Transcript for:
Kendrick Lamar's Diss Track 'Euphoria' Analysis

Lobbies and gentlegrams. In today's episode of Lobery in Gentle Land, 17 days after the gavvel guzzling Grahams Ghost Riders leaked push-ups, the planet pondered on the possibility of a petite pac cookup. The petite puck is Kendrick if you didn't know. And we are all wondering when he was inevitably about to bury Aubrey in the Canadian snow. The Marilyn Monrovi hoe was riding high thinking his superpowers would never get neutralized. But there couldn't be a better time or a better guy to weaponize a pen and rhymes and petrify a tender guy. And now we're in a special time, the one-year anniversary of the song that stripped the soul and scarred the sexy red stunt double like a surgery. At the same time, a concocted creative piece deriving from courtesy since the Compton killer warned the Canadian clown not to commit no perjury. Don't tell no lies about me. I won't tell truth about you. Sadly, the singing suing sad boy ignored Kendrick saying that's something you don't want to do. So, let's unpack the psychological attack Euphoria put on Drake's back and take it all the way back one year ago today. A day that would change the course of rap. But first, like and subscribe if you give a crap. Now, lobies and gentle grams, April 30th, 2024 should be a cherished hip-hop holiday. The day that all of confidence had gone away. It was a random Tuesday morning. And that's what's so beautiful about the whole thing is this was not expected in the slightest, right? With Family Matters, which we'll touch on on the one-year anniversary of that track, Drake basically did a whole roll out for that song, right? All the posts on Instagram talking about this being some massive red button. He previewed it at the end of his song Push-Ups. He even begged Kendrick to drop on Tailor Made Freestyle, saying that as soon as Kendrick does, Drake is out on the loose. And in the meantime, Kendrick is dead silent, right? And I don't know if you guys remember the narrative back then. I mean, if you were like me, then you knew from the beginning that Drake had everything to lose and absolutely nothing to gain by engaging in this beef. But again, at the time before the day of April 30th, think about where we were circumstantially, if that's a word. Think about it in the grand perspective of things as well, right? Like the last project we got from Kendrick Lamar had been Mr. Moral, where he was talking about stripping that title that hip-hop gave him as the savior. And I think the outro track on Mr. Moral was very powerful to kind of give you a perspective on where Kendrick was at at this point in not just his own personal life, but also in his career and what we could expect as fans from Kendrick in the future. He wrapped, "Faith in one man is a ship sinking. Do yourself a favor and get a mirror that mirror grievance." Then pointed at me so the reflection can mirror freedom. She told me that she need me the most. I didn't believe her. Mad at me cuz she didn't get my vote. She say I'm trifling, disregarding the way that I cope with my own vices. Maybe it's time to break it off. Run away from the culture to follow my heart. When will you let me go? I trust you'll find independence. If not, then all is forgiven. Sorry I didn't save the world, my friend. I was too busy building mine again. I choose me. I'm sorry. That was the last song we got from Kendrick Lamar before his verse on Like That where he came with a much different energy. And I say that to say, try to put yourself back in the perspective of most hip-hop fans before April 30th, 2024. The last time Kendrick had a verse like like that where he shook up the entire game was Control. He got a bunch of responses to Control, but he never directly referenced that verse again, except for saying that he spoke to Jay-Z and they were both laughing at how one verse can mess up the game. But there was one individual who was very buttthurt over that controll verse and that resentment lingered into where we were on April 30th, 2024. Right? That was Labriana, the Marilyn Monrovi hoe. But again, before April 30th, things seemed very different. Our perspective of where Kendrick was at mentally was very different, right? The last thing he told the world was, "Sorry I didn't save the world. I was too busy building mine. I choose me. I'm sorry." Was like that going to be control part two? We know Drake wasn't happy with Control, just like he wasn't happy with Like That. Maybe Kendrick would lead with silence once again. Or maybe not. I actually forgot to mention after Control, he did have that freestyle on the BET Award show where he referenced the verse saying, "Nothing's been the same since they dropped Control and tucked a sensitive rapper back in his pajama clothes." So again, this whole time, every time he jumps out the gate in a single verse to profess his greatness, it's always one rapper who is extremely buttthard about it and one rapper who Kendrick intentionally tries to target once the dust has settled. But this time around, the last thing we heard from Kendrick was Mr. Moral. He didn't seem like he was in the same headsp space he was when he dropped Control, right? a young hungry rapper who had just put out his first major label debut album to critical acclaim looking to claim the top spot in the game. At this point, right, Kendrick is 10 plus years into his career, Pulitzer Prize, winning more money and accolades than any artist could ever dream of. And it was safe to say he was comfortable and confident in his spot, prioritizing his private life over his public perception. I didn't think this, but Drake, his entire team, and all of his cheerleaders like Akadi and Maul tried to paint the narrative that Kendrick was ducking the smoke. Kendrick didn't know what he got himself into. And at this point, what move would be the right one, right? Because we had just seen J.Cole jump out at him and then apologize days later. It looks like Drake is ready to go. But this could get ugly very quickly. He's already posting pictures in Compton College merch. That's the college that Kendrick's fiance Whitney went to, alluding to the fact that he might bring family involved very quickly, just like he did with that push of tea beef. He's already sharing pictures of Kendrick's manager on his Instagram page. He's playing dirty, right? Does Kendrick want to compromise his privacy for the sake of a rap beef when he's now living at peace? Well, those 17 days of silence left the world with a bunch of questions. And Drake took that opportunity to be as loud as possible. If you guys haven't been keeping up, I did videos covering every single diss track on their one-year anniversary. So, you guys can go watch the breakdown of push-ups one year later, how all those bars aged. Same with Tailor Made, same with 7-minute drill, and of course, a verse that started it all like that. Another narrative that had been floating around at the time was that remember Drake was very buttthurt over control. He was way more sensitive about it than he should have been. And I mean, if I was Kendrick, I would have hated that. That would have disgusted me, right? And these OV hoes at the time were concocting some sort of narrative that Kendrick had been cooking up this diss track for the last four years, ready to drop it on Drake. He was still harboring resentment over Drake's reaction to control, and he was ready to control the game, concocting a diss track around the time he released Family Ties with Baby Keem, where he professed that he'd be smoking on your top five. Is that why Drake included Academics's reaction to that song on push-ups where Academics said, "What type five are you smoking on Kendrick?" Whatever it was, Academics had emphasized that at the time Drake was trying to bait Kendrick into dropping this diss track that he thought Kendrick had written over four years ago, right? Because if Kendrick wrote this four years ago, that's his nuke. That's his big bomb, right? Drake wanted Kendrick to put all his cards on the table, drop this diss track after four years. He even mentioned this on the leaked version of Pushup, saying, "You had that thing for 4 years. Drop that stuff and shut your mouth." So Drake is out here begging Kendrick to drop what he thinks is a 4-year diss track in the making. Kendrick is absolutely silent. Academics really along with a lot of hip-hop media had Kendrick on this time clock, counting down the days from the start of the release of push-ups down to the end of April. every single day a new tweet from academics saying day one, day two, day three of no response from Kendrick Lamar. And again, I can't emphasize enough before April 30th, the narrative against Kendrick Lamar was crazy. I mean, you could see for yourself. And his energy, not one time, not a couple times, it's been every time. I'm ready and waiting. And he got so ready and waiting, he realized Kendrick Simpy, he dropped first. Let's talk about it. And Kendrick, you on the clock. Yeah. It's all on Kendrick now. Kendrick has been calling for this. He's been asking for this for several years and he got what he wanted. So now it's time to show and prove because Drake said it. Yo, Kendrick, he's begging you to drop. The shenanigans is over. The bait and switch. The bluffer Olympics is done. Drop your four-year-old song that you could get demolished. I think it'll happen eventually. Uh Kendrick will respond, but it won't be the battle. It won't be like back and forth. Drake believes that Kendrick Lamar doesn't have a response to the uh push-ups dropping and give me 50 discs that he dropped. And then Drake put use me as a they have nothing to drop button. I don't know. I don't think Kendrick's cooking up. It don't take him three four weeks to uh to I think that's over. It don't take three or four weeks. I'm sorry. Drake is like a genre of music. Like you're stuck on an island. Imagine if all you can listen to is all this militant we going to be all right left right out of here. I think still through all of this we find out that all of this candyman boogeyman that your generation kind of dubbed Kendrick, y'all just kind of ran and thought that Kendrick was this bully that ran through the industry and nobody wanted to battle. You rap every 5 years and you come with this [ __ ] now. Drake up right now. Yeah, absolutely. Drake up right now cuz Drake took it farther than Kendrick ever has. the audacity of mother who goes by the name Kung Fu Kenny to attack the goat in the ninth minute after that just gave us backto back tours backto backto back albums that pen been on a world tour he finally took a break and now you want to diss the [ __ ] goat after what I heard with uh push-up you need to take a breath you take your time and reply correctly cuz like I Drake dropped his takeover. So now you got to give us your ether if you if you got the ether. That's what he do anyway though. He takes his time. He should. Four years. He better come back faster than that. What would he do anyway though? He takes his time. He should. Four years. Oh, he going to Kendrick up. Yeah, he going to Kendrick up. You see how dedicated is looking at his phone? He's going to Kendrick up. Kendrick is on the clock. And the clock is Kendrick is on the clock. It's been ticking. It took Drake 3 weeks. No, it did not. Yo, Drake in the club looking like he about to do the Thanos snap, man. Get rid of half the rap game. Chubs. So, this is Drake man's Lil Chubs. He said, um, little boy Kendrick should drop Drake, but he no battle not going away. Like, this is a battle. Like, you wanted this. I'm entertaining it. I'm here now. I don't know what you're doing. I know you have records done. The curves on his wheel like hoes love to try and test us like they know where we are. Trump's got the magazine cover like Rolling Stones. Holy. This is how he wrote it. That was waiting for a jet ski to pull up. Imagine what he's gonna do to Kendrick Lamar. Yeah, Kendrick, stand the up. You look crazy out here, bro. Rocks a Compton Community College shirt. And apparently Kendrick's wife Whitney may have attended there. Kind of letting Kendrick know, you know, I'm closer to home that you than you think. And also, if you tune into or you check out the chains he's wearing, apparently these are the Tupac chains that supposedly he had bought. Uh it's clear that it's clear to me that Drake wants, you know, he wants this back and forth. It's just going to be very interesting to watch this unfold and watch where it lands after. But once April 30th rolled around, it was absolute crickets. I still remember where I was brushing my teeth. I get a text from a Drake fan, one of my good friends, saying, "The battle is finally on." And what it should have said was, "The battle is finally over." Because this was really, in my opinion, all Kendrick needed to completely dismantle Drake. To this day, this is still my favorite song from the entire battle. All the foreshadowing, the psychological assessment of Drake, the rapper, the actor, and Aubrey, the human, and the father, and the son. This was a breakdown and a dissection of every single element of Drake's character, what he stood for, how he was perceived by the