It really feels like years have passed since the whole Kendrick Lamar-Drake rap feud turned into a diss track frenzy, but realistically it’s only been a few months. The aftermath is still being felt, though: Artists associated with Top Dawg Entertainment (TDE) are finding their Toronto shows at History, a big, dumb rock club co-owned by Drake, are being canceled at the last minute.
Kicking off the rappers’ diss track exchange was April’s “Euphoria,” which saw Lamar use Toronto slang against a decidedly no-longer-sarcastic 6ix God. Another name mentioned in that track is Texas televangelist Joel Osteen—though judging by the larger contextual clues in the lyrics, the rapper actually meant actor Haley Joel Osment, who has now responded to the (intentional?) mix-up.
In a recent interview on the red carpet for Flash twiceOsment told the Associated Press that he was in Ireland filming a movie when his phone suddenly started sending in “about a hundred” text messages about Lamar’s song. “I was like, ‘What’s going on?'”
On the track, Lamar raps: “Am I fighting a ghost or an AI? / I feel like Joel Osteen. / Funny, he was in a movie called AI / And my sixth sense tells me to kill him.”
Although Osteen is a more polarizing figure than Osment, the actor doesn’t believe Lamar accidentally confused the two. “I don’t know for sure, and I don’t assume he knows my exact name, but from what I’ve heard people talk about it and certain analyses I’ve read about it, I believe my name and the other guy’s name were intentionally confused,” Osment said. “Because Kendrick is too precise to make a mistake like that.”
Further evidence is Lamar’s pudding, which later Osment’s line “I see dead people” from The sixth sense to launch his arguably best Drake diss offering, “Not Like Us,” which topped the Billboard Hot 100 in May — and has since become something of a global anti-Canada anthem.
