Song of the Week from Consequence spotlights the greatest new tunes each week. Find these new favorites and more on our Spotify Top Songs playlist, and for other great songs from emerging artists, check out our Spotify New Sounds playlist. This week, Kendrick Lamar reminds us why Drake kinda sucks with “euphoria.”
When Kendrick Lamar finally called out Drake directly on Future and Metro Boomin’s “Like That” last month, it opened up the floodgates for everyone who had only been tolerating Drake to come out of the woodwork. Drake responded like he knows best by getting off some decent jokes on “Push Ups,” but his use of deepfake Tupac vocals to bait Kendrick on “Taylor Made Freestyle” exposed a grave misunderstanding of the situation. This isn’t a war Drake can win with some short jokes and memes because nobody respects him — something Kendrick breaks down in detail on “euphoria,” the best of two diss tracks K.Dot dropped this week.
Opening the song, Kendrick hits Drake where it hurts by pointing out that he’s always been a dorky theater kid who cozied up with the right people. “The famous actor we once knew is lookin’ paranoid and now is spiralin’,” he raps. “You’re not a rap artist, you a scam artist with the hopes of being accepted.”
This is hardly a new revelation; one of the biggest criticisms levied against Drake is how he’s used his stature to cozy up to buzzing artists like Kendrick, The Weeknd, and Migos while hopping on the latest trends, switching up accents as often as he changes clothes. However, no one has laid their disrespect for Drake this bare since Pusha T.
Calling himself Drake’s “biggest hater,” Kendrick continues his point by rapping, “I hate the way that you walk, the way that you talk, I hate the way that you dress/ I hate the way that you sneak diss, if I catch flight, it’s gon’ be direct.”
Adding that he’s not the only one who feels this way (“I’m what the culture feelin’”), Kendrick takes further jabs at Drake’s insecurities about race (“How many more Black features ’til you finally feel that you’re Black enough”) and hollow attempts to be respected as a rapper (“I like Drake with the melodies, I don’t like Drake when he act tough”).
At more than six minutes, “euphoria” also packs in more personal lines about Drake’s abilities as a father and rumors of plastic surgery, but what has to hurt the most is the truth: none of his favorites have ever really liked him in the first place.
— Eddie Fu
News Editor