culture, and why Kendrick was the far superior artist to carry the crown. We're going to break down every element, every bar from this track, but of course, we have to start with the album artwork. Right? When I first saw this, I didn't even think this was a diss track at first. I thought this was some sort of troll. If you guys don't remember, the cover art to this song is almost as calculated as the Not Like Us album image or Meet the Grams. The only difference is Drake isn't suing over this one. And how could he, right? This was literally just a screenshot of the definition of the word euphoria. So, it says a feeling of well-being or elation. And then they used it in a couple sentences. One of them is apparently it's the change in mood, the feeling of euphoria and reduced anxiety that prompts people to start using this dangerous drug. Of course, this could be a reference to Drake for several reasons, right? Obviously on the artwork of meet the grams we see prescription medication for osmpic aderall and zulpadem. I don't know if that's how you pronounce it. And it's all for Aubrey Graham. Who's Aubrey Graham? Labriana Drake. On that song Kendrick would call out Drake for having pill popping problems. While on Euphoria he would call out Drake for having lipos suction. And if you guys didn't know, Ompic is another form of weight loss drug. And again, on the Meet the Grams album artwork, it was prescribed to Drake. Those could be the dangerous drugs Kendrick's referencing on the cover art of euphoria, foreshadowing what he would later reveal. But on the sentence in that artwork, remember it says, "It's the change in mood, the feeling of euphoria, and reduced anxiety that prompts people to start using that drug." Remember on Kendrick's collab with Push A Tea, nostalgia? He compares his artistry and his work to dope, saying, "Every verse is a brick." Before Euphoria, Drake was moving with this overwhelming sense of confidence, arrogance, delusion, and euphoria, obviously reduced anxiety as well. To think that he had already won the battle with Tailor Made and push-ups before Kendrick ever even dropped the record, right? It's that feeling of euphoria that triggers people, prompts people to take the pill, to dance with the devil. Just a little spoiler, we're going to be doing a lot of reaching here. So, if you're not trying to dissect these Easter eggs, this might not be the video for you. But the second sentence is a little bit less of a reach. It says, "They had almost a week to recover from the euphoria of Tuesday's winning series victory." And this would foreshadow it all, man. I mean, think about when he dropped Euphoria, right? It was on a Tuesday. Think about when he dropped his final diss track, Not Like Us. It was that same week on a Saturday. This sentence says they had almost a week to recover from the euphoria of Tuesday's winning series victory. Kendrick here is calling Euphoria the series winning victory. He's foreshadowing saying Drake has almost a week to recover before he drops the nuke, the final bomb that was not like us. And you want to know what's even greater? So these are two sentences, two quotes, right? Two people using the word euphoria in two different sentences. The first one is Retita L. Atkinson who is a psychologist. Think about the type of record that Euphoria was. It was an extremely tactical psychological breakdown of Drake's character. But the second quote, they had almost a week to recover from the euphoria of Tuesday's series winning victory was from an individual by the name of Clifton Brown. Clifton Brown is a Canadian kickboxer who fought in none other than Toronto, Ontario. Everything about this song is calculated down to the quotes in the album artwork and the title of the song as well. If you guys didn't know, Drake was the executive producer of the TV series Euphoria. The show is a drama about teenage women who suffer drug addictions. Teenage Women. Drake is the executive producer. This song has the same title of that TV show. On Tailor Made Freestyle, Drake asked Kendrick for a quintuple on Tandras. On the title of this song alone, Kendrick gives them to him. I also didn't realize the song was actually released at 8:24 a.m. Pacific Standard Time. That's the time zone that LA is based out of. And that's a nod obviously to the Los Angeles legend and former Lakers player Kobe Bryant as 8 and 24 were Kobe's jersey numbers. The song famously starts off with words that are said in reverse on Genius. It says I can't read this, but the reverse of the sample means everything they say about me is true. And this is a sample from the 1978 film The Whiz, which was a remake of the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz. Ironically, Drake actually performed in a theater production of The Wizard of Oz as a child. Ironically, as well, in this remake of the movie that Kendrick is sampling on Euphoria, Michael Jackson actually plays the straw man character. Michael Jackson and Prince of course play an important theme throughout the different jabs in both Drake and Kendrick's diss tracks. Starting off with like that when Kendrick says Prince outlived Mike Jack. In the movie The Whiz, Michael Jackson again plays the straw man who is in search of a brain. Keep in mind Drake is often the one comparing himself to Michael Jackson with Kendrick even comparing himself to Prince saying that Prince outlived Michael Jackson in his like that verse. But this little audio sample that's played in reverse on Euphoria is much deeper than a simple Michael Jackson callback. This sets the preface for the entire song. The full entire quote when it's played not in reverse is, "I'm sorry. Everything they say about me is true. I'm a phony. I got no powers. I got no right to pretend to be the whiz." This is Kendrick professing at the beginning of the record that Drake's superpowers will get stripped and the world will see he's nothing but a phony. And then we get the first beat of this record. Remember on like that, Kendrick said, "F sneak dissing firstperson shooter. I hope they came with three switches." Keep that in mind when you think of the type of disses that you hear on Euphoria and the type of beats. Are you getting sneak disses or is Kendrick coming direct? Well, let's find out. The first line, Kendrick raps, them superpowers get neutralized. I can only watch in silence. The famous actor we once knew is looking paranoid and now spiraling. Kendrick sets the tone of the song off, letting the audience know that Drake's powers are getting stripped from him. And I thought this was an interesting Easter egg as well, right? Like that was obviously a response to first person shooter. Right on that song, J.Cole and Drake are not only calling themselves the goats, they're also comparing themselves to the superhero Spider-Man. Here's a little comic book nerd knowledge for you. There's a difference between inheriting superpowers versus being born with them. There's heroes like Superman who are born with their abilities due to their alien or mutant origin. A hero like Spider-Man, on the other hand, who Drake compares himself to actually gains his powers through an external event like a radioactive spider bite. There's a difference between being born with powers versus adopting them throughout your life. By calling Drake an actor and saying that his powers are getting neutralized, Kendrick is emphasizing that Drake is hiding behind a facade, a front. These superpowers weren't inherent to him. It's always been an act. Of course, Drake obviously also started his career as a literal actor on the show Degrassi. But Kendrick continues, "You're moving just like a degenerate. Every antic feeling distasteful. I calculate you're not as calculated. I could even predict your angle." So, right off the bat, Kendrick is giving Drake more double on tandras with the angle being calculated, right? That's obviously in reference to calculating angles in mathematics. But remember again that this is Kendrick's warning shot. This is the first disc he released throughout this entire battle. This is Kendrick telling Drake, "You're moving like an idiot." Dropping these AI Tupac disc songs blatantly disrespecting the culture's legends, proving you don't understand so much of the culture you've been acting in for so long and have taken so much from. And at this point, not only do your antics feel distasteful, with distasteful also being a double entandra because distasteful, right? In his disses, he's acting distastefully. But Kendrick here is warning Drake that he's predicting every single one of his angles. And we'd see that later, right? Because right when Drake released his red button, the thing that he thought would set off the entire beef with Family Matters, Kendrick was prepared and ready 30 minutes later to unleash Meet the Grams and take away all the attention that Drake had for those 30 minutes. Kendrick had Drake's moves calculated to a tea. And earlier on the song, he said again, I can only watch in silence as these superpowers get neutralized. Think about how silent Kendrick was in those 17 days between push-ups and Euphoria while Drake was out here spiraling on social media and throughout these distasteful diss tracks. He continues with more foreshadowing rapping fabricating stories on the family front cuz you heard Mr. Morale. And at this point in the beef, for Kendrick to already basically predict this based off the few little Easter eggs that Drake dropped throughout Push-Ups and Tailor Made is pretty incredible, right? Because Family Matters was where Drake really dropped those bombs about Kendrick's personal life, right? Him cheating on Whitney, Whitney cheating on him, having a kid with Dave Free. Family Matters came out after Euphoria. But Kendrick here is already predicting that Drake was going to leverage the personal stories Kendrick told on Mr. Morale against him in his own diss tracks. And then look at the heart part six, right? Where he's literally misinterpreting Kendrick's own lyrics to try to say, "That's why you called me a PDF." We'll get to that when we break down the heart part six. But I can't emphasize enough how crazy it is that Kendrick already knew this when Euphoria dropped. Cuz all we got before that was the simple bar and push-up saying, "I'd be with some bodyguards like Whitney." Just off that one line alone, Kendrick knew that Drake would bring the family into this. And he warns him continuously throughout Euphoria to not take it there. But Kendrick continues here, "A pathetic master manipulator. I could smell the tales on you now. You're not a rap artist. You're a scam artist with the hopes of being accepted. Tommy Hilfiger stood out, but FUBU had never been in your collection. More double on Tandraas here. Back in the9s, a lot of rappers had wore Tommy Hilfiger clothing until it came out that Tommy Hilfiger, a white man, had actually allegedly been racist and didn't approve of hip-hop artists wearing his clothing. Meanwhile, on the other hand, the brand FUBU, which stands for For us by Us, is a company that's specifically owned and produced by black designers. Keep in mind the word us as obviously Kendrick would go on to make the slogan of this entire beef that Drake is quote unquote not like us. And by us I do not mean me. I like Drake am also a white Canadian who is very grateful to be a tourist of this culture and have the opportunity to break down these bars with you guys. But what Kendrick is trying to say within this bar is not just that Drake has the white clothing designers in his wardrobe and not the blackowned fashion brands, but it paints a bigger picture of what the song's all about. Right. Kendrick emphasizes, "I hate everything about you. The way you walk, the way you talk, and the way you dress." But he says, "It's not just me. I'm what the culture is feeling." Fubu is for us by us. You have never been us. You have never been truly part of the culture. This has all been an act. And Kendrick continues comparing the contrast in his own artistry versus Drake's by rapping, I make music that electrifies them. You make music that pacifies them. Again, more double on tandras as obviously Kendrick's music has been used as the anthems behind multiple protests and social movements. Of course, his albums like to pimp a butterfly and good kid mad city focusing on the cycles of oppression that his culture and his neighborhood faced and his efforts to inspire and uplift the people around him while breaking those generational cycles. He doesn't just electrify the crowd or the fans through the vibes of the music, but it's more through the message, right? And in terms of Drake's music, he's not necessarily just saying that Drake makes music that pacifies them in terms of, you know, he makes that more slower down, darker, moody R&B that can potentially put you to sleep, aka pacify you. But from a broader perspective, Drake has been at the top for damn near a decade, right? dropping album and album year after year, pacifying the culture as a whole with his monotonous subject matter delivery repetitive formulaic music and building his reign at the top of the charts while sacrificing the artistic integrity and innovation that most rappers at the