Kendrick Lamar has included a sample of a reversed Richard Pryor line from ‘The Wiz’ on his new Drake diss track ‘Euphoria‘.
The six-minute-long diss track sees Lamar call the ‘Hotline Bling’ a “scam artist”, “master manipulator” and question his abilities as a father. It has been revealed that the jumbled audio in the intro of the song samples dialogue from the 1978 film The Wiz.
Following its release yesterday (April 30), fans clipped the short sample and played the line backwards to find the first line: “eurt si em tuoba yas yeht gnihtyrevE” happens to be a line from the iconic film in which Richard Pryor – who portrayed The Wiz – says: “Everything they say about me is true.”
the reversed audio at the beginning of euphoria played backwards pic.twitter.com/9aNxxTxs57
— Dissect Podcast (@dissectpodcast) April 30, 2024
Pryor’s line in the film is taken from a scene in which his character is exposed as Herman Smith, a washed-up politician from Atlantic City. He admits to being Smith and says: “Everything they say about me is true. I’m a phony.”
Fans have also speculated that Lamar’s inclusion of The Wiz is in connection to his verse on Future and Metro Boomin’s ‘Like That‘ which was released last month.
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In the track, the ‘Humble’ rapper comparing his work and contributions to that of the late Prince. “Prince outlived Mike Jack’ N****,” Drake had compared himself to Michael Jackson on his J. Cole collab ‘First Person Shooter’. Jackson was featured in The Wiz, portraying the Scarecrow.
Cole later responded with his own diss, ‘7 Minute Drill’, but he later apologised for it and pulled it from streaming.
Drake’s own response came in the form of ‘Push Ups’ and ‘Taylor Made Freestyle‘ but landed in hot water after he used AI to emulate Tupac Shakur‘s vocals, leading to the late rapper’s estate threatening legal action. He subsequently removed the track from streaming.
Despite Drake claiming that his rival had “nothing to drop” in response, Lamar has fired back with ‘Euphoria’, addressing him directly for the first time.
Other musicians have since waded into the debate: Kanye West dropped his own remix of ‘Like That’, comedian Munya Chawawa released his own parody Lamar diss track and George The Poet called Lamar “a non-revolutionary cosplaying as a revolutionary”.
In other news, Drake recently replied to ‘Euphoria’ on his Instagram stories. The ‘Know Yourself’ rapper seemed to mock Lamar’s lyrics: “I’m the biggest hater / 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” with a scene from cult romcom 10 Things I Hate About You.