An escalating rap feud reached new heights on Tuesday when Kendrick Lamar released diss track Euphoria, the latest and fiercest shot directed at Toronto’s own Drake — and one local Chinese restaurant is getting lots of attention after an unexpected mention in the song.
The absolutely scathing single, named after the hit HBO show that Drake serves as executive producer for, makes a surprise mention of longtime Chinatown establishment New Ho King.
The over-decade-long feud seems to have reached a boiling point with Lamar’s more than six-minute-long rebuke of Drake, slamming the Canadian rapper’s biracial and Canadian background, and even doing a jokey impression of the Toronto accent that specifically mentions New Ho King.
As part of a verse delivered in a cartoonish but, sadly, regionally accurate Toronto impression, Lamar raps, “I be at New Ho King eatin’ fried rice with a dip sauce and blammy, crodie.”
The Kendrick diss track is so surgically precise an attack on Drake that he even mentions the New Ho King on Spadina, I am very very impressed pic.twitter.com/EiMUgk7E3C
— Jesse Hawken (@jessehawken) April 30, 2024
The surprise mention of New Ho King has already had an impact on the establishment’s rating, as Lamar fans took to the restaurant’s Google review page to leave positive ratings, many specifically mentioning the fried rice.
LOL the google reviews on New Ho King pic.twitter.com/QewLX0BQfe
— TrapMoneyTenny (@__tennessee) April 30, 2024
Some, though, are taking issue with Lamar’s mention of the late-night food spot.
Kendrick has gone too far dragging New Ho King into his Drake diss
— Alex Nino Gheciu (@alexninog) April 30, 2024
Drake and Kendrick Lamar have been at this feud since 2013, though things heated back up in recent months with the former’s release of two diss tracks in April.
But it’s Lamar’s vicious return volley that has everyone talking this week.