Local restaurant takes centre stage in rap beef

Forget the "Keith Lee effect" Kendrick Lamar is the hottest new influencer in the Toronto food scene.

- RICHIE ASSALY

Kendrick Lamar, left, made a reference to the Toronto Chinese restaurant New Ho King in his latest diss track aimed at Drake.

On Wednesday, the Pulitzer Prize-winning Compton, Calif., rapper name-checked a Toronto Chinese food restaurant on "Euphoria," the latest diss track that takes aim at Drake, and an escalation in a decades-long feud that has in recent weeks consumed much of the mainstream music world.

"I be at New Ho King eatin' fried rice with a dip sauce and blammy, crodie," Lamar raps in a verse he delivers in a mock Toronto accent, replete with local slang. "Tell me you're cheesin', fam," he says in the next line.