Kendrick Lamar has taken over the conversation in hip-hop today with his new Drake diss “Euphoria.” The six-minute-long song features the Compton rapper delivering a relentless verbal assault on Drizzy, with no regret or mercy. The Cardo-produced diss is in response to Drake’s two diss tracks, “Push Ups” and “Taylor Made Freestyle.”
Kenny goes beast mode on Drake, leaving no stone unturned in his comprehensive lyrical analysis of The Boy from Toronto. The song’s cover art contains a screenshot of the Oxford dictionary definition of “euphoria,” likely a reference to the HBO series Euphoria, which Drake serves as an executive producer.
Kendrick Lamar Calmly Dismantles Drake on “Part 1” of “Euphoria”
During the melodic “Part 1” of the diss track, K-Dot calmly dismantled the Toronto rap superstar.
“You movin’ just like a degenerate, heavy antic, it’s feelin’ distasteful/Why calculate you, not as calculated, I can even predict your angles/Fabricate stories on the family front, ’cause you heard Mr. Morale/A pathetic master manipulator, I can smell the tales on you now,” he raps on the song.
Kendrick also claims Drizzy is a scammer: “You not a rap artist, you a scam artist with the hopes of bеing accepted/Tommy Hilfiger stood out, but FUBU nеver had been your collection.”
A Breakdown of Kendrick’s Lyrical Jabs at Drake on “Euphoria”
On “Part II” of the song, the beat switches and Kendrick is in full attack mode. Here’s a rundown of his lyrical shots at Drake.
• Kendrick mentions Drake buying Tupac Shakur’s crown ring, which Kenny believes made ’Pac turn in his grave.
“Somebody had told that me you got a ring, on God, I’m ready to double the wage/I rather do that, than let a Canadian n***a make ’Pac turn in his grave”
• Kendrick name-drops YNW Melly, who is on trial for the double murder of two former friends, when referring to whether J. Cole and Drake want to remain cordial with him or not.
“Yeah, Cole and Aubrey know I’m a selfish n***a/The crown is heavy, huh/I pray they my real friends, if not, I’m YNW Melly”
• In a clever double entendre, K-Dot makes references to Gunna’s song “Pushin P” and rapper Pusha T, whom Drake engaged in a lyrical battle with in 2018.
“I don’t like you poppin’ s**t, that s**t for real, I inherit the beef/Yeah, f**k all that pushin’ P, let me see you push-a-T/You better off spinnin’ again on him, you think about pushin’ me?”
“We ain’t gotta get personal, this a friendly faith, you should keep it that way/I know some s**t about niggas that make Gunna Wunna look like a saint”
• Kendrick lists all the things he hates about Drake. In doing so, the Compton rhymer is possibly referencing DMX’s 2012 The Breakfast Club interview. X expressed several things he didn’t like about Drizzy at the time. “I don’t like anything about Drake,” DMX said. “I don’t like his f**king voice, I don’t like what he talks about, I don’t like his face. Haircut.”
“I hate the way that you walk, the way that you talk/I hate the way that you dress/I hate the way you sneak diss, if I catch flight, it’s gon’ be direct/We hate the b***hes you f**k, ’cause they confuse themselves with real women/And notice, I said, ‘We,’ it’s not just me, I’m what the culture feelin'”
• Kendrick raises questions regarding Drake’s biracial background and his closeness to Black culture.
“How many more fairytale stories ’bout your life till we had enough?/How many more Black features till you finally feel that you Black enough”
• Kendrick disses Chubbs, Drake’s friend, and claims that Drizzy has no classic albums in his discography.
“You gon’ make a n***a bring back Puff, let me see if Chubbs really crash somethin’/Yeah, my first one like my last one, it’s a classic, you don’t have one”
• Kendrick pokes fun at the 6 God for rumors he underwent plastic surgery to get 6-pack abs.
“Let your core audience stomach that/Didn’t tell ’em where you get your abs from”
• Kendrick even throws Drake’s friend Lil Yachty under the bus.
“I’m allergic to the lame s**t, only you like bein’ famous/Yachty can’t give you no swag neither, I don’t give a f**k ’bout who you hang with”
• Interestingly, Kendrick reveals that Drake reached out once for a feature, which surprised him considering the heated tension between them for over the past decade.
“I hate the way that you walk, the way that you talk/I hate the way that you dress/Surprised you wanted that feature request/You know that we got some s**t to address”
• Kendrick wants Drizzy to stop using the N-word in his songs, which is another jab at The Boy’s biracial background.
“I even hate when you say the word ‘N***a,’ but that’s just me, I guess/Some s**t just cringeworthy, you ain’t even gotta be diva I guess”
• Kendrick takes a lyrical jab at Drake for always fawning over Sexyy Red and questions the Toronto rap star’s manhood.
“Matter of fact, I ain’t even bleed him yet, can I bleed him? Bet/When I see you stand by Sexyy Red, I believe you see two bad b***hes/I believe you don’t like women, that’s real competition, you might pop a*s with ’em”
• Kendrick’s wordplay makes it seem that Drake slapped a cease-and-desist letter for the “Like That” (Remix) featuring Ye.
“Try cease-and-desist on the “Like That” record/H*e, what? You ain’t like that record”
• Kendrick references Drake’s 2016 diss track “Back to Back” during his beef with Meek Mill.
“‘Back To Back,’ I like that record/I’ma get back to that for the record”
• Kendrick responds to Drake’s line, “What the f**k is this, a 20-v-one, n***a?” on “Push Ups” and ghostwriting claims.
“Ain’t 20-v-one, it’s one-v-20 if I gotta smack n***as that write with you/Yeah, bring ’em out too, I clean ’em out too/Tell Bean that he better stay right with you”
• Kendrick addresses Drake’s use of A.I. to recreate Tupac Shakur and Snoop Dogg’s voices on “Taylor Made Freestyle.”
“Am I battlin’ ghost or A.I.? N***a feelin’ like Joel Austeen/Funny, he was in a film called A.I.”