top are supposed to carry when you have the crown. What do you do with it, right? Do you electrify them or do you pacify them? You could say that in Drake's most active years, the culture has never felt more dormant or at least mainstream music hasn't. And here's the quintuple antonandra for you. What is a pacifier used for? It's to put little kids to sleep. Don't forget this is the warning shot. So, we don't hear none of the PDF file bars throughout Euphoria. The most we get is a subtle jab or a subtle nod to it layered in multi-meaning bars. And Kendrick emphasizes that this was in fact a warning shot saying again, I make music that electrifies them. You make music that pacifies them. I could double down on that line, but I'll spare you this time. That's a random act of kindness. And remember, a couple bars before, Kendrick says, "You're a pathetic master manipulator. I can smell the tales on you now. I could already predict the type of places you're going to take this battle." Right? So, here Kendrick is warning Drake, I could double down on these, you know, PDF file claims, right, that you pacify them, but I'm going to spare you this time. That's a random act of kindness. But he follows that up saying, I know you're a master manipulator and a habitual liar, too. Earlier in the verse, he's talking about being able to predict how Drake will attempt to manipulate the audience. And here he doubles down on that line. There's so many layers to this, right? Because he's talking about, "I can double down on the PDF file claims, but I'll spare you here." And then earlier in the verse, he says, "Drake is a master manipulator." And at the end of the verse, he doubles down on that line again, calling Drake a master manipulator. finishing off the first verse of this song saying, "Don't tell no lies about me, and I won't tell truth about you." He starts this verse off talking about how he could predict every single one of Drake's angles. The powers are getting neutralized. He's never been one of them. Fubu has never been in his collection. He warns Drake how far he could take this, talking about the pacifying line, then saying he could double down on it, but instead he'll double down on the fact that Drake is a master manipulator. He could already smell the lies and tales on Drake, but as a random act of kindness, warns Drake, "Do not tell no lies about me and I won't expose the truth about you." Now, this is also a call back to Kendrick's song, The Heart Part 4, where he raps, "Don't tell a lie on me, and I won't tell the truth about you." At the time, many people thought that Kendrick was talking about Drake on the Heart Part, right? My fans can't wait for me to sun your punk butt, crush your whole little thing. I'll big pun you punk butt. You're a whole little bee. H I wish I could curse on YouTube. But yeah, it's funny cuz on the heart part 4 he says, "Say my name. I promise you'll see Candyman." And on this record, Euphoria, Kendrick is saying Drake's name multiple times. Remember how he told Drake on first person shooter. F sneak dissing. On Euphoria, he's saying, "I hate the way that you sneak this. If I catch Flight, it's going to be direct." On the Heart Part 4, he's talking about, "Say my name. I promise you'll see Candyman." Drake says his name on Tailor Made. And Kendrick doesn't look back. He says Drake's name multiple times, even calling him his government name in this song while warning him that he can expose the full truth, but he'll spare him this time around. And then we get the first beat switch of the song. Remember again, right, first person shooter. I hope they came with three switches. That's what Kendrick wrapped on like that. On Euphoria, he literally comes with three switches. Three beat switches. And that's before Drake could get his third switch, right? Because you had push-ups, you had tailor made. This was released before Family Matters, that third switch. And here we get a couple adlibs from Kendrick before he starts rapping, right? He just goes, "Shoo, shoo, shoo, bb." I told you, if you're not here for the reaching, you might as well click off this video because yes, we're about to analyze some adlibs. So, obviously, these adlibs are the sound of a firearm going off, right? Headshot for the year. But Kendrick also says here, "Shu." Shoui is a slang term that's often used by either New Jersey, Delaware, or California residents to refer to tourists or out oftowners that come to their cities during the summer seasons or busy seasons, packing out hotel rooms, basically doing what tourists do, right? Coming into a city, enjoying the resources, and then leaving when it's convenient for them. The Newark, New Jersey information center actually defines Shouy as basically a way of identifying those people who stick out like a sore thumb. Kendrick obviously throughout this entire record and all of his other diss tracks calls Drake out for being a tourist to the culture, utilizing the artists, the slang, the heritage of the culture when it's convenient for him to push his own artistry and agenda forward. Not only is shu and b the sound of a firearm, but it also references a shoui, aka a tourist, most specifically in California. And these are the same adlibs that Kendrick says on his song N95. What is N95 about? It's about taking off your mask, revealing who you truly are to the world. So, now let's get into the bars since we now have broken down adlibs, reverse samples, and cover arts. Kendrick kicks off this verse saying, "Yeah, I'm out the way. Yeah, I'm low." Okay, here's another double on Tandra for you. Kendrick is the short statured, sharpshooting assassin, right? He's very short. Drake makes reference to this on push-ups. In this song, Kendrick says, "I'm out the way. I'm low, okay? I'm low to the ground." But it's deeper than that. This is obviously a call back to not just Drake, but J.Cole as well, who both called Kendrick out for his silence throughout not only this entire beef, but also throughout his entire career. On 7-minute drill, J.Cole's quickly deleted diss track. He raps four albums in 12 years, I can divide. If this is what you want, I'm indulging in violence. Essentially saying that Kendrick does not release enough music to come for the crown. Kendrick here is kind of eight mileing himself, right? Like he's saying, "Yeah, I'm out the way. Yeah, I'm low. Okay." Like, is that what you have on me on push-ups? Drake, you're talking about, you know, I have small feet. I'm a short guy. Cole, you're talking about, you know, I don't release albums that much. Yeah, I'm out the way. Okay, but now that we got that out of the way, let's get into the real meat and potatoes of this whole thing. Yeah, the island right here is remote. Okay, Kendrick values his privacy. He values his private life, right? He doesn't put his family life in the public eye. His island is remote. He continues, "I ain't thinking about no reaper. I'm reaping what I sew." Okay, now pay attention cuz this isn't just a little jab at Drake. This is a response to J.Cole as well. Yes, J.Cole apologized. Yes, he backtracked, took his diss track off streaming platforms. But Kendrick still had a couple little things to say to J.Cole. So on JCole song Johnny Piece Caddy, he raps, "People want me on a song, they're going to see the wrath of the reaper." It was on that song that JCole really professed his greatness, rapping on God, the best rapper alive, headshot. not go and ask the next rapper that died, they'll tell you he never lied. Kendrick here is saying he's not thinking about no reaper. He's not thinking about what JCole can do to him on a track. But also with, you know, the Grim Reaper being a personification of death, Kendrick is emphasizing that he's not scared of the consequences of this battle, right? He's not scared of quote unquote dying in this battle, and he's not scared of killing a career. He's not thinking about no reaper. He's reaping what he's sewing, which means he's taking advantage of the fruits of his labor. Kendrick has been wildly overlooked as a battle rapper. He mentions it on whacked on murals, right? Ducking strays when I rap battles in the Nickerson. Kendrick's been putting in work for a long time. And at this point, he's reaping what he swed. He's taking advantage of the hard work he put in to attain the level of skill set that he currently has. And for that reason, he's not even contemplating that the Reaper will knock at his door at the end of this battle. He's not even thinking of losing as a possibility. You can see here we got to kind of take our time with each of these bars. Each of them being extremely extremely layered. He continues, "Got a Benjamin and a Jackson all in my house like I'm Joe." Okay. Now, Benjamin and Jackson obviously refer to Benjamin Franklin and Andrew Jackson, the founding father and president, whose faces appear on the $120 bills, respectively. Now, this part could be a bit of a reach, but a $100 bill and a $20 bill adds up to 120. Kendrick on the bar before this was talking about he's not scared of the reaper. He's not scared of death. Kendrick often refers to himself as an Israelite. In the Hebrew language, ad 120 means, "May you live until 120." It's a Jewish expression that references Moses living to 120. Basically, a long, strong, fruitful life, right? Drake, as we know, is obviously of Jewish heritage. And here, Kendrick is saying he's got 120 in his house. He's not worried about death. He's living that long, fruitful life. And this is also another call back to obviously Michael Jackson, right? Again, a lot of Michael Jackson callbacks and bars throughout all these diss tracks. Ben was the name of a song that Michael Jackson wrote and sung about his pet rat. Yes, he had a pet rat. And Joe Jackson is the name of Michael Jackson's father. Kendrick is saying here he's got a father and a rat in his house. Think about Meet the Grams, right? Not only is Kendrick sunning Drake, talking to Drake's own son, saying he could be a better father to Drake's son than Drake can, you know? So this obviously being a metaphor saying that he is again soning Drake. But at the same time, the meet the grams artwork has a bunch of items from Drake's father's briefcase that a rat or a mole gave to Kendrick. Kendrick in this song is again warning Drake saying, "I got the rat and the father in my house, a Benjamin and a Jackson." All off the play of words of Michael Jackson, right? Cuz again, Drake compares himself to MJ. He continues, "Hell made his homeboys and them type sell they soul. Okay, everybody want to be demon till they get chipped by a throwaway. A lot of layers to this bar and I'll be honest, I had to dig on genius for this cuz it a lot of this stuff went over my head specifically in this bar. So obviously Hellcat is in reference to the Dodge Hellcat, right? The car Kendrick here is saying Drake and his homeboys have sold their soul for the money, the cars, the vanity, the materialism and luxury that comes with fame. On push-ups, Drake wrapped This Ain't Even Everything I Know, Don't Wake the Demon Up. He's been calling himself a demon for a long time now, right? I remember all the way back in 2020, he had a song called Demons on his Darkling Demo Tapes project. He's the Phony Montana mob boss at this point in his career, right? So Kendrick says, "Everybody want to be a demon till they get chipped by a throwaway." Now, demon is also in reference to the Dodge Demon vehicle, a much more powerful version of the Dodge Hellcat car. But he's also saying here, everybody wants to be a demon. Everybody wants to be that tough guy until they're the one to get chipped, aka unal alived. And it's done by a throwaway, like a cheap firearm, a cheap weapon. At the same time, again, this is the warning shot, right? Everybody wants to be demon. Everybody wants to talk tough until they get clipped by the throwaway diss track. What's also funny here is that again the song that kicked this all off like that with Future and Metro Booming. This is a call back to Future himself because his middle name is Demon. Many people kind of put the clues together that Future and Drake had an issue of their own. And Drake had actually been referencing it way before Like That ever came out on his song, What Would Pluto Do? where he puts himself in Pluto's shoes about a girl that they allegedly both shared or argued over, whatever the case is. Kendrick is saying, "Everybody want to be demon. Everybody wants to be future. Everybody puts themselves in future shoes till they get chipped by a throwaway." The girl in question is a woman by the name of Just Tokyo, who was seen backstage at a Drake concert in September of 2023, but then seen at a future show at Rolling Loud in March of 2024. This is the girl people assume Drake is referencing on his track, What Would Pluto Do, where he's putting himself in Pluto's shoes. He got curved by this girl, Kendrick is saying, "Everybody wants to be like Future until they get curved by his throwaway woman." And Future also has a song called Throwaway. And the verse again that started this off was a throwaway. It was a feature that Kendrick handed to Future. Way too many damn layers here. Kendrick continues, "And I might do a show