Thread by @JahTalksMusic

A breakdown of all the references in Kendrick Lamar’s diss track…

(a thread 🧵)

Starting off with the cover art that may have different meanings:

1. Euphoria is a show that Drake executively produced

2. The “change in mood” description could be tying into the change in the chill delivery in the beginning, to the more aggressive delivery after the beat switch

3. The song dropped on a Tuesday, which is subtly mentioned in the cover

4. “They had almost a week to recover” could be a hint at another diss track coming in less than a week (more on that later in the thread)

The very first thing you hear is a reversed audio sampled from the movie “The Wiz”, which features Michael Jackson (who Drake claims to be):

- “Everything you say about me is true, I’m a phony”

- He then follows this with the word “Euphoria”

No official meaning for this, but it could be a warning shot to Drake about his allegations with younger women, considering that’s what “Euphoria” is about

Tommy Hilfiger:

- Rumors of having been r*cist and not approving of the brand being used in Hip-Hop culture

FUBU:

- For Us, By Us… A black-owned business that represents black culture

In other words, adding onto Rick Ross’s “white boy” disses, and questioning his integrity

Kendrick’s saying that he makes important music for the culture while Drake makes lullaby music that’s catchy but without meaning

Since he didn’t double down on the word “pacify”, it suggests it might be another warning shot at the underage allegations, tying back to the name and cover art of the song…

A callback to The Heart Part 4 back in 2017, that was also aimed at Drake…

Here he flips Drake’s line “what’s a prince to a king, he a son”, referring to Kendrick as his son…

Joe Jackson is Michael Jackson’s father, in other words saying he’s Drake’s father as a double entendre mentioning Benjamin Franklin and Andrew Jackson, the $100 and $20 bills

Once again flipping Drake’s line here when he said “this ain’t even everything I know don’t wake the demon up”

Also, a possible double entendre as Future’s middle name is DeMun, and he has a song titled “Throwaway”

Here Kendrick’s referring to when Drake bought 2Pac’s ring for $1 million

- Likely saying it’s disrespectful he owns that ring after using 2Pac’s voice with his Taylor Made AI diss track, and that the ring belongs to the west coast

The first slide is Kendrick referring to how Drake & J. Cole are always praising each other on stage of their tour, and he sets himself up to the second slide 8 bars in advance:

8 bars later, he connected the “love them to death” line by referring to YNW Melly who was accused of 🔪 2 of his childhood friends

The first slide is referring to how he couldn’t even beat or respond to Pusha T’s “Story of Adidon” diss track 6 years ago

And for the 2nd slide, Pusha T’s name is Terrance Thronton, and Terrance Crawford is an undefeated boxer, who Kendrick claims to be

Referring to DMX’s interview where he spoke about all the things he doesn’t like about Drake:

“I don’t like the people he talks about, I don’t like the way he walks”

Also, could be a slight reference to the song “Walk It Talk It” by Migos that features Drake

Here he’s referring to the time Diddy punched Drake back in 2014

2 references here:

1. A reference to Daft Punk who wear helmets to hide their faces

2. The way he says “Remember?” is the exact same as how Drake did on “Worst Behavior”

Going back to the cover art where I said Kendrick could he referring to dropping again in less than a week, here he’s referring to Drake’s “Back To Back” record where he replied back to his own diss track on Meek Mill after a couple days…

Here Kendrick’s answering Drake when he kept trolling and pushing him to reply to his diss track by saying he got higher priorities of raising a child

Which is adding onto when Pusha T called Drake a deadbeat father on “Story Of Adidon”

A simple reference here. Kendrick flipped Drake’s “wtf is this, a 20v1?” line by saying Kendrick himself is going against 20 different writers who ghostwrite for Drake

These lines have multiple different meanings…

1. He’s confused if he’s battling Drake’s ghostwriters or Drake’s AI features (2Pac & Snoop Dogg)

2. Kendrick pronounces the name he mentions in a way that sounds like “Joel (Hale) Osteen”, which is mixing the names of Joel Osteen and Haley Joel Osment…

- Joel Osment is a pastor who was impersonated by AI

- Haley Joel Osment is an actor that starred in the movies “AI” and “Sixth Sense”

Kendrick uses Toronto slang and mentions a restaurant in Toronto to say he’d be more than happy to face Drake in his own hometown

The way Kendrick says these last lines of the track interpolates the very same way Kanye West said “we don’t wanna hear that weak sht no more” on “Get Em High”

There are a lot more disses on the track, but I kept this thread mostly just to direct references…

Let me know on what I missed on and tune in for more threads like this if you’re new 🙏