Haley Joel Osment shares his reaction to being mentioned by Kendrick Lamar.
The actor unwittingly joined Lamar’s rap feud with Drake when he released “Euphoria” in April. And although Lamar confusingly referred to him as megachurch pastor Joel Osteen in the song, Osment – like countless other fans – believes the mix-up was intentional.
“I was filming in Ireland when this all happened, and I got about a hundred text messages in the middle of the night,” the former child star told The Associated Press on Sunday in a red carpet interview for his latest film, “Blink Twice.” “And I was just like, ‘What’s going on?'”
“I don’t know for sure, and I don’t assume he knows my exact name,” he continued. “But from what I’ve heard people talk about it and certain analysis I’ve read about it, I believe my name and the other guy’s name were intentionally mixed up, because Kendrick is too precise to make a mistake like that, I think.”
Lamar and Drake had been trading subtle jabs at each other for years before finally hitting back when Drake posted “Taylor Made Freestyle” to his Instagram account in April, using artificial intelligence to generate the voices of Snoop Dogg and the late Tupac Shakur to insult Lamar.
Lamar then responded with “Euphoria,” the first of four diss tracks against Drake, rapping, “Am I fighting a ghost or AI / Nigga feel like Joel Osteen / Funny, he was in a movie called ‘AI’ / And my sixth sense tells me to kill him.”
Unlike Osteen, Osment actually starred in Steven Spielberg’s AI Artificial Intelligence (2001) and M. Night Shyamalan’s The Sixth Sense (1999). Lamar also referenced that film in his follow-up to Euphoria, “Not Like Us,” opening the song with Osment’s classic line, “I see dead people.”
While some considered the verse a glaring misstep, others argued that Lamar intentionally said “Osteen” to imply that Drake has a similarly opportunistic disposition and that his fabricated image ridicules the culture he profits from.
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Lamar has been considered the winner of the feud since the release of “Not Like Us,” which is reportedly the most streamed diss track on Spotify.