a day. Once a lame, always a lame." This is in reference to JC Cole, who again on 7-minute drill wrapped Kendrick still doing shows, but he fell off like the Simpsons. Hey, maybe that previous bar was about J.Cole, too. I'm just thinking about it now, right? Because 7-minute drill was a throwaway in many senses. Obviously, it was literally thrown away, right? He deleted it, but it was also off his project. Might delete later. That was a mixtape. It was a throwaway. Everybody want to be demon till they get chipped by a throwaway. JCole literally chipped himself off a throwaway diss track. And here he's, you know, again referencing J.Cole saying, "You think I fell off, but I'm still doing shows? I might go and do a show a day just to show you how far and wide my audience stretches." And Kendrick continues, "Oh, you thought the money, the power, and fame would make you go away. Have you ever played? Have you ever? Okay, let's play." Now, on his verse on like that, Kendrick wrapped dot, the money, power, respect. The last one is better. He makes these callbacks to these like three-word elements throughout a lot of diss tracks that we'll review on their one-year anniversaries. But unlike that, he said the money, power, respect. on Euphoria. He's saying, "You thought the money, the power, or fame would make you go away." He replaced respect with fame. Because again, in Drake's eyes, the respect and fame could equate the same thing, right? The clout that he attained, Kendrick emphasizes, is not equivalent to the actual respect of the people rooted within the culture. And on like that, he does say the last one is better. The respect is better. And it was a very cool double entandra cuz he also said do the money power respect. DOT obviously standing for DOT like K do D do D do D do D do D do D do D do D do D do DOT but also standing for the three record labels of JCole Drake and Kendrick D for Dreamville, O for OVO and T for Top Dog Entertainment. He's saying the last one is better. The T is better. Top Dog Entertainment is the better label. And he's saying, "Oh, you thought the money, power, or fame would make you go away." As in like the facade that you're hiding behind. You think that the real you will go away based off of the money, the power, and the fame that you've obtained. You think that the image that you portray in the media will make the culture forget who the real you is? Nah. Once a lame, always a lame. The money, power, and fame can't hide that. And he goes on to say, "Have you ever played Have You Ever? Okay, let's play." Ironically, Drake actually did play the game Never Have I Ever on the Ellen Degenerous show when someone asked him, "Never have I ever hooked up with a fan on tour." And Drake answered saying, "I have." We've all seen that very disgusting video of Drake with that girl on stage. And ironically, the one time he actually did play, "Have you ever," he admitted to hooking up with a fan on tour. So Kendra goes on to play, "Have you ever with Drake?" saying, "Have you ever walked your enemy down with a poker face? Have you ever paid 500 thou?" Like to an open case. And this open case is kind of up in the open for us to interpret, right? There was the rumor that Drake was accused of assault by the IG modelia Morris. Sorry if I'm mispronouncing that name. and he settled with her for around $350,000 which does equal $500,000 in Canadian dollars. On 616 in LA, Kendrick also wraps find the jewels like Cash Doll. I just need you to think. And Cash Doll did have an open case of jewelry stolen from her that was worth around $500,000. And Kendrick then emphasizes saying, "Well, I have and I failed at both, but I came out straight." Kendrick basically saying, "I've had those experiences happen to me. I failed at both of them, but I came out unscathed." Then Kendrick goes on to reference all the tough talk that Drake has been doing, not just in these diss tracks, but in a lot of his music in recent time and in the antics we've seen since his beef ensued, right? Running around with Top Five, paying his lawyer fees. We're seeing Top Five making these disgusting threats at Kendrick and his team if they come to Toronto for their concert. Kendrick raps here. I hate when a rapper talk about guns then somebody die they turn into nuns then hop online like pray for my city he faking for likes and digital hugs on push-ups Drake wrapped like your label boy you in aoscope right now on tailor made he's talking about you know you never been to jail orange jumpsuits shower shoes never shot nobody never stabbed nobody as if Kendrick ever alluded to ever doing any of those things and as if that actually brings him any real sort of credibility for the mission he's trying to accomplish right so he doubles down saying I hate when rappers talk about violence, when they talk about these guns, but then when things actually go south, they hop online and turn into nuns. They hop online and turn into saints. This could be in reference to the fact again that Drake does a lot of tough talking, all his knife talk in his music. But as recently as 2019, he was actually in a Canadian gun violence and homicide awareness campaign where he condemned gun violence. It's all hypocritical, right? It's all a facade. It's all an act. The actor is now spiraling. Now, this is a dope line. His daddy's a killer. He wannabe junior. They must have forgot the stuff that they done. Drake asked for the triple on tandras. Kendrick delivered them. His daddy a killer. He wannabe junior. Drake's dad, Dennis, has a brother named Larry Graham Jr. Larry Graham Jr. and Dennis Graham were both musicians long before Drake ever existed. However, Larry Graham Jr., Drake's uncle had a much more successful music career than Drake's dad ever did. He was actually credited with inventing the slapbass guitar technique. And it's crazy cuz have we ever heard Drake mention this once in any of his music? But anyways, let's focus back on the bars here. So, his daddy a killer he want to be Junior, right? Drake's dad never killed it throughout his career nearly as much as his brother Larry Graham Jr. ever did. He wann Junior. But this line has a lot more layers than simply referencing Drake's family. In fact, there's three different meanings aside from the one that we just dissected. So, the first one, my favorite one, coming from easily my all-time favorite show of all time, The Sopranos. Kendrick makes reference to one of the main characters in the show, Curado Soprano, aka Junior, who at the very beginning of the show becomes the acting boss of the Soprano's mafia family. The main character of the show, Tony Sabrano, later steps in to replace Junior because again, Junior was really just the acting boss. He was put in there to take the fall in case the feds tapped into any of the criminal activity they were doing. But let me not get too sidetracked here. Drop a comment if you guys want me to start a separate YouTube channel talking about or dissecting some of my favorite shows. I was thinking of doing some analytical pieces on Sopranos and South Park specifically. I would love to do that. So, drop a comment if you'd want to see that. But anyways, back to this line. His daddy a killer. He wanted to be Junior. Tony Soprano, the main character's dad, was the initial boss of the family and Tony witnessed him unal aliveing people from a very early age. Junior was the brother of Tony's father, right? Tony wanted to be like Junior. He wanted to be the boss of the family, just like Drake trying to adopt this mob boss persona. But the crazy added layer here is the fact that by the end of the series and skip about, you know, 20 seconds if you don't want any spoilers for the Sopranos, but essentially Junior ends up getting Alzheimer's and forgets everything about his past, his family, his life in the mafia, etc. That's why this bar has so much weight. When Kendrick raps, he want to be Junior. They must have forgot the stuff that they done because Junior in the Sopranos literally forgets all the crime that he actually committed and basically his entire life, right? It goes back to the whole facade thing, right? Drake putting on this facade, forgetting who he actually is, where he actually comes from. There's more layers to this bar. It keeps going. So Drake is signed to Lil Wayne who signed to Cash Money, right? You're signed to one guy who's signed to another guy. Birdman, the founder or co-founder of Cash Money, has adopted this father figure role to Lil Wayne. Lil Wayne calls himself Birdman Jr., right? Birdman has been accused of doing some shady things. Kendrick here saying, his daddy a killer. He wannabe Junior. Drake has obviously taken a tremendous amount of influence from Lil Wayne early on in his career, literally rapping like a Lil Wayne clone. Ironically though, Kendrick did the same. He took a tremendous amount of influence from Lil Wayne as well. But Kendrick is saying Drake must have forgot the things that they did. He must have forgot the heritage of Cash Money, the very same label that he was signed to. Now, back to the whole Mob Ties reference, right, with the Sopranos. Another father figure here is J Prince. The person who discovered Drake was actually J Prince Jr. who introduced him to Lil Wayne. Kendrick here is not only saying that Drake wants to be a mob boss, not only saying he's trying to emulate Lil Wayne's career, but also saying he wants to be as powerful as the Prince family, his, you know, mob ties family. But Kendrick emphasizes again, they must have forgot the stuff that they did, right? He must have forgot the heritage or the street cred that these guys have that Drake does not possess himself. and he ties that whole bar together, concluding it, saying, "Dementia must run in his family, but let it get shaky. I park his son." Obviously, dementia being a call back to the bar just beforehand, saying they must have forgot the stuff that they did. Dementia is a neurological impairment where you literally lose memory of what happened in the past, right? Emphasizing again, Drake wants to be a killer like the people who raised him in this industry. But let it get shaky. I park his son. a flip on the whole, you know, daddy bar just one bar beforehand, but also referencing Parkinson's disease, another neurological impairment just like dementia where you experience uncontrollable shakes and tremors. If things get shaky, I park his son. Parkinson, the disease where you get the shakes. Absolutely phenomenal word play. Like, think about it. We just spent damn near 10 minutes dissecting two bars. So, let's continue. The very first time I shot me a Drake, the homie had told me to aim it this way. I didn't point down enough. Today, I'll show you I learned from those mistakes. Call back to the previous bar where Kendrick said, "Have you ever walked your enemy down with a poker face?" "Well, I have and I failed at both, but I came out straight." He's saying the last time he did this with that poker face where he walked his enemy down, he didn't point down enough. Today, he's going to show you he learned from the mistakes he made in the past. This could obviously be in reference to the fact that they did have a little sparring back and forth after the control verse, but he didn't stoop low enough. He didn't point down enough, right? And obviously this is a double entandra with the Draco being a firearm. And Kendrick also emphasizing that Drake is beneath him. He continues, "Somebody had told me that you got a ring. I'm ready to double the wage. I'd rather do that than let a Canadian guy make Pac turn in his grave." And of course, when he performed Euphoria Live, he actually switched some of the bars up, saying, "Give me Tupac's ring back, and I might give you a little respect." Kendrick here is again emphasizing that Drake is an outsider to the culture, right? Emphasizing that Drake is not deserving of holding an artifact as sacred to Tupac's legacy as this diamond and ruby ring that he bought for auction for over a million dollars that was customized by Tupac himself. live at Starless. You know what I'm saying? Side talk though. You know what time it is, man. We're in here, man. I'm wearing Pac's ring. You know what I'm saying? Drake made a mockery of Tupac on his tailor- made freestyle, right? impersonating him, rapping from his perspective in this controversial combative way, using AI vocals to replicate Tupac's own voice, not getting permission from Tupac's estate, and using those Tupac vocals to try and paint the narrative that the West Coast was disappointed in Kendrick as their next runner up to lead the next generation of West Coast hip hop. Right? Kendrick flips that by saying, "This type of sacred hip-hop artifact should not be in the hands of a Canadian." And he continues pulling Drake's cultural card, saying, "Cutthroat business. You got stuff twisted. What is it, the braids?" While that might be one of the more quotable lines of the song, it also carries deep historical depths. While a clever double on Tandra emphasizing Drake's confusion, getting things twisted, working as a metaphor alongside the braids, which are obviously twisted. The bar is also a reference to what Drake does and doesn't have. Right? Over the