Kendrick Lamar‘s Drake diss track has caused a massive spike in interest for the Toronto restaurant New Ho King.
In Lamar’s song ‘Euphoria’, the ‘Humble’ artist raps in a Toronto accent and name-checks the Chinese restaurant towards the end of the second verse saying: ‘I be at New Ho King eatin’ fried rice with a dip sauce and a blammy’.
The restaurant is located on Spadina Avenue in Toronto. After the release of ‘Euphoria’, New Ho King has received a plethora of five-star reviews on Google, with the majority referencing Lamar and the track. “Truly euphoric meal,” read one review left by a user while another wrote: “That fried rice with the dip sauce is the way to go. All my crodies love it.”
It currently has a 4.0 star rating on Google. Speaking to local TV station CityNews, Johnny Lu – the owner of New Ho King – expressed his gratitude for the mention in the song and called Lamar a “Good guy”.
Elsewhere, it was revealed that Lamar included a sample of a reversed Richard Pryor line from ‘The Wiz’ in ‘Euphoria’.
The jumbled audio in the intro of the six-minute-long track is actually dialogue from the 1978 film The Wiz that had been reversed.
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Shortly after the track’s release, fans clipped the beginning audio and played it backwards to find that 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.”
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.
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.