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 King TV 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!!! 😂)

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.”