Kendrick Lamar’s Drake Diss Flips Richard Pryor Line from The Wiz

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Kendrick Lamar's Drake Diss Flips Richard Pryor Line from The Wiz

One of the major themes of Kendrick Lamar’s new Drake diss “euphoria” is the accusation that his rap foe is a “scam artist” and “a master manipulator and habitual liar too.” As it turns out, the seemingly jumbled audio in the intro lays the groundwork by sampling dialogue from the 1978 film The Wiz.

Shortly after the song’s release on Tuesday, multiple fans clipped the brief sample and played the line backward, revealing it to be dialogue from the movie in which The Wiz (played by Richard Pryor) says, “Everything they say about me is true.” Scroll down for the reversed audio below.

For full context, Pryor’s line is taken from a scene in which his character is exposed to be Herman Smith, a washed-up politician from Atlantic City. Admitting to the deception, he says, “Everything they say about me is true. I’m a phony.”

The Genius community has also pointed out the sample may have a connection to lyrics from Kendrick’s verse on Future and Metro Boomin’s “Like That” since Michael Jackson played the Scarecrow in The Wiz.

On “Like That,” Kendrick calls out Drake for his frequent comparisons to the King of Pop. In the same line, Kendrick parallels his longevity and contributions to music with Prince’s by rapping, “And your best work is a light pack/ N***a, Prince outlived Mike Jack.”

“euphoria” is Kendrick’s response to Drake’s recent diss tracks “Push Ups” and “Taylor Made Freestyle,” which the latter rapper dropped after Kendrick took their long-simmering feud to the next level on “Like That.”

Take a journey through the beef by streaming the tracks below — minus “Taylor Made Freestyle,” which Drake was forced to pull after Tupac’s estate sent a cease and desist letter over his use of deepfake Tupac vocals.

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