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Rap fans seem to be split when it comes to determining who has the upper hand in the ongoing beef between Drake and Kendrick Lamar, but the real winner may be the Chinese restaurant that the latter name-dropped while making fun of the city it calls home on “Euphoria.”
It’s safe to assume Kendrick Lamar was on pretty good terms with Drake in the early 2010s based on the number of songs they appeared on together. However, the two of them started trading subliminal shots at each other shortly after K-Dot went off on”Control” in 2013, and while it took more than a decade, the bad blood officially started to boil over this year.
I recently summed up the unfolding back-and-forth while covering the weird diss track Drake whipped up with the help of A.I. versions of 2Pac and Snoop Dogg, which dropped midway through April. At the time, Kendrick hadn’t issued a response, but that changed on Tuesday when we were treated to “Euphoria.”
“Euphoria” is the musical equivalent of the keynote speech at the Playa Haters’ Ball, as the rapper spends more than six minutes listing the many, many reasons he’s not a fan of Drake while accusing him of having fake abs, relying on ghostwriters, and being an absentee father.
Kendrick also uses a few lines at the end of the tune to make fun of the city Drake hails from while adopting a Toronto accent during a sequence where he says, “I be at New Ho King eatin’ fried rice with a dip sauce and a blammy, crodie,” which is a reference to a real, actual Chinese restaurant located in Chinatown.
I’m not sure if New Ho King owner Johnny Lu was on Drake’s side before “Euphoria” was released, but I feel like he now has to be on Team Kendrick based on the flood of positive reviews his restaurant has received since it came out.
He chatted with CityNews about his reaction to the unexpected development while noting he’s told his chef to be prepared for the increased demand for fried rice, and the outlet spoke with one customer who made the trek from the Toronto suburb of Markham just so he could try it himself.
Drake has yet to issue a response to “Euphoria,” and I can only hope he doesn’t pull a similar move so Kendrick can call him out for refusing to support small businesses.