Kendrick Lamar Shares New Drake Diss Track “6:16 In LA”
Kendrick wasn’t done. Earlier this week, Kendrick Lamar, currently embroiled in an extremely newsworthy rap feud with longtime rival Drake, released his furious six-minute attack “Euphoria.” That song is currently on streaming services and doing big numbers, and Kendrick didn’t wait for a Drake response to unleash another volley. Today, Kendrick posted a new volley called “6:16 In LA” on social media.
In its title alone, “6:16 In LA” works as a parody of Drake’s timestamp series — June 16 is both Father’s Day and Tupac Shakur’s birthday — and its artwork is a pair of Maybach gloves. The track features a relaxed but focused Kendrick Lamar going in over a lush, restrained Al Green sample. As Twitter use @LakimIsAlive points out, Drake’s uncle Melvin “Teenie” Hodges actually played guitar on “What A Wonderful Thing Love Is,” the Al Green song being sampled, which could be a whole new level of intentional disrespect. The track is produced by frequent Kendrick collaborator Sounwave and his Red Hearse bandmate Jack Antonoff, who have both produced Taylor Swift; on “Push Ups” and “Taylor Made Freestyle,” Drake clowned Kendrick for working with the pop star and said Swift’s release schedule dictated when Kendrick would respond.
Kendrick starts out listing his own blessings before turning his attention to Drake, leaving taunting hints that Drake has moles inside his camp: “Are you finally ready to play Have You Ever? Let’s see/ Have you ever thought that OVO was working for me?/ Fake bully, I hate bullies, you must be a terrible person/ Everyone inside your team’s whispering that you deserve it.” He suggests Drake’s friend Zack Bia was behind recent pro-Drake bots and that even prominent Drake supporter DJ Akademiks is compromised.
Kendrick also implies that Drake is trying and failing to pay for dirt on him: “It was fun till you start to put money up in the streets/ Then lost money, ’cause they came back with the no receipts/ I’m sorry that I live a boring live, I love peace/ But war ready if the world’s ready to see you bleed.” It sounds like less of a fired-up assault and more of a warning. Listen below.
