Haley Joel Osment is iconic. He was nominated for an Academy Award when he was just 11 years old, and is regularly cited as one of the best child actors of all time. He's continued to work as an adult on shows like The Boys, but the most unexpected development in his career has to be his connection to the Drake vs. Kendrick Lamar battle. Osment isn't dropping disses on these rappers, but he was a reference point on Lamar's recent song "Euphoria." And evidently, he appreciated the shout-out.
There's been lots of debate over the Osment reference. Some fans think Lamar combined the actor's name with televangelist Joel Osteen to create an additional layer of meaning, but others think the rapper simply confused Osment and Osteen. "Am I battlin' ghost or AI? N**ga feelin' like Joel Osteen," he spits. "Funny, he was in a film called AI, and my sixth sense tellin' me to off him."
Haley Joel Osment Liked "Euphoria" On X (Formerly Twitter)
Haley Joel Osment starred in the Steven Spielberg blockbuster A.I. Artificial Intelligence, as well as The Sixth Sense, which earned him the aforementioned Oscar nomination. The line makes complete sense, and is ingenious, but Lamar just happens to say the wrong name. (For the record, Genius theorizes that the rapper is riffing on Osteen using writers for his sermons).
One social media user put it best when they tweeted: "I don’t think the Joel Osteen line was a mistake solely because he knew Haley Joel Osment was in Artificial Intelligence, and who the f*ck knows that without knowing his correct name." Osment didn't issue a statement or comment on Lamar's confusing mashup of names, though. He simply liked the X (formerly Twitter) link to the song "Euphoria" on the rapper's profile. Plain and simple. He's a fan.
Osment has proven to be a rap fan based on some of his past statements. He named Flying Lotus as one of his favorite artists of all time, which is fitting given that Lotus worked on Kendrick Lamar's masterpiece To Pimp a Butterfly. Haley Joel Osment also starred in the music video for the 2016 Jonwayne song "Minerals & Gems." The actor actually rapped the entire song while dressed as Jonwayne.
