Good morning, haters — or, really, good morning to everyone who isn’t Drake. Kendrick Lamar called an impromptu emergency meeting of the anti-Drake club on Tuesday when he dropped “Euphoria,” his six-minute-long, highly-anticipated response to weeks of antagonization from the Canadian rapper.
Last week, Drake released “Taylor Made Freestyle,” his second response to a couple of shots that Kendrick took at him on the Metro Boomin and Future track “Like That.” The song has since been removed due to legal threats from the Tupac estate, but it did feature the line: “Since “Like That,” your tone changed a little, you not as enthused / How are you not in the booth? It feel like you kinda removed.” Needless to say, Kendrick got in the booth.
“Them super powers gettin’ neutralized, I can only watch in silence/The famous actor we once knew is lookin’ paranoid and now is spiralling/You movin’ just like a degenerate, heavy antic, it’s feelin’ distasteful/Why calculate you, not as calculated, I can even predict your angles,” Kendrick starts, adding: “Know you a master manipulator, and a bitch, you a liar too/But don’t tell no lie ’bout me, and I won’t tell truths ’bout you.”
When the beat switches up, the rapper fully unloads all of his grievances. “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 nigga make Pac turn in his grave,” Kendrick spits, referencing Drake’s use of AI to replicate the late rapper’s voice on “Taylor Made Freestyle.” He also references J. Cole’s brief involvement (and inevitable withdrawal) from the beef: “There’s no accent you can sell me/Yeah, Cole and Aubrey know I’m a selfish nigga/The crown is heavy.”
But mostly, Kendrick makes a case for his standing as a gold medalist in the hating olympics. “This ain’t been ’bout critics, not about gimmicks, not about who the greatest/It’s always been about love and hate, now let me say I’m the biggest hater,” he raps. “I hate the way that you walk, the way that you talk, I hate the way that you dress.”
Elsewhere, he adds: “How many more black features ’til you finally feel that you black enough? I like Drake with the melodies, I don’t like Drake when he act tough.” Kendrick pops into the classic albums convo too, claiming that Drake doesn’t have any: “Let your core audience stomach that/Then tell ’em where you get your abs from.” Another one-liner comes soon after: “When I see you stand by Sexyy Red, I believe you see two bad bitches.”
Kendrick also hits back at Drake insisting that the reason he response took so long was because he was trying to dig up more ammo to use. “Why would I call around tryna get dirt on niggas? Y’all think all of my life is rap?” he asks. “That’s hoe shit, I got a son to raise, but I can see you know nothin’ ’bout that.”
Drake asked for this and now the ball is back in his court.
