Haymakers were thrown yesterday by Kendrick Lamar towards Drake as rap’s top bout enters another round, following duels involving undercards such as J Cole, Rick Ross, Future and A$AP Rocky. Lamar initially rang the bell a month ago with Like That, slagging off Drake as a mere pop star. Drake came back with Push Ups, featuring the allegation that Lamar’s wife was cheating on him (among various other barbs). Before Lamar could respond, Drake released Taylor Made Freestyle, which used AI to cheekily have 2Pac and Snoop Dogg – two of Lamar’s west coast forebears – chide Lamar for not following up soon enough. Follow up he now has, with Euphoria, which many are putting straight into the diss track hall of fame thanks to a sustained barrage of blows against Drake’s Blackness, street credibility, artistic depth, financial agreements, romantic relationships and more. The central thesis The thrust of Lamar’s track is that Drake certainly isn’t street, and isn’t really Black – or at the very least, isn’t fully embraced by Black culture. He instructs him not to say the N-word, says he’s “faking for likes and digital hugs” and raps: “You’re not a rap artist, you a scam artist with the hopes of being accepted / Tommy Hilfiger stood out, but Fubu never had been your collection.” The suggestion is that Drake wears Tommy Hilfiger, a designer regarded distrustfully in hip-hop following a rumour that he was hostile to Black consumers (which he denied), but not Fubu, the Black-owned brand For Us, By Us. As if that wasn’t clear enough, later there’s this: “How many more fairytale stories ’bout your life till we had enough? / How many more Black features till you finally feel that you’re Black enough?” And “you got shit twisted / What is it? The braids?” is a funny line that takes aim at Drake’s braided hair, seen as an attempt to appear more conventionally Black. Euphoria at times echoes what was previously the most high-profile and successful diss track against Drake: The Story of Adidon, by Pusha T. While the revelation of Drake having a secret child with a porn star was that track’s biggest gotcha, other lines, alleging that Drake paraded his Black father to assert his Blackness, were equally stinging. Pusha also isolated his hair: “Confused, always felt you weren’t Black enough / Afraid to grow it ’cause your ’fro wouldn’t nap enough.” The threats Another major echo of The Story of Adidon comes in how Lamar chides Drake for not, in his eyes, properly raising his son Adonis, in a sustained series of unadorned lines: “Giving him tools to walk through life like day-by-day, know nothing ’bout that / Teaching him morals, integrity, discipline, listen, man, you don’t know nothing ’bout that.” Lamar’s hackles are clearly up after Drake’s allegation about his wife, and escalates the family drama: “Talk about me and my family, crodie? / Someone gon’ bleed in your family, crodie” is the track’s most blatant threat.