last few years, Drake has been rocking a set of braids on his own. Now, stick with me cuz this line has a lot of layers. So, firstly, there's this whole trend on Tik Tok. This is kind of like the lighter layer of this bar. basically where if you twist your braids too tight, it can result in a number of psychological effects including anger management, insomnia, or even insanity. Kendrick here is saying you got things twisted like you're spiraling, right? You're going crazy. Is it cuz your braids are twisted too tight? Remember back on the story of Adidon push a tease diss track against Drake? This was before Drake had the braids. He said, "Afraid to grow it cuz your fro wouldn't nap enough." Right? always felt like you weren't black enough. And this is where the deeper layer of this bar comes in because this isn't just a call back to Drake having his own set of braids. On a deeper level, it's in reference to the line before that talking about, you know, a Canadian guy not deserving of that Tupac ring, disrespecting the culture, being an outsider of this very heritage that you've commercialized and capitalized so heavily off of with Kendrick telling Drake he is confused, right? He has things twisted. This has always been an act for him and now he's spiraling. And on a deeper level, braids hold deep significance in African-American heritage. They trace way back to African traditions where different braiding styles would show tribe, social status, or even age. And during slavery, braids were used to maintain cultural identity and even to map out escape routes. And today, braids represent pride, resistance, and a connection to ancestral roots. By Kendrick saying, "You got stuff twisted. What is it? The braids." He could also be mocking Drake for adopting traditionally black styles like braids. While not fully being part of African-Amean culture, implying Drake is copying the look but not understanding the actual lived experiences. Kendrick proceeds by talking to Drake directly. I hurt your feelings. You don't want to work with me no more. Okay. If you notice, we haven't got a Drake and Kendrick collab since 2013. And that's more than likely intentional. That's the same year that Control dropped. And funny enough, Control dropped about a month before Drake released his Nothing Was the Same album. If you guys remember how it was back then, rappers couldn't just drop their music on iTunes or on streaming platforms and be done with it. They would go on promotional campaigns, do various interviews. Like, you really had to sell the project. And to Drake's luck, right as he's releasing this album, the entire app game is talking about this controllers verse. So his entire album roll out became about that verse. Every interview he had, people were asking him about the verse to the point where he said he doesn't see himself collaborating with Kendrick in the near future. Then we got that Kendrick freestyle. Nothing's been the same since they dropped Control and tucked a sensitive rapper back in his pajama clothes. And here we are 11 years later on Euphoria. Kendrick's talking about what? I hurt your feelings. You don't want to work with me no more. Okay. Now we see him talking to both Drake and J.Cole cool directly. It's three goats left and I see two of them kissing and hugging on stage. I love him to death and in eight bars I'll explain that phrase. The three goats left bar is obviously in reference to JCole talking about the big three on first-person shooter, right? Love when they argue the hardest MC is it K dot, Aubrey, or me. We the big three like we started a league, but right now I feel like Muhammad Ali. But Kendrick here is saying and he'd emphasized this in interviews months after the battle. He felt like there was a lack of competitive spirit within hip-hop at this time. Think about 2023, an extremely dry period. And this is the time where Drake and Cole were celebrating their reign at the top. But it's like if this is when you're at the top and hip-hop is in this state both commercially and creatively somewhat stagnant and you guys are celebrating being at the top at the lowest point arguably in history. What does that really say about how far you're taking things? Right? And instead of them trying to compete about who's the best, Drake is out on stage talking about Cole washed him on that first person shooter song. Have you ever heard another rapper admit that they got outbred by a rapper they were collaborating with. And meanwhile, Cole is on stage talking about how he got the bronze in the big three. They threw the third place at him and Drake is, you know, one of the greatest rappers, right? And they're on this track celebrating how far both of them have come. The Spider-Man meme is them pointing at each other like, "No, you're the goat. No, you're the goat." Then they're on stage hugging and kissing, right? They're going on tour together doing these sentimental speeches every night. So Kendrick here is saying it's not no big three. It's that there's three goats left and two of them are distracted, not focused on the main mission of pushing the genre forward, keeping competition alive. Instead, they're out here hugging and kissing on stage. But Kendrick still says, "I do love them both." Scratch that. He specifically states, "I love them to death." And then says, "In the next eight bars, I'll explain what I mean by that." So, let's go through these eight bars. It's nothing nobody can tell me. I don't want to talk on no si, you know, I got language barriers. More quintuple and tandras coming your way. So obviously he's addressing the two other goats of the big three telling them there's nothing they could say to him. Nothing nobody could tell me. You guys can't see me bar for bar. I don't want to talk on no Sy. This could be in reference to multiple different things. Right. Firstly, just a couple days before this record came out, we saw J.Cole get on that Dreamville stage and apologize for even thinking of dissing Kendrick. This could be in reference to the fact that JCole did try to reach out to Kendrick after this battle to talk it over whether on the phone or in person to hash out their differences, but it's more than likely probably more of a jab towards Drake for several reasons. Firstly, on Pushup, Drake wrapped people calling Top to see if Top want to piece it up. Top want to piece it up. Nah, now you're on your own when you speak to us. Because on that song, Drake was talking about how Top Dog controls Kendrick's every move when it comes to releasing music. And he tries painting the narrative that Kendrick was calling Top Dog up to say, "Hey, Top Dog, like, do you give me permission to piece it up with Drake cuz I'm a little bit scared to actually participate in this battle here." Kendrick rebuttals that by saying, "I don't want to talk on Oelli. I'm not giving Top Dog no calls to be like, yo, let's piece it up." Kendrick has also been on record stating that he sometimes goes months without a phone. And we obviously know this due to the limited social media activity that we see from Kendrick Lamar versus on the other end of the spectrum we have Drake who has been in full effect with the Twitter and Instagram fingers since that beef kicked off. Whereas Kendrick on the other hand does not want to talk on No Selli. Now aside from you know language barriers being a play on words of the fact that he's talking about he doesn't want to talk and there's nothing that nobody could tell him. It's also in reference to his company PG Lang, which stands for programming language. And in 2023, they did a commercial with Converse, which was titled Language Barriers. We know that Converse shoes, specifically Chuck Taylor's, are a staple in California street fashion. Kendrick continues on, "It's no accent you could sell me." This is of course in reference to Aubrey. And aside from all these bars, seeing Kendrick emphasize that there's no lie you could tell him. There's no facade you could tell him. He sees right through it. I mean, we obviously know that Drake literally adopts multiple accents depending on the environment that he's in. Yo, dog, you know what it is, dog. Big up yourself, bro. You don't know. Drizzy Drake, dog. South London, dog. You know what it is. Yo, dog, you know what it is. You're the man, dog. You're the man. You're legend dog. Right. Exactly. True because this we don't count without Jamaica without St. Thomas without real. Yo Weezy speed a minute. Yeah. Yeah. You know I mean chilling man. You know I just been like vibing out. You know Carter Ford in store. That's it. Yeah. Working on the truck fit. You know what I'm talking about. That's the new line. You know truck fit. All my skaters. Shout out all my skaters. Yeah. marking. You like that, eh? Son, you didn't think I knew about that. I don't think I need to go any further on that explanation. Kendrick's not buying the accents. And he continues, Cole and Aubrey know I'm a selfish guy. The crown is heavy. I pray they're my real friends. If not, I'm YW Melly. You guys have probably already heard this bar explained, but if you haven't, I'll give you the rundown. Firstly, obviously he said eight bars ago, I love them to death. And in eight bars, I'll explain that phrase. Eight bars later, he's told us that he sees through the facade. He does not want to piece it up with either of them. He's on a different wavelength. He's got language barriers. There's not a facade that he'll buy into from Drake. There's no accent he could sell him. And that Cole and Drake should both know that Kendrick is a selfish guy and he's gunning for the crown. Obviously, we've heard him reference this on like that, saying, "Mother F, the big three, it's just big me." He even has a song called Crown where he raps, "Heavy is the head that chose to wear the crown." Even going as far as wearing a crown of thorns on his Mr. Moral on the Big Steppers tour. And of course, Drake and Cole have referenced the crown as well, right? They're all gunning for the crown. Kendrick here is saying he's selfish. He's not hugging and kissing on stage. He's not sharing that crown. That crown belongs solely in his possession. Hey, I just thought of this as well, right? When Kendrick says, "I don't want to talk on no Sully." He might not just be talking about a cell phone. He might be talking about a celebration, right? Because two bars before that, he says they're hugging and kissing on stage. Obviously, with Firstperson shooter, they were celebrating their legacy. Kendrick wants to be the sole proprietor of the crown. He doesn't want to share it. There's no celebration. I don't want to speak on no s. I don't want to talk about no celebrations. But let's get to where he wraps this bar up because again, he says, "I love him to death." And in eight bars, I'll explain that phrase. And on the eighth bar, he says, "I pray they're my real friends. If not, I'm YW Melly." In 2019, YNW Melly was charged with the double unalivvening of two fellow rappers that were closely affiliated with his music collective, YNW. They were his close friends. Kendrick Kir is saying, "I pray that Cole and Aubrey are my real friends. If not, I'll be engaging in the same course of action as YNW Melly is accused of." Hence the love him to death. they're his friends or he prays they're his friends. He prays that it's love. If not, it's death. I love them to death. Then we get some more quotables here. I don't like you popping stuff at Forel. For him, I inherit the beef. Yeah, f all that pushing P. Let me see you push a T. You're better off spinning again on him. You're thinking about pushing me. And what's funny is obviously we know Drake and push a T were in a back and forth in 2018. Academics was doing a countdown and only got to 17 days of Kendrick Lamar not responding to Drake's disc. At the time that Euphoria was released, it had been more than 2,000 days that we got no response from Drake to Push A's disc about him having a kid. So Kendrick here is saying you're better off going back and finishing what you started with Push A T before you try coming at me. Now, as far as Forel, for some reason, Drake shifted his focus away from Push A T and onto Push A's mentor, Farel. completely unwarranted. Drake bought a bunch of Frell's chains that he had on auction the same way he did with Tupac's Ring. And on the Travis Scott song, Meltdown, Drake was taunting Freel saying that he melted down those chains, saying, "I melt down the chains I bought from your boss. Give a f about all that heritage stuff." Drake shifted his beef with push a tea towards Kanye West and Farel. Kendrick is saying, "I don't like how you shifted that beef onto Farel. You're better off spinning again on push a te and I'm going to shift the beef from Farel onto myself. Push and P is a double entandra because obviously being a term popularized by Gunonna and Young Thug who Kendrick references in a couple bars on this song. It basically means I'll be honest I can't give you an exact definition. Let me let Gunonna explain it. What is pushing P? When are we pushing P? Am I pushing P? You definitely pushing P. You you see how you how you you see how you got your your show set up the late late show. Yeah. And today you