If the current state of affairs in rap music is a civil war, then Kendrick committed genocide on “euphoria” also known as Drake’s obituary. Choosing violence on a random Tuesday, April 30, Kendrick dropped his response to “Push Ups” and the AI Tupac-assisted “Taylor Made Freestyle” on YouTube.
On “euphoria,” Kendrick proclaims he’s “the biggest hater” and hate he did. He hated like it was a professional sport, and he was the Anthony Edwards to Drake’s Kevin Durant. He hated like he was DMX on the Breakfast Club in 2012, naming everything he doesn’t like about Drake. He hated like he was the Grinch and Drake was Christmas.
Throughout six minutes and 24 seconds, we counted 37 poignant punchlines aimed at Drake.
Kendrick packs almost as many references and double entendres in each diss as the surgical six-pack he accuses Drake of getting. The volume of fans that tried reading the decoded lyrics on Genius temporarily crashed their website.
Frankly, trying to unpack all 37 double, triple, and quadruple entendres in “euphoria” would be the length of an APA-style paper, and no one wants to read that. So, in the spirit of this rap beef, here are 7 ways Kendrick put Drake 6 feet under his size 7s in 6 minutes.
#1 The intro
“Euret si em tuoba yas yeht gnihtyrevE” reversed is “Everything they say about me is true.” It’s a line from the 1978 remake of The Wizard of Oz that’s said by Richard Pryor when his character (the Wizard) is revealed to be a phony.
Kendrick proceeds to point out all the ways in which Drake is fraudulent on “euphoria,” from his gangster persona, performative fatherhood, and perceived blackness to his fake abs, ghostwriters, and fake accents.
#2 The title
Kendrick alludes to Drake’s allegations of inappropriate relationships with younger women more than once, but the song’s title may be the biggest punchline to this diss. Drake is a producer of the hit show Euphoria, which has been widely criticized for its heavy sexualization of high school characters.
#3 Gunna, Pusha T, and Pharrell
I don’t like you poppin’ shit at Pharrell, for him, I inherit the beef / Yeah, fuck all that pushin’ P, let me see you push a T.
This defends Pharrell from the shots Drake fired at him on “Meltdown” for taking over the late Virgil Abloh’s position at Louis Vuitton. He uses Gunna’s “Pushing P” as a double entendre for Drake pushing Pharrell and loops in Pusha T, who infamously beat Drake the last time they beefed.
You better off spinnin’ again on him, you think about pushin’ me? / He’s Terrence Thornton, I’m Terence Crawford, yeah, I’m whoopin’ feet.
He warns Drake he’d have better luck testing Pusha again than going against him. Using Pusha’s real name (Thorton), Kendrick references how Pusha beat Drake but likens himself to the undefeated boxer Crawford.
I know some shit about n*ggas that make Gunna Wunna look like a saint.
Kendrick implies Drake has bigger skeletons in his closet than Gunna’s “snitch” allegations, which were almost career-ending.
#4 Tupac
Somebody had told me that you got a ring, on God, I’m ready to double the wage / I rather do that, than let a Canadian n*gga make Pac turn in his grave.
Echoing a sentiment similar to Tupac’s estate, Kendrick feels the use of AI to mimic Tupac was disrespectful and not something the late rapper would approve of. He says he’ll double the $1M Drake paid for Tupac’s crown ring last year to keep it out of his hands.
#5 J. Cole & YNW Melly
There’s three GOATs left, and I see two of them kissin’ and huggin’ on stage […] I pray they my real friends, if not, I’m YNW Melly.
Flipping J. Cole’s mention of the Big 3 on “First Person Shooter,” Kendrick mocks how affectionate Cole and Drake were on their Big As The What? Tour and uses YNW Melly’s allegations of murdering two of his friends to say he’ll do the same to Cole and Drake if he deems them untrustworthy.
#6 DMX
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 bitches you f*ck, ’cause they confuse themselves with real women.
The first part is an interpolation of DMX’s 2012 interview (shown below) where he says he doesn’t like Drake’s voice, what he talks about, his face, how he walks, or his haircut.
On “Taylor Made Freestyle,” Drake said Kendrick better have a quintuple entendre on his response. Kendrick directly names 5 things he hates about Drake, matching the 5 DMX named and the 5 parts of a quintuple Drake asked for.
#7 Lil Yachty & Ghostwriters
Yachty can’t give you no swag neither, I don’t give a f*ck ’bout who you hang with.
On April 13, Yachty’s reference track for “Jumbotron Shit Poppin” leaked, and Kendrick essentially says no matter how much Drake culture vultures from other artists, he’ll never beat him or be authentic.
Ain’t twenty-v-one, it’s one-v-twenty if I gotta smack n*ggas that write with you / Yeah, bring ’em out too, I clean ’em out too / Tell BEAM that he better stay right with you / Am I battlin’ ghost or AI? N*gga feelin’ like Joel Osteen / Funny, he was in a film called AI
Kendrick cleverly flips Drake’s “20 v 1” bar against him and says he’s the one facing 20 of Drake’s ghostwriters. He namedrops BEAM, another artist and songwriter who appears on the credits for Drake’s Her Loss.
The best wordplay is Kendrick pointing out that Drake needs ghostwriters and AI to assist his responses before using internet pastor Joel Osteen and actor Haley Joel Osteen to get off a double entendre about the movie The Sixth Sense in which Osteen battles ghosts.
