How bad does Drake look after Kendrick Lamar's diss track Euphoria?

Weeks into hip-hop's latest civil war, the ongoing feud between Kendrick Lamar and Drake shows no signs of slowing down.

On Tuesday, Kendrick Lamar released Euphoria, the highly-anticipated response to Drake's last two diss tracks, and rap fans have been reeling ever since.

Dalton Higgins is a publicist, veteran music journalist and the author of the book Far From Over: The Music and Life of Drake, The Unofficial Story. David Dennis Jr. is a veteran music journalist and culture critic based in Atlanta, Georgia.

They join Elamin to react to Kendrick Lamar's latest diss track, and unpack the criticisms the track posits about Drake and his credibility.

We've included some highlights below, edited for length and clarity. For the full discussion, listen and follow the Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud podcast, on your favourite podcast player.

Elamin: Dalton, what was your reaction when you first heard Kendrick's diss to Drake, Euphoria?

Dalton: My knee jerk reaction was, perhaps Drake needs to take a page out of J. Cole's notebook and start crafting an apology for dissing Kendrick Lamar, and keep it moving. Like, who wants a deal with this level of smoke, you know what I mean? But in all seriousness, I think Kendrick put on display why he wins things like the Pulitzer Prize. He just clinically dissects, deconstructs Drake in a way that few rappers can or would even dare try…. He questions Drake's reason for being, his commitment to parenting, his attachment to the Black community, his misogyny, his business acumen, his spirituality. I just don't know how you even respond to something like this, you know?

Elamin: It's an overwhelming response. David, we had that first initial Kendrick diss and then a response from Drake, and then another response from Drake…. Let's compare Euphoria, Kendrick's diss track, to Taylor Made Freestyle, which is the last Drake freestyle that he gave us. How did the two stack up against each other?

David: It is not even close. You should not even put these two together. It's sort of unfair to Drake to even put them together, because Drake did not know what he was getting into. Nobody knew what this was going to look like until Kendrick dropped his song, right? Drake was doing his little light jabs. They've been saying friendly competition. J. Cole was saying friendly competition. If this is friendly competition, I do not want friends like this. This is enemy battalion, no-holds-barred for six entire minutes. I cannot think of somebody I can say six minutes full of bad things about in my entire life. This is beyond the pale. This is further than I thought this was going to go.

Elamin: Alright, the ball is clearly in Drake's court, because I don't know what else Kendrick can say in this moment. He's said so much. But I'm not even sure that Drake can say anything that can return a blow that is as hard as this one. What are you expecting from the next move here, Dalton?

Dalton: Drake is fearless to a fault. Realistically, I do think he can put up a reasonably good fight. He is a battle rap enthusiast, right?

Elamin: He likes a beef. He likes bluster, he likes a show, you know?

Dalton: He used to fund some parts of King of the Dot, which is the biggest battle rap competition in North America…. So he understands the battle rap tradition, I would say, way more so than most rappers. He can go bar for bar with 99.5 per cent of rappers not named Kendrick Lamar. That's what I say to that.

Elamin: David Dennis Jr., should Drake just go, "I'm going to go to Turks and Caicos, man. I'm out."?

David: I would say that, but he already tried that once with Pusha T and it did not work. I'm gonna say what I said last time: you are going to have to rap. He posted a video of Julia Stiles from 10 Things I Hate About You as a response to this. Like, you are not beating the, "where is your Black card?" allegations.

Elamin: It won't work with memes; you can't respond with memes.

David: It won't work with memes, it won't work with all that. Rap. Get in the booth and rap the hardest that you've ever rapped your entire life to beat this man. That is all you got to do. He got six minutes. Give him eight to 10 minutes of the best thing you got. Empty your notebook and pray that that's it, because Kendrick Lamar got more. He's alluded to the fact that, "I got more coming for you." And Drake's got to be ready for all.

Dalton: This is a warning shot. That's the scariest part.

Elamin: If this is a warning shot, I don't know if we're ready for what is to come.

You can listen to the full discussion from today's show on CBC Listen or on our podcast, Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud, available wherever you get your podcasts.

Panel produced by Ty Callender