A response worth waiting for
Five weeks on from igniting the beef with Drake on Future and Metro Boomin’s “Like That” track, Kendrick Lamar has finally responded to Drake.
The Compton native clearly took his time in crafting his highly-calculated response.
It was then published on streaming platforms on the same day.
The track caused an eruption on the internet, causing the lyric website Genius to briefly crash.
There are so many layers to this track, and this article only scrapes the surface.
Kendrick Lamar defends black culture
Lamar begins the song with a reversed audio snippet of Richard Pryor from the movie The Wiz.
In the snippet that Lamar uses, Pryor says, “Everything they say about me is true.”
The scene follows up with him saying, “I’m a fraud.”
This niche reference sets the tone for the track.
Throughout “euphoria”, Lamar implies that Drake too is a fraud, calling into question his standing in black culture.
On the surface, he appears to be teasing the Canadian artist’s biracial identity.
On the contrary, Lamar calls out Drake for using his proximity to black culture to advance his career, rather than being immersed in the culture itself.
His second diss track aimed at Kendrick Lamar, “Taylor Made Freestyle”, proves this point.
Lamar was sure to address that disrespectful decision on “euphoria”.
Referencing a ring once owned by Shakur that Drake bought in 2019, Lamar says:
“Somebody had told me that you got a ring, on God, I’m ready to double the wage/I’d rather do that than let a Canadian n**** make Pac turn in his grave.”
With Kendrick Lamar seen as the west coast’s successor to Tupac, this line was especially important.
Setting the record straight
In addition to defending his idol Tupac, Kendrick Lamar sets the record straight across the board.
He addresses Drake’s firing shots at legendary artist and producer Pharrell on “MELTDOWN” with Travis Scott, while simultaneously reminding him that he never responded to Pusha T after his scathing 2018 diss track “The Story of Adidon“.
“I don’t like you poppin’ s*** at Pharrell, for him, I inherit the beef/Yeah, f*** all that pushin’ P, let me see you push a T.”
In response to Drake’s critique of Lamar’s record label contract on “Push Ups”, he says:
“Let’s speak on percentage, show me your splits/I’ll make sure I double back with you/You were signed to a n**** that’s signed to a n**** that said he was signed to that n****.”
Drake is signed to Lil Wayne’s Young Money collective, which is under Birdman’s Cash Money, which is under Universal Records.
Additionally, Lamar calls out Drake’s tendency to maintain his relevance by befriending younger artists within hip-hop.
“Yachty can’t give you no swag neither, I don’t give a f*** ’bout who you hang with.”
Adding insult to injury
As if all of this wasn’t enough, Kendrick Lamar takes it even further.
He dedicates six lines to criticising Drake’s ability to raise his son properly, calls out his reputation for working with ghostwriters throughout his career, and mocks the Toronto accent, the city where Drake is from.
Lamar labels Drake’s OVO collective as culture vultures who are incapable of fully understanding the violent nature of America’s hip-hop culture and wider society.
He then ends the song by saying, “We don’t wanna hear you say n**** no more.”
Drake has to respond
Drake put pressure on Kendrick Lamar to respond, and he got what he wished for.
He now has no choice but to respond.
However, the energy that Lamar came with on “euphoria” suggests that doing so could quickly backfire.
There are numerous lines throughout the track where Lamar suggests that he has more dirt on Drake.
The fact that Kendrick Lamar was holding back despite everything he got off his chest speaks volumes about how much further he could take this.
The rap world now awaits Drake’s next move.
