"Euphoria" is released

Why it matters

"Euphoria" came out April 30, 2024, on Kendrick Lamar's own OVO-adjacent streaming arrangement. It is Kendrick's first direct response to Drake's "Push Ups" and the second full diss track in the 2024 Drake-vs-Kendrick exchange. The song is six minutes long, structured in three escalating sections, and is the most lyrically dense diss track of the entire 2024 cycle. The verses systematically dismantle Drake. Kendrick goes after Drake's identity (the Toronto-vs-Compton dynamic, the Black-Jewish-Canadian biographical complications), his ghost-writing arrangements, his parenting, his perceived inauthenticity in his relationships with younger artists, and his commercial choices over the previous decade. The closing minute is the most-quoted, ending with the line "I hate the way that you walk, the way that you talk / I hate the way that you dress." "Euphoria" went to #3 on the Billboard Hot 100. Drake's response ("Family Matters") came three days later. Kendrick's third entry ("Meet the Grahams") came the next day. The exchange compressed into a four-day sequence of three Kendrick records and one Drake response. You can hear the round shift here. Drake was no longer winning.