based on repeated lines, such as The Who song "Baba O'Riley" being called "Teenage Wasteland", and "Over the Rainbow" from the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz as "Somewhere Over the Rainbow".
Kovu’s exile is just like Romeo’s exile in Romeo and Juliet.
In the Polish dub of this song, the lyrics "Scar's son cannot become one of us!" appear, which is why many Polish-speaking people assume Kovu is Scar's son, but since such a sentence does not appear in the original dub, it is most likely a translation error.
