The beef between Kendrick Lamar and Drake is heating up, but New Ho King, a small Chinese restaurant in Toronto, ended up victorious when they caught a stray on Kendrick’s “Euphoria” diss track.
At 8:24 a.m. Pacific Time on April 30, Kendrick Lamar dropped “Euphoria” aimed at Drake, and packed with over six minutes of multiple entendres criticizing everything from the Canadian rapper’s parenting and his plastic surgery allegations to his questionable relationships with younger women and his right to say the N-word.
Kendrick Lamar spared no one during his tirade. Drake’s Toronto accent, as well as his pet cat Crodie, also got mocked.
The Compton legend rapped:
Don’t speak on the family, Crodie
It can get deep in the family, Crodie
Talk about me and my family, Crodie?
Someone gon’ bleed in your family, Crodie
I be at New Ho King eatin’ fried rice with a dip sauce and blammy, Crodie
New Ho King has been a late-night staple in Toronto’s Chinatown district for 50 years. Name-dropping the fried rice has sent 5-star reviews through the roof on Google Reviews.
“One of the best restaurants in Canada! had to check it out if kendrick said it was good did not disappoint friendly staff and great vibes highly recommend if you are near go visit!” read one of the 1,200 guest reviews. “A sense of euphoria after that fried rice,” raved another.
Another review was much more comical. “I was a deadbeat father and never raised my son right. Today, a thought suddenly came to me as I crossed this authentic Chinese restaurant. While I was eating the fried rice with a dip sauce and a blammy, I was inspired to go home, wake him up every morning, tell him to pray, and give him tools to walk through life day by day. New Ho King’s food has taught me morals, integrity, and discipline. Thank you crodie!”
Could the “To Pimp a Butterfly” rapper possess the “Keith Lee effect?” Many fans seem to think so, comparing Lamar to the former MMA fighter who can change the fate of an unknown mom-and-pop restaurant with a single TikTok video.
One person who seems to think so is Johnny Lu, the owner of New Ho King, whose phone has currently been blowing up.
When Toronto network CityNews caught up with the thrilled restaurant owner, he said, “This morning a lot of people texted me saying that’s your restaurant? I say, ‘Yes.’ They say, ‘Look at the song.’”
“He said good food and fried rice. Get more and more rice. The chef’s gonna be busy!” Lu enthused. “Kendrick’s a good guy, Oh my God.” In the war between the two rappers, Lamar has recruited at least one more person to his side.
“I’m trying to learn how to sing the song now,” Lu added as he scrolled through the roaring reviews, mentioning, “Kendrick sent me.”
“I came all the way from Markham just to see this fried rice,” said one fan. “Kendrick Lamar, man. You gotta pay respect to K. Dot, man. Ever since he dropped the diss track, I was like, ‘I gotta visit this place.’”
Fans online couldn’t help but find the Compton rapper’s impact in Toronto hilarious.
“That Canadian Chinese man basically said we love Kenny in here. I can’t speak for that other Canadian. I’m crine,” said one X user.
“Damn, Crodie. The Opp helping small businesses in your own hometown, Crodie,” another comment read.
While there’s much to unpack in K.Dot’s six-minute diss track “Euphoria,” the New Ho King reference may have a deeper meaning than a playful jab at Drake’s accent. Some speculate the line is a subtle reference to Drake’s 2009 armed robbery after he and a woman left an unnamed Toronto restaurant.
As one eagle-eyed fan pointed out on X:
“I don’t think many people caught this bar on Kendrick’s diss. Drake was allegedly robbed by rapper Sizzlac in 2010,” the X user points out. “Sizzlac escaped (dipped) with the gun (blammy) he used to rob Drake.”
The X user also posted a screenshot from Sizzlac’s “Realest in the 6” music video, in which he’s rapping outside of the New Ho King restaurant.
“Kendrick done turned the restaurant Drake got robbed at into one of Toronto’s main attractions,” an X user quipped.
Drake spoke about the robbery in 2010 with GQ, calling it a “set-up.” Robbers allegedly “banged on the car window with a gun and opened the door” while demanding cash totaling $4,000 and a new chain he had gotten from Lil Wayne.
“I knew it was a setup, because I had on a sweater and a jacket. But when they banged on the car window with a gun and opened the door, the first thing he said was, ‘Yo, run that chain,’” Drake said during the interview. “They didn’t rob [my date], and her purse was sitting right there. So I was like, ‘OK, yup — you set the whole thing up.”
Drake, who is said to have cooperated with law enforcement during the investigation, was accused by rap fans of “snitching” on Sizzlac, which has long been debated, considering his lack of affiliation with the streets.
In an unrelated incident, Sizzlac was found shot to death in the Malton neighborhood of Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, in April of 2016. He was 29 years old.
The rift between Drake and Kendrick has been a slow-burning feud that has simmered since 2013, when, during a BET Awards performance, Lamar boasted that his skills had “tucked a sensitive rapper back in his pajama clothes.”
The most recent shots were fired when Lamar dismissed J. Cole and Drake’s “First Person Shooter” request to join their “Big 3” and instead dubbed himself the lone king in “Like That” alongside Future and Metro Boomin.
Then later that month, Drake released the first of two diss tracks, “Push Ups,” where he mocked Lamar’s height and his collaborations with Maroon 5 and Taylor Swift. This was followed up by “Taylor Made Freestyle,” in which he utilized the help of AI enhancement to feature Tupac and Snoop Dogg and call Lamar a coward for not responding in a timely manner.
Word has it there’s still more beef to come. Hip-hop fans are at the edge of their seats.
