Kendrick Lamar has released ‘6:16 in LA’, another brutal diss track directed towards Drake.
The ‘Humble’ rapper wasted no time in creating a follow-up to his recent release ‘Euphoria‘ – a six-minute-long diss track that sees Lamar call the ‘Hotline Bling’ a “scam artist”, “master manipulator” and question his abilities as a father.
Lamar took to his Instagram today (May 3) – three days after the release of ‘Euphoria’ – to share a new track – ‘6:16 in LA’. The title of the track itself is a reference to Drake’s timestamp series, a grouping of songs in the rapper’s discography in which their title’s include a time and a location.
Featuring a slurry of synths at the beginning before jumping into a soulful boombap style beat, Lamar opens with “Who could reach this? Only God could teleport this type of freedom / My God, my confession is yours, but / Who am I if I don’t go to war? / There’s opportunity when livin’ with laws / I discover myself when I fall short / Raise my hands to a fallen sky, I fantasise / Me jumpin’ planets and mortal lies, I correspond.”
He goes on to rap: “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 is whispering that you deserve it / Can’t Toosie Slide up outta this one, it’s just gon’ resurface,” expressing his hatred for bullies and claiming the ‘Know Yourself’ rapper as a “terrible person”.
K.Dot then takes a moment to hit at Drake’s personal circle, claiming that some of them a want the ‘Headlines’ rapper “as a casualty”: “And one of them is actually next to you / And two of them is practically tired of your lifestyle, just don’t got the audacity to tell you / But let me tell you some game, ’cause I can see you my lil’ homie / You playin’ dirty with propaganda, it blow up on ya” – further alleging that one of the Canadian rapper’s closest people is part of the group that are hoping for his downfall – though it’s not immediately clear who, exactly, he’s referencing here.
Elsewhere in the track, Lamar also references Drakes LP ‘For All The Dogs’ saying: “Every dog gotta have his day, now live in your purpose.” He also reflects on his own life, admitting to living a “boring” one but being at peace. However, he adds that he can easily switch it up “if the world is ready to see you bleed.”
The track was posted on Instagram with a photo of a singular black leather glove with a Maybach logo on it as the artwork for the song. This may be in reference to Drake previously comparing his career to that of Michael Jackson in his verse on Future and Metro Boomin’s ‘Like That‘.
Lamar also ends the song with the line: “Before you figure that you’re not alone / Ask what Mike would do”. The ‘Swimming Pools’ rapper previously included a sample of a reversed Richard Pryor line from the 1978 fim The Wiz in ‘Euphoria’, leaving fans to speculate that it’s inculsion of the line from the film was another nod to Jackson as he was featured in The Wiz, portraying the character of the Scarecrow.
Drake first compared himself to Michael Jackson on his J. Cole collab ‘First Person Shooter’. Cole later responded with his own diss, ‘7 Minute Drill’, but he later apologised for it and pulled it from streaming.
Drake’s own response came in the form of ‘Push Ups’ and ‘Taylor Made Freestyle‘ but landed in hot water after he used AI to emulate Tupac Shakur‘s vocals, leading to the late rapper’s estate threatening legal action. He subsequently removed the track from streaming.
Despite Drake claiming that his rival had “nothing to drop” in response, Lamar fired back with ‘Euphoria’, addressing him directly for the first time.
Other musicians have since waded into the debate: Kanye West dropped his own remix of ‘Like That’, comedian Munya Chawawa released his own parody Lamar diss track and George The Poet called Lamar “a non-revolutionary cosplaying as a revolutionary”.
Drake recently replied to ‘Euphoria’ on his Instagram stories. The ‘Know Yourself’ rapper seemed to mock Lamar’s lyrics: “I’m the biggest hater / I hate the way that you walk, the way that you talk, I hate the way that you dress / I hate the way that you sneak diss, if I catch flight, it’s gon’ be direct” with a scene from cult romcom 10 Things I Hate About You.
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