Kendrick Lamar helped bring international attention to a Chinese restaurant in Toronto. New Ho King’s owner Johnny Lu discussed the impact of Kendrick mentioning the restaurant on the Drake diss “euphoria” in an interview with City News.
“He said good food and the fried rice – get more, more, more rice,” Lu said. “The chef’s gonna be busy.”
Kendrick rapped about dining at New Ho King in the closing verse of “euphoria.” The lyrics featured K. Dot taunting Drake with the use of Toronto slang.
“I be at New Ho King eatin’ fried rice with a dip sauce and a blammy, crodie,” Kendrick rapped.
New Ho King received a dramatic uptick in positive reviews online after Kendrick name-dropped the restaurant on his Drake diss. Lu was delighted by Kendrick’s shoutout, which helped attract new customers.
“Kendrick’s a good guy,” Lu said. “Oh my God.”
The restaurant owner showed no love to Drake despite their Toronto ties.
“I’m trying to learn how to sing the song now,” Lu told City News.
Kendrick highlighting New Ho King seemed random to many listeners, leading fans to speculate it was the restaurant where Drake got robbed at gunpoint in 2009. He was actually robbed at a restaurant in Little Italy and spoke about the incident in the past.
“One night I took a girl out and got robbed at gunpoint – two guns, in fact,” Drake told GQ years ago. “I knew it was a setup because I had on a sweater and a jacket, but when they banged on the car window with a gun and opened the door, the first thing he said was, ‘Yo, run that chain.’ They didn’t rob her, and her purse was sitting right there.”
Drake and Kendrick’s rap battle began when the latter appeared on Future and Metro Boomin’s We Don’t Trust You album in March. Kendrick dissed Drake on the song “Like That,” which became a No. 1 hit. Drake responded with two diss tracks, “Push Ups” and “Taylor Made Freestyle,” in April. Kendrick dropped “euphoria” on Tuesday (April 30).