premiering Gunnar and Gunonna's one of one of the best artistes that's coming out. That's that's P. Like you supporting a P. That's P. Supporting is P. Did everybody hear that? It's official. I'm pushing P. Drake has referenced pushing P in some of his own songs saying steady pushing P. You guys are pushing PTSD. P also being a nickname for Far Forel. Kendrick here is saying, "F all that pushing P. Let me see you push a T." You're better off spinning again on him. You're thinking about pushing me. He's Terrence Thornton. I'm Terence Crawford. Yeah, I'm whooping feet. Terren Thornton is the government name of push a tea. Kendrick compares himself to Terence Crawford, who is the professionally undisputed and undefeated boxer. So again, with Euphoria not only acting like a psychological breakdown of Drake's character, but also being a warning shot, he is here warning Drake that he is an undefeated fighter when it comes to lyrical sparring. And Drake is better off going back and trying to battle push a tea before he comes around trying to mess with Kendrick. And he continues warning him in the next bar, saying, "We ain't got to get personal. This is a friendly fade. You should keep it that way. I know some stuff about guys that would make Gawana look like a saint." Telling Drake, "Do not get personal. Don't bring the family involved. Don't try to dissect my issues from Mr. Morale and bring them into this beef. Keep this friendly because I know some stuff about you that if I told the world, I'd make Gunonna look like a saint. Remember, he made a call back to Gun a few bars before with the push and pee reference. And if you guys didn't know, Young Thug and Gunonna were both indicted on a Rico case just a couple months after popularizing the term push and pee. Gunonna ended up taking an Alfred plea deal where he essentially had to testify that YSL was not just a record label but also a gang. Many people viewed this as Ghana snitching. Kendrick is saying if Gunonna snitched, if I tell the world what I know about Drake, I'll make him look like a saint. I'll make what he did look so small and irrelevant compared to how much I will be singing about how vile of a human Drake truly is behind closed doors. He continues, "This ain't been about critics, not about gimmicks, not about who's the greatest. It's always been about love and hate. Let me say, I'm the biggest hater. I hate the way you walk, the way you talk. I hate the way that you dress. I hate the way that you sneak this. If I catch Flight, it's going to be direct." Kendrick is saying, "At the end of the day, this isn't even about, you know, what you guys were talking about on firstperson shooter with everyone being the greatest. This is about me hating what you stand for within this culture, right?" And DMX had already said a lot of this stuff before he passed, specifically about Drake. I hate everything about Drake. I hate the way he walks, talks, his face. Kendrick is essentially quoting DMX. And it's funny because on his GNX tour right now, he is continuously dressing in a similar fashion to DMX while wearing an exch while performing. Now, this next line acts like a double entandra. We hate the bees you sleep with cuz they confuse themselves with real women. And notice I said we. It's not just me. I'm what the culture's feeling. Kendrick is emphasizing that the sentiments he feels towards Drake are exactly how the culture has viewed him throughout his entire career. An actor, a facade, someone who capitalizes off a heritage that they're not rooted in. And he's using interesting language here. Instead of saying, "I hate the women that you sleep with." Because on the lines previously, he said, "I hate the way you walk, talk, dress, sneak this." But when it comes to the women that you sleep with, we hate them because they confuse himself with real women on not like us. Again, Kendrick alienates Drake from the culture, saying he is not like us, not truly a part of this culture, while also criticizing Drake for his interactions with women and being obviously a PDF. Right here, he's saying, "We hate the beesf because they confuse himself with real women. Females under the age of 18 are girls. They're not real women." So Kendrick Kir is using this as a double entandra. He's not just talking about Drake sleeping around with Instagram models or strippers or women who he objectifies. He's foreshadowing what he'd be discussing on not like us in that he's what the culture is feeling. Drake is not like us and the women he's with are not real women. And if you notice, he says, "I hate the way you sneak this." Right? The way Drake sneakes is very different from the way Kendrick does. When Kendrick puts in these subtle double antandras about real women, not just talking about, you know, these IG models and strippers that Drake often associates with, but also alluding to the fact that he's about to touch on all the Drake allegations being a PDF, there's a deep level of psychoanalyzing you have to do to fully unpack the crystal clear message Kendrick is trying to send with his sneak disses. Whereas with Drake, the message is not something that's typically extremely layered, but instead something that only the person he's sneak dissing can understand. Kanye West has spoken on this before, saying that Drake will make a song dissing you, and only you will know that he's dissing you. The entire world won't understand it because it's a very specific private issue that the world doesn't necessarily know about. Kendrick approaches sneak dissing in an entirely different fashion. And while he is throwing out some subliminals within this song, he's also calling out Drake directly by name. Again, using his government name, Aubrey, and his stage name, Drake, except he forgot all the nicknames I invented for Drake, like Labriana, the Marilyn Monroi Ho. But he continues calling Drake a cultural cosplayer, saying, "How many more fairy tale stories about your life till we've had enough? How many more black features till you finally feel that you're black enough? I like Drake with the melodies. I don't like Drake when he act tough." more themes that Kendrick would explore on future disc records, but like the third verse of Not Like Us, where he touches on Drake going to Atlanta to collaborate with the most prolific trap artist there and incorporating a lot of their lingo, a lot of their heritage, their sound into his own music. Before he was collaborating with Future, we never saw Drake on Metro Boom and Beats talking about reporting live from the gutter. Before he collaborated with 21 Savage, we never heard him talking about knife talk. before he went to Memphis and collaborated with Blackboy JB. We never saw Drake on Take Heath type beats. After that Blackboy JB feature, every banger from Drake had a Take Keith type beat. Look at Rich Flex. Look at Non-Stop. Look at Sicko Mode. It's when he collaborates with these rappers from different territories that Drake has no cultural association with that he then begins to incorporate their sounds, their melodies, their lingo again into his own music to capitalize off it to portray this image that he was raised somewhere else on every different record. Right? He even did this with afro beats, dance hall music, etc. Kendrick proceeds to emphasize, "I like Drake with the melodies. I don't like Drake when he act tough. Stick to stealing from the weekend and party next door. Stick to those Moody Toronto R&B type records. I like those. I don't like when you start talking all that knife talk. He continues, "You're going to make me bring back Puff. Let me see if Chubs really crash something." Chubs is Drake's personal friend and bodyguard, and Puff is obviously in reference to Puff Daddy, aka Diddy. Back in 2014, it was actually rumored that Drake stole the zero to 100 beat from Diddy, which led them to get into an altercation at a club where Diddy had punched Drake in the face. Kendrick here is saying he's going to bring back that type of energy. And then he continues, "My first one, like my last one, it's a classic. You don't have one. Let your core audience stomach that, then tell them where you get your abs from." Now, the first line here is in reference to not just Drake, but JCole as well. on JCole 7-inute drill diss track. He said, "Your first one was classic. Your last one was tragic. Your second one put people to sleep, but they gassed it. Your third one was massive. That was your prime. I was trailing right behind. Now I just now hit mine." He was criticizing essentially Mr. Moral and the Big Steppers, saying that Good Kid City was a classic, but Mr. Moral was tragic, which it wasn't. It subject matter, but it was a beautiful album that broke boundaries in terms of vulnerability that could be placed on a hip-hop record. Right. Kendrick is saying it's gonna go on to live as a classic, be remembered as a classic, and that's something that neither of you have, J.Cole nor Drake. I would argue that this is probably not necessarily true. While Kendrick definitely has more classics than both Drake and JCole, I would give 2014 Forest Hills Drive classic status. And you can make the argument for a take care or nothing was the same as well. Then he sets up a double entandra with the let your core audience stomach that, tell them where you get your abs from. Drake is obviously rumored to have lipos suction and get surgically enhanced abs for his stomach. Core audience is obviously in reference to, you know, Drake's core fan base. Tell them that you have no classics. Let them stomach that. But at the same time, your core is another word for your abs. Then he goes on to play more on the whole abs thing, saying V12, it's a fast one. Bow bow bow. Last one. V12 is not only the name of a car engine, but it's also the name of a lipos suction machine. Kendrick here is saying that Drake had lipos suction to surgically place abs onto his stomach. And I tried to look up if the GNX car had a V12 engine, but it only had a V6 engine. Then he concludes this verse by rapping, headshot for the year. You better walk around like Da Punk. If you guys didn't know, Da Punk, legendary group, they both wear masks on their head. Kendrick is saying here, "You better walk around with a mask on because I'm coming for that head shot." Ironically, as well, Drake also sampled Da Punk on his 2022 song, Circle Loco. Then we get into the third beat switch and the third verse. Again, Kendrick was saying, "I hope they came with three switches because here on Euphoria, I got three switches for you." So, he starts off this third verse, this third beat switch saying, remember, and he says it the same way Drake does on his song Worst Behavior. This was from Nothing Was the Same. And this was a very, I believe, pivotal song for Drake's career because it kind of took him from that goofy, overly sensitive actor/raper/Canadian goofball. And this is where he tried to emphasize to the world that he was on his worst behavior. This is where the tough talk truly began, right? And this is what Kendrick has been calling out in this entire song, the facade. Right? I like Drake with the melodies, not when he acts tough. On worst behavior, he raps stuff like, "F you be I'm more than high. My mom will probably hear that and be mortified. This ain't the same son that blah blah blah. I forget the lyrics and I'm not looking them up. But essentially, he's saying like his mother would be mortified by the way he's talking on this song. And then, you know, the next thing he'd release was If You're Reading This Is Too Late, where he would up the tough talk by 10, even though ironically that whole album was basically ghostwritten by an Atlanta rapper by the name of Quentyn Miller. It was songs like Worse Behavior that really birthed the tough guy persona that Drake now uses heavily in his music. So Kendrick begins rapping Top Dog. Who the f they think they're playing with? Extortion, my middle name as soon as you jump off of that plane. Another call back to Drake's song Push-Ups where Drake accused Kendrick of being extorted by his record label Top Dog Entertainment. Here Kendrick is saying, "Top Dog, who do they think they're playing with? I'm the king of extortion." Then he continues, "I'm allergic to the lame stuff. Only you like being famous." This is a call back not only to the second verse of this song where he replaces respect with fame when he raps, "Oh, you thought the money power of fame would make you go away," but it's also a call back to the buried alive interlude, which ironically was a solo Kendrick Lamar song on Drake's album, Take Care, where Kendrick recalls meeting Drake for the first time in Toronto. the meeting that they had discovering that Drake was actually the same age as Kendrick, which made him more impatient to try to catch up to where Drake was in his career. But with Drake having a higher level of fame than Kendrick at that time, he kind of gave Kendrick a glimpse of what he can expect, right? Bear yourself alive in money, kitty cats, women, whatever, and then you die. You belong to the people when you're outside. Drake was kind of giving Kendrick the perspective that getting to where you want to get to in your career is going to inevitably lead you