Kendrick Lamar hated the way Drake walked, talked, and dressed on his monster “Euphoria” diss, but let legend tell it: the lyrics left on the cutting room floor could’ve been much worse for Champagne Papi!!!
According to K. Dot’s longtime associate Terrence “Punch” Henderson, the blistering track was toned down a bit to fit the battle modifications.
Punch tells Curtiss KingTV that there was a lot of stuff that didn’t make it on the “Euphoria” track after he and Kendrick had an imitate listening session in L.A.
The Top Dawg Entertainment co-president was actually in Australia for SZA‘s tour at the time, but jetted back to the U.S. during a show gap just to hear the record.
Kendrick pulled up to the studio and heard the long-awaited album from Punch’s 8-man artist collective aroomfullofmirrors — and then everyone got kicked out the studio so Punch could analyze the anticipated “Euphoria” bomb. (They still heard the song blaring from headphones in the booth!!! 😂)
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Punch says “Euphoria” was originally longer than the 6-minute version that was released, and cut some lines that “wouldn’t have been beneficial in the long run” to keep.
Kendrick called Drake a terrible rapper and father, and a culture vulture, on the finished version — you know those OG lyrics had to be bad.
Punch also noted Drake’s diss songs were layered with missteps, especially the Tupac A.I. track, “Taylor Made Freestyle.”
Drizzy felt that in full when the Tupac estate sent him a cease-and-desist!!!
