As the sun rose over the East Coast this morning, Kendrick Lamar launched another series of slanderous attacks on Drake. Half the length of K-Dot’s original diss track “Euphoria,” with less aggression and more soul via an Al Green sample, Kendrick dropped “6:16 in LA.”
While the impromptu track, which was released exclusively on Instagram on Friday (May 3), contains a lot of symbolism, there are also some very noteworthy and well-crafted points. Take a look below to see what the crack at “6:16 in LA” means.
1. Kendrick thinks academia is being damaged
In Kendrick’s latest offering, he suggested that DJ Akademiks was compromised. This can have many meanings, such as being vulnerable or untrustworthy. Either way, at the bar: “Yeah, someone’s lying, I can see Akademiks/Even if he looks compromised, let’s peel back the layers,” K-Dot probably put Akademiks on because of his relationship Incorporated into that is with Drake and his feud with the rapper. Because of Akademiks’ involvement in the beef – he shared Drake’s message directly to Ak’s live audience – Kendrick believes Drake left himself vulnerable to any criticism directed at him.
Akademiks has been a figure in the Drake and Kendrick diss war, with Ak being the source who confirmed the unleaked version of “Push Up” and using his platform to provide other beef-related insights. After the track was initially released online in some way, Akademiks premiered a higher-quality version of the clip via his live stream. A week later, Drizzy released “Taylor Made Freestyle,” an AI-generated record featuring the voices of Tupac Shakur and Snoop Dogg. Drake sang Ak’s line directly after the rapper shared the song on Instagram.
Despite Kendrick’s stance on Ak’s stance, the Fellows questioned the truth behind it during the live broadcast.
2. There may be a mole among Drake’s OVO crew
Kendrick suggested someone in Drake’s OVO camp was secretly betraying the Toronto rapper and feeding his rivals information. “Are you finally ready to play ‘have-you-ever’? / Let’s see if you ever thought OVO was working for me?” he raps.
K-Dot isn’t the first artist to make a similar statement. During Drizzy’s feud with Pusha T, the Virginia rapper said he got information about Drake giving birth to his son from Drizzy’s lead producer Noah “40” Shebib. Recently, The Weeknd, who also has a history with Drake, said there was a “leak” in Aubrey’s handling of the song “We Still Don’t Trust You,” the title track from the Metro Boomin and Future albums.
3. Kendrick mocks Drake’s involvement in K-Dot linked to Taylor Swift
On Drake’s “Push Ups,” he referenced Taylor Swift’s fan base, the “Swifties.” Fast forward to today, and Kendrick has teased Drake and reportedly tapped Swift’s main producer Jack Antonoff to co-produce “6:16 in LA” with beatmaker Sounwave Connect the dots. It was also a pun on Drake’s second diss against Kendrick, “Taylor Made Freestyle,” which Drizzy later removed from his Instagram after being threatened with a lawsuit from the Tupac estate for containing an AI-generated “version of Pac’s vocals.” Remove it from the page.
4. Kendrick calls out Zach Bea and accuses Drake of using bots
K-Dot fearlessly brought up socialite Zach Bea when he accused Drake of conspiring with Bea to tarnish Kendrick’s reputation. Among the diss, Kendrick also mocked Drizzy for allegedly using a Twitter bot to slander Kendrick’s name. Following the rap feud between Drake and Pusha T, Push’s name and likeness were also trolled by random bots.
5. References to the Big Three appear in different ways
It’s worth mentioning that Kendrick may have been referencing the Big Three of himself, Drake and J. Cole in this quote: “Trio: money, morals and culture, that’s what I do in my spare time.” Some Rap Fans believe the money refers to Drake, and the moral is tied to Cole as he walked out of the feud and apologized for his “7-minute workout” Kendrick comments before removing them from DSP, as well Kendrick’s culture. On “Euphoria,” Kendrick emphasizes that his dissection of Drizzy’s flaws is a reflection on rap culture as a whole.
6. K-Dot Might Think He’s God
At the bar, “Elohim, KTW, no, you can’t sleep,” Kendrick said, referring to Elohim, a name for God often used in the Hebrew Bible. While there is some debate over the exact meaning of KTW, some speculate that K-Dot refers to himself as God, or even the god of rap, and specifically mentions Elohim since Drake is Jewish.
7. Al Green songs sampled
The song Kendrick Lamar chose to sample on “6:16 in LA” was Al Green’s “What a Wonderful Thing Love Is.” Significantly, Drake’s uncle Mabon “Teenie” Hodges was Al Green’s guitarist and songwriter. Hodges, the brother of Drake’s father, died in 2014.
8. The closing paragraph mentions Michael Jackson
Kendrick ended with another Michael Jackson reference, one that also appeared in his original verse on Metro Boomin and Future’s “Like That.” K-Dot rhymes in the last verse of “6:16 in LA”: “Ask what Mike would do?” On “Like That,” Kendrick compares himself to Prince and Drake to MJ , rapped: “N***a, Prince outlived Michael Jackson.” Both pop stars are iconic, but the fact is that Prince’s career outlasted Michael Jackson’s. Ever since Drake tied Michael Jackson’s record for No. 1 singles last year, he’s been associating himself with the King of Pop ever since.