to have to sacrifice a lot of your private life because you now belong to the people. You now belong to your fan base, right? Hollywood could eat you alive. Kendrick obviously went a very different direction than Drake did. And he emphasizes this here by saying, "You're the only one who likes to be famous. You were giving me advice way back in 2011 on how to battle the fame, right? and how to balance your personal life with your famous career, but you were the one who actually succumbed to the vanity of being a famous rapper. I never did. You're the only one who likes being famous." And he continues, "Yachi can't give you no swag neither. I don't give a f about who you hang with." Well, Yachti is about 11 years younger than Drake, and I believe he is the most obvious piece of evidence to point to the fact that Drake is suffering a midlife crisis. Yachty has had Drake dressing like a teenager from the 1980s. He has him painting his nails, wearing Hello Kitty shirts, sitting in bed with Bobby Alto, doing interviews with her. Like, a lot of this stuff came from Loliotti's influence, right? And it's all a way of Drake coping with the fact that he's approaching 40 years old, unmarried, still living, as he puts it, that quote unquote rapper life. Kendrick here is saying, "Yachty can't make you young again. Yachty can't give you the swag." And he goes back to talk about how I hate the way you walk, the way you talk. I hate the way that you dress. Because Drake has obviously taken a lot of fashion advice or inspiration from Lil Yachty. Then he goes on to continue with something interesting here. Surprised you wanted that feature request. You know that we got some stuff to address. That was in reference to the fact that first person shooter was allegedly supposed to be a collaboration between Drake, JCole, and Kendrick. Or at least that's what Drake had planned. That song was on Drake's For All the Dogs album and he allegedly called both Kendrick Lamar and JCole Cole to be a part of the record where obviously they're celebrating their greatness as all being part of the big three. Kendrick is saying he was surprised that Drake actually called him to request him being on that song because they had a lot of issues that never went addressed dating all the way back to obviously when Kendrick released Control in 2013. Then Kendrick continues, "I even hate when you say the word the n-word, but that's just me. I guess some stuff just cringeworthy. It ain't even got to be deep. I guess now, as a white person, I don't feel necessarily like I'm the right guy to contextualize and explain this bar or why Kendrick doesn't like the way Drake says the n-word. But obviously, you guys know that the n-word is a racist slur that was used by white people to dehumanize and oppress black people, especially during slavery, segregation, and Jim Crow. because of the attachment that that word has to the history of violence, racism, and power and balance. Obviously, it should not be used in 2025, specifically by people who have no ancestral attachment to the history of oppression and slavery that came with that word. Drake being from Canada, this could be another way of Kendrick emphasizing that Drake's heritage is not truly rooted within hiphop or African-Amean culture. And that's why it almost sounds distasteful to Kendrick when Drake uses that word. There's also a really gross video of Drake using it before he was famous with a very hard R. I'm not going to play that here. But Kendrick could also be saying, "I literally hate the way that you pronounce the word." Still love when you see success. Everything with me is blessed. Keep making me dance waving my hand and it won't be no threat. Just like with I like Drake with the melodies. I don't like Drake when he act tough. Kendrick here is not sane. He cares when Drake has success when he has these chart topping hits. It's more about the influence he has on a culture he's not a part of and feeling like he's even entitled to tango with Kendrick. He continues, "I know they call you the boy, but where's the man? Cuz I ain't seen him yet. Matter of fact, I ain't even bleed him yet. Can I bleed him? Bet." And this is where we get into my favorite part of the song. When I see you stand by sexy red, I believe you see two bad bees. I believe you don't like women. It's real competition. You might pop butt with them. Let's speak on percentage. Show me your splits. I'll make sure I double back with you. You were signed to a guy that signed to a guy that said he was signed to that guy. So, the sexy red bar. Because of this, I now call Drake the sad stepsister of sexy red. But what he's saying here is obviously Drake and Sexy Red have been pictured together quite frequently looking like two bad bees pressed up together. But Kendrick's not just calling Drake feminine here. He's saying because of Drake's predominantly female audience, women are his real competition. And this is also a call back to the fact that on Taylor made freestyle, basically a song where Drake made the entire theme about how he was scared to drop his album on the same day as Taylor Swift because she thought she would go number one instead of him. And he was saying that Kendrick also had that same fear and that's why he hadn't released his diss song yet cuz on that day was the day that Taylor Swift had just released her most recent album. Don't forget two bars before Kendrick had just said, "I know they call you the boy, but where is the man?" Now he's saying that women are Drake's competition and that when he sees sexy red, he sees two bad bees, not just one. Also, don't forget that a couple bars before that, Kendrick said, "Keep making me dance, waving my hands, it won't be no threat. Keep making that dance music that appeals to the women and we're all good here. I'll love when you see your success, cuz women, again, female artists are your real competition." He's also literally saying, "I believe you don't like women." A call back to the bar in the second verse when he said, "We hate the bees you sleep with cuz they confuse themselves with real women." Here he's saying again, "I believe you don't like women." And what would he accuse Drake of liking on not like us? Girls, not women. Plus, of course, all of Rick Ross' allegations at the time that Drake had a BBL. Here he's saying, you know, you might go twerk with Sexy Red. You'll pop butt with her. Then he makes reference to Drake's allegations on push-ups, right? Because the whole basis of that song was about how Kendrick was again getting extorted from his record label, Top Dog Entertainment. Kendrick here flips an old Push A T when Push A T had wrapped. You're signed to one guy that signed to another guy that signed to three guys. Now that's bad luck. Also saying these guys won't die for you. Basically, you're signed to Lil Wayne and his record label, Young Money. Young Money is an imprint signed under Cash Money Records and Cash Money Records is signed under UMG. So, think about how many hands are in this one pot, right? All of Drake's profits have to first go to Universal, then some of them get paid off to Cash Money Records. Cash Money Records, then pays Lil Wayne and Young Money Records. Lil Wayne takes his cut of Drake's music, and then finally the rest gets trickled down to Drake. And when Pushet T said, "These guys won't die for you." Look at what happened just 2 years after that song. Lil Wayne ended up suing Cash Money for $50 million for unpaid profits from his and Drake's music, saying Birdman kept the money. And Kendrick Kir is doubling down on that, saying, "You want to talk about my splits with my record label? Look at your record label situation. It's an absolute mess." And look at Drake right now, right? He's suing UMG over defamation for not like us, saying that he was trying to get out of this contract that he has with UMG and they're literally defaming his reputation and his brand to lower the value of it so they can renegotiate his contract at a lower rate. His label situation is an absolute mess. And that's one of the great things and how this beef played out for Kendrick because not only is Drake's label situation an absolute mess, which makes push-ups an absolute sea of hypocrisy. But the craziest part of all this is not actually in the bars, but about the moves Kendrick has made in silence. So, in Drake's lawsuit, he actually reveals some details about Kendrick's current situation with UMG, along with literally requesting that the judge demands UMG hand over Kendrick's contracts so Drake's legal team can take a look at them. Now, again, on Push-Ups, he claims to know all of Kendrick's financial business with his record label. Now, a year later, he's suing UMG and demanding Kendrick's contracts. But pay attention here. In Drake's lawsuit, he emphasizes that Kendrick Lamar's music is owned by his own company, PG Lang, which is an independent creative company. However, while PG Lang operates independently, the music is distributed through Innercope Records, which is a division of UMG, aka Innercope and UMG help promote and sell the music. PG Lang owns the music. This new contract structure only occurred after Mr. Moral and the Big Steppers. Think about what we got from Kendrick after Mr. Moral and the Big Steppers. All the diss tracks, including Euphoria, which we're right now breaking down, and GNX, one of his most successful albums to date, and it's only been out for 6 months, beating all these Drake albums on the charts, crushing it. Two number one singles. Luther's been number one for 10 weeks. Not Like Us was number one for multiple weeks. Sold almost 10 million copies already in less than a year. All this music owned by PG Lang. You want to talk about contract splits? This is the biggest silent flex I think we saw throughout the entire beef. Every time Kendrick dissed Drake, he was doing it on music that he directly owned. He continued, "Try to season desist on the like that record? Oh, what? You ain't like that record?" Now, many people were confused when this song first came out what Kendrick was talking about here, right? Like, did Drake try to send a seasoned desist so that Like That wouldn't be promoted anymore. I mean, we're seeing him do the exact same thing with Not Like Us, so it's not very surprising, right? A couple weeks later though, Metro Boomman would tweet a screenshot of an email he got from the business and legal affairs team at Republic Records. Republic Records is the record label Drake is signed to under UMG and it said, "Hey, Becca, per our conversation last week, we are not granting radio rights for like that. Epic does not have the right to release this song at radio. Thanks for your understanding and cooperation." So, it's possible. This is what Kendrick was referencing when he said Drake's label was seasoned assisting like that from being released and promoted on the radio. Kendrick continues, "Backto back. I like that record. I'm going to get back to that for the record." And of course, what is he referencing here? Well, he's foreshadowing the fact that he would pull the same move Drake did in his Meek Mill beef when he went back to back by going back to back to backto back with Drake, dropping three other diss tracks after Euphoria in just less than a week. 616, Not Like Us, and Meet the Grams, right? Kendrick continues, "Why would I call around trying to get dirt on guys? Y'all thinking my life is rap?" Now, he would make reference to this again in multiple songs. 