Fact Check: Was Joel Osteen in a movie called AI? Kendrick Lamar's Haley Joel Osment mix-up in Euphoria lyrics explained  

Kendrick Lamar left the internet in a frenzy after releasing his latest track, Euphoria, directed towards Drake. This comes 17 days after the latter released Push Ups, in response to the former’s initial Like That diss track.

In the latest music drop, part of the lyrics included him referring to the movies A.I. Artificial Intelligence and The Sixth Sense, which were released in 2001 and 1999, respectively.

Lamar seemingly questioned Drake about whether he was battling a ghost or AI, instead of a real rapper. He also incorrectly interpreted Joel Osteen as an actor who appeared in A.I. The rapper crooned:

“Am I battlin’ ghost or AI? N*Gga feelin’ like Joel Osteen. Funny, he was in a film called A.I.’/ And my sixth sense tellin’ me to off him”

Through the lyrics, the 36-year-old rapper responded to Drake’s Taylor Made Freestyle track, which featured AI-based verses by Snoop Dogg and Tupac Shakur.

Despite the lyrics seeming to say that Joel Osteen was the actor who took part in the aforementioned movies, it is far from the truth, as the actor who was cast in the films was Haley Joel Osment.

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Kendrick Lamar seemingly mistakenly referred to himself as Joel Osteen instead of Haley Joel Osment

Through the Grammy-winner’s lyrics, one might assume that Joel Osteen Osteen is an actor who starred in the M. Night Shyamalan and Steven Spielberg-directed movies. However, this is not true. In reality, Haley Joel Osment starred in the films.

Joel Osteen is not an actor in any form. He is a controversial evangelist whose Texas-based Lakewood Church infamously drew headlines for how they handled 2017’s tragic Hurricane Harvey. For those uninitiated, the megachurch closed its doors during the natural disaster as multiple mosques and churches in the region remained open and offered shelter to the homeless.

The celebrity pastor took to Facebook at the time to say:

“Lakewood Church is inaccessible due to severe flooding. We want to help make sure you are safe.”

It is safe to say that Kendrick Lamar was referring to actor Haley Joel Osment in his Euphoria track, who famously uttered the dialogue “I see dead people” in the 1999 The Sixth Sense thriller.

In Euphoria, Kendrick Lamar questioned Drake’s Blackness (the rapper is half Black and half Caucasian). The former also accused Drake of having an affinity for underaged women on the track. The lyrics went on to refer to the 2014 club incident where musician Diddy allegedly punched Drake. At one point, Lamar also accused Drake of failing at fatherhood.

The song ends with Lamar hilariously mocking Champagne Papi’s Toronto accent by using the word “crodie” instead of “brodie,” which has been used by the latter in the past.

The dual between the two initially started off when J. Cole referred to himself, Drake, and Kendrick Lamar as the “big three” in the Hotline Bling singer’s First Person Shooter song that was released in 2023. This led to Lamar responding to the same in a guest verse on Future and Metro Boomin’s Like That track.

Kendrick Lamar and Drizzy have been at war ever since, with multiple singers, including Ja Morant, Kanye West, The Weeknd, Rick Ross and Future, among others, getting involved in the ongoing feud as well.