Kendrick Lamar Sends Clear Message to Drake With 'Euphoria' Lyric Change

Lamar demands that Drake hand over Tupac Shakur's ring - an icon of west coast hip-hop which Drake bought in auction last summer.

By Michael Hein

Kendrick Lamar played his Drake diss tracks live for the first time on Wednesday night, and some changes to the lyrics of "Euphoria" were very pointed. The rapper removed a few lines from the song's second verse, and inserted a new one as well. He referenced Drake's purchase of a piece of west coast hip-hop memorabilia, apparently demanding its return.

Lamar played to a crowd of 17,000 people at The Forum in Los Angeles on Wednesday, live-streaming the show via Amazon Music at the same time. His most recent songs are diss tracks aimed at Drake, and he sprinkled them throughout the setlist. When he played "Euphoria," he altered the lyrics starting in the second verse, starting at the refrain: "I hate the way that you walk, the way that you talk / I hate the way that you dress." Lamar replaced the lines that followed with some of the lyrics from the third verse, where he uses the same refrain.

"I even hate it when you say the word 'n-,' but that's just me I guess," he rapped. "Some s- just cringeworthy, it ain't even gotta be deep I guess / Still love when you see sucess / Everything with me is blessed / Keep making me dance, waving my hands, and it won't be no threat / I'm knowing they call you the Boy, but where is the man? Cause I ain't seen him yet."

Here, Lamar interjected with a brand new line not in his original recording. Holding his hand out, he said: "Give me Tupac's ring back, and I might give you a little respect." From there, he jumped back to the beginning of verse three and the song continued.

Lamar has been carrying around that complaint for nearly a year now, but the demand has never been more direct. In July of 2023, a custom ring designed and worn by rapper Tupac Shakur was sold at auction for over $1 million, according to a report by CBS News. Drake revealed on Instagram that he was the anonymous buyer, flaunting the ring for his fans. Shakur is synonymous with west coast rap music to this day, and on a night when Lamar and many other L.A.-based rappers gathered to celebrate, Lamar demanded that the Toronto-based Drake hand it over.

Shakur wore this iconic crown ring at his last public appearance ever – the 1996 MTV Video Music Awards, just over a week before he was shot and killed in Las Vegas. The ring resurfaced after Vegas police obtained a search warrant for the home of Keith "Keffe D" Davis, who has been suspected to have been involved with Shakur's murder for several years now. The ring was appraised and auctioned off by Sotheby's, with an initial estimate of $200,000. Drake paid over $1 million for it, and its cultural value cannot be overstated.

Shakur designed the ring himself after his release from prison in 1995, and the crown shape was a reference to Niccolo Machiavelli's political manifesto The Prince, which Shakur became obsessed with while behind bars. It features a large ruby and two diamonds, and an engraving reads: "Pac & Dada 1996" – a reference to Shakur's engagement to Kidada Jones. It is suspected to be the most expensive piece of hip-hop memorabilia ever sold.

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The symbolic issue goes ever deeper than that, as Tupac's legacy came into Lamar and Drake's beef back in April with Drake's "Taylor Made Freestyle." Drake and producers utilized so-called "generative artificial intelligence" software to recreate Shakur's voice and add it to the song rapping a brand new verse. This infuriated Lamar and many other fans – whether they dwell on the west coast or not. Shakur's estate sent a cease-and-desist letter to Drake, and the issue even went before the U.S. Congress.

Drake removed the song from streaming services, but Lamar continued to throw that mistake in his face on most of the diss tracks that followed. Now, it seems like the rapper wants Drake to relinquish his ownership of Shakur's legacy in a more tangible way as well. So far, Drake has not responded publicly to Wednesday's massive "Pop Out" concert.

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