616 in LA when he said, "It was fun before you put money in the street, then lost money because they came back with no receipts on whacked out murals." He said, "People from my city couldn't entertain old boy, promising bank transactions and even Bitcoin. If that money got in the hands of a crash dummy, it could jeopardize my family and burden the ones who love me." Even one of Kendrick's old girlfriends. I had this screenshot. I'm sorry. I'm not posting it here because I actually completely forget where it was or how to find it. I forget the woman's name, but you guys can look up Kendrick Lamar ex-girlfriend retweeting. She retweeted a tweet basically that said that she rejected money from Drake's team to spill tea on Kendrick. So obviously Drake was running around here trying to get dirt on Kendrick to use in this battle. And Push A T said the same thing. He had tweeted out, "You got 100K floating around for info. Can't no amount of money create skeletons that don't exist. # I'm upset." And this was before Drake would drop out of that beef with Push A T. So this seems like Drake's strategy, right? Try to dig up personal information on his opponent, use it against them, and expose a bunch of family personal information. But it looks like it failed both times. Kendrick says though, you guys think I would do the same thing? That's host stuff. I got a son to raise, but I could see you know nothing about that. Waking him up, know nothing about that. Then tell him to pray, know nothing about that. giving him tools to walk through life like day by day. Know nothing about that. Teaching him morals, integrity, discipline. Listen man, you don't know nothing about that. Speaking the truth and consider what God is considering. You don't know nothing about that. And we'd see a couple days later where Kendrick would release Meet the Grams. Talking to Drake's son, Adonis, giving him real life advice and how to move with morals and integrity. And he's here claiming that Drake has not done the same. Ain't 20 v1. It's a 1v20 if I got to smack guys that right with you. Now, this was one of the sllickest rebuttals I thought throughout the entire battle. And you know what's great is like Kendrick came in with so many of these intense psychological shots on Euphoria. And Drake barely rebuttled any of the actual points Kendrick was making in this song. Whereas this line right here about Ghost Riders is a direct rebuttal to push-ups where Drake wrapped, "What is this, a 20v1?" Kendrick is saying, "No, this isn't you going up against a bunch of rappers. This is me going up against all your ghostriters." And there were literally rumors that the original leaked version of Push-Ups was actually a reference track that a ghostriter wrote and slapped Drake AI vocals on top of to hide from the world the fact that the song wasn't actually written by Drake. And obviously also so Drake can hear the song performed with his own vocals so he knows how to deliver the lyrics. This is obviously a rumor, but it's a pretty widespread rumor. I spoke about this on my one-year anniversary video, Push-Ups. You guys can check that out. And on a side note, if you stuck around this long, I love you guys. I think this officially is the longest video I have ever put out. And even though there might be a fair share of reaching in this video, if you want to call it that, I do think this is one of the best breakdowns I've ever done on a single record. So, drop a like and subscribe if you haven't already. And of course, comment anything I've missed. It's crazy. I think we've gone through maybe 50 bars and we spent an hour and a half almost talking about them. So, let's keep going. Let's wrap up the song. Yeah, bring them out, too. I'll clean them out, too. Tell Beam that he better stay right with you. Am I battling ghosts or AI? So, Kendrick is saying, "Bring out the ghostriters. I'll battle them, too." This could be a 1v20. Me against all your ghostriters. He references Beam, who is actually an artist and songwriter himself, who's written songs for Beyonce, Justin Bieber, and even has a writing credit on Drake and 21 Savage's tracks, Rich Flex, and Major Distribution. Maybe Kendrick here is alluding to the fact that Beam did a little bit of ghost riding for Jersey Drake. And my battling ghoster AI is another double entandra, right? Because just like I mentioned before, push-ups originally leaked before Drake could ever claim it. And it had this extremely monotonous robotic delivery in Drake's voice. And the song as a whole didn't sound like the best quality. Sounded like it could have easily been AI. And there were rumors, specifically Glasses Malone, came up with this theory that the actual original Push-Ups was written by a ghostriter. It was a reference track and they just used Drake AI vocals to hide the fact that it wasn't Drake actually rapping it. So Kendrick is saying, "Am I battling Ghost Riders or am I battling AI?" Because people thought that that push-ups record was AI. This is also in reference to Tailor-Made Freestyle because obviously on that song Drake used AI vocals of Tupac and Snoop Dogg and Tupac is no longer on planet Earth, right? So Drake using his voice, it's almost like the ghost of Tupac rapping. So Kendrick is saying again, am I battling ghosts or am I battling AI vocals? He continues saying, I'm feeling like Joe Hail Austin. Funny, he was in a film called AI and my sixth sense telling me to off him. Now, Joel Austin is a famous pastor from Houston, Texas. He had been famously impersonated multiple times, including by AI, and he's also been accused of using a ghostriter. But many people believe that Kendrick was actually referencing the actor Haley Joel Osmond, who starred in the 2001 film AI, and the 1999 film The Six Sense. Because obviously he says in the line, he was in a film called AI and my six sense telling me to off him. But he's referencing Joel Hale Austin who is a completely different person than the one who was in the AI film. That was Haley Joel Osmond. But in this case, Kendrick is saying he's confused, right? Am I battling ghosts or AI? So the confusion on the name itself could have been intentional. Plus in the film The Six Sense, Osman's character was claiming to see dead people, right? Kendrick saying, "Am I battling ghosts?" the same way Osman was in the movie AI. He's also referencing the fact that Osman was in films called AI and Six Sense, but he's also saying Six Sense aka his intuition is telling him to off Drake. All the while he's completely confusing the name, referencing Haley Joel Osmond, but saying the name Joe Hail Austin. Funny bar, but anyways, he continues, "I'm a blick guys all in their coffin. Yeah, OV ho guys are d riders. Tell them run to America to imitate heritage. They can't imitate this violence. Drake is a soft Canadian. Kendrick is saying he can come to America to run off with the sound and culture and lingo of Atlanta or just any American artist, but he can't imitate the violence. He's too soft for that. His daddy a killer. He wants to be junior. He must have forgot the stuff that they did. It wasn't him. What I learned is people don't like the West Coast, and I'm fine with it. I'll push the line with it. Pick a guy off one at a time with it. we can be on a 3-hour time difference. What he's referencing here is the fact that in LA they run off Pacific Standard Time. Remember again, he released Euphoria at 8:24 a.m. LA time, right? And that was in reference to Kobe's jersey numbers, 8 and 24. That's Pacific time. That is 3 hours behind the time zone that Toronto runs off of, which is Eastern Standard Time. They're 3 hours ahead. Kendrick is saying, "We can be on a 3-hour time difference. I'll still push the line with it." And what I thought was interesting again could be a very big reach, but when he says 3-hour time difference, it almost sounds like he's saying we could be on a three album time difference. Remember on Buried Alive Interlude, Kendrick wrapped that him and Drake were the same age, but Drake at that point had accomplished more than Kendrick, which made Kendrick much more rude and impatient. By the time Kendrick dropped Control, where he professed that he was trying to be better than every single person that he name dropped in that song, Drake was already three albums ahead of Kendrick in terms of how many albums he had released. Thank me later, Take care, and nothing was the same. What I also find great is that on Control, he said, I that goes for Germaine Cole, Big Crit, Wall, blah blah blah, ASAP, Rocky, Drake, Big Shawn J, Electron, Tyler, Mac Miller, I got love for you guys, but I'm trying to murder you guys. And on this track, he's talking about there being two goats left that he loves to death. And he says, eight bars later, I'll explain that. And he says, I pray they're my real friends. If not, I'm YW Melly. Same sentiment as he had on control, saying, I got love for you guys, but I'm trying to murder you. Here he's saying, I love them to death. I'm a YMW them. I pray they're my real friends. If not, it's click clack, bang bang, lights out. Aka, this is all in the spirit of competition. I still have love for you. still love when you seek success, but I am trying to dethrone you and lyrically slaughter you. Now, if you stuck around this long in the video, you get a special treat because you'll hear me doing my best version of a Toronto accent because this is where Kendrick does his Toronto accent rapping, "Don't speak on the family." Croy, it can get deep in the family, Croy. Talk about me and my family, Croy. Make sure someone bleeds in your family, Croy. I be a New Ho king eating fried rice with a dip sauce and a blammy. Croy, tell me a cheesing fam. We can do this right now on a camera. Crowdy. It's funny because just a couple lines before this he was saying tell them run to America to imitate heritage. Here Kendrick is imitating where Drake is from the accent of Toronto. Right. And Kendrick had also said there's no accent you could sell me. Here he's selling the audience his own version of the Toronto accent. And he references Newuho King which is a popular Toronto food destination that got a whole lot popular after this song came out. New Ho King on Spadina was mentioned in the song Euphoria and now the owner says they have since been showered with fivestar reviews. I kind of want to get the one that Kendrick Lamar gets. New Ho King after Kendrick's diss track of Drake is a fever dream. There were people dancing outside and blog Tio was even there. I traveled to Toronto to try their Kendrick Lamar special minus the blammy. Ho King special fried rice with the dip sauce. Let's see what Kendrick's talking about. New Ho King. Uh, it's the restaurant that recently just started blowing up downtown Toronto Spadina due to Kendrick Lamar's recent disc against Drake. If you guys haven't heard Euphoria, there's a line in there that literally shouts out the spot on Spadina. So, let's check it out. We got to see what the hype's all about. Since the song was released Tuesday, Google reviews for the establishment have been soaring with positive feedback with most mentioning the song and their now famous dish. What's funny is for Kendrick's popout concert, he actually had New Ho King merch. He literally had fried rice in a picture on a t-shirt. And I believe Newuho King actually made a Kendrick Lamar special after this song was released, which was like Kendrick mentions in the song, fried rice with dip sauce. No blam me though. Kendrick continues, "Hey, f y'all guys. I don't trust y'all guys. I wave one finger and thump y'all guys." Now, this is in reference to the fact that the first verse that started this all like that was on Future Metro Boom's album, We Don't Trust You. Kendrick is saying here, "I also don't trust you." Field goal punt y'all guys. They punk y'all guys. Nobody never took my food. Whoever that's effing with them, f you guys and f the industry, too. If you take it there, I'm taking it further. That's something you don't want to do. Emphasizing to Drake again that this was or could have been a friendly fade. At this point in time, that's what it was. And Kendrick gave him one last chance to keep it that way. All in all, this song is an absolute theatrical masterpiece with Kendrick picking apart Drake's character in the most tactical way I have personally ever seen in a mainstream rap battle. Right? Kendrick didn't just insult Drake. He stripped away Drake's image, painting him as a performer, not a real part of the culture that he profits from. He framed Drake as an outsider playing dress up in hip-hop, especially black American culture, specifically for fame and money. Kendrick repeatedly calls Drake an actor, not just literally because of his past on Degrassi, but symbolically accusing him of pretending to live the life that real rappers and black Americans actually experience. It foreshadows tons of what was to come. As Kendrick implies, Drake uses the aesthetics, slang, and struggles of black America without truly belonging to or understanding them, emphasizing that Drake mimics it for clout, not from lived reality, but still getting this message across in a playful way since this was again a friendly fade at this point in time. Things would take a much darker turn in later diss tracks. And even in Kendrick's delivery on this record, it goes from him calmly revealing these uncomfortable truths about Drake being an actor that's spiraling. And that calmness quickly becomes much and much more unsettling as the record progresses and the different beats switch. He carefully dismantles Drake's image that he's built over the last 15 years, right? A polished, almost actor-like persona that mimics the struggles and culture of genuine hip-hop and black America. And by the end of this six-minute song, Kendrick completely destabilizes Drake's credibility. Euphoria is such a powerful record because not only does it make listeners rethink whether Drake truly embodies the spirit of hip-hop or if he's merely performing a role for mainstream appeal, but it also foreshadows and warns Drake of a lot of what was to come from the rest of this battle. Kendrick emphasizes that he can predict every single one of Drake's angles and moves, and that's exactly what he does, as a lot of the warnings he sent out on Euphoria became very real realities and actions Drake took in the next couple days after this song was released. So, stick around for the one-year anniversary of all the disc records that we got after Euphoria. If you stuck around till the end, congratulations on witnessing the most elaborate, detailed, and longest breakdown in Rapaholics history. Thank you guys for tuning in to listen to me yap and reach about my by far favorite track from this battle. Let me know if there's anything that I missed. Let me know of the whole battle what was your favorite disc. Bless the like and subscribe button with a little kiss and I will catch you guys in the next