Just as the sun was rising on the East Coast this morning, Kendrick Lamar delivered yet another series of slanderous jabs towards Drake. Coming in at half the length of K-Dot’s initial diss, “Euphoria,” with less aggression and more soul via an Al Green sample, Kendrick dropped “6:16 in LA.”
While the impromptu track, released solely on Instagram on Friday (May 3), contains a plethora of symbolism, there are also very notable and meticulously crafted takeaways as well. Take a look below to find out the deciphered meanings within “6:16 in LA.”
1. Kendrick Thinks Akademiks Is Compromised
On Kendrick’s latest offering, he suggests that DJ Akademiks is compromised. This can hold various meanings such as vulnerable or untrustworthy. Either way, on the bars: “Yeah, somebody’s lyin’, I could see the vibes on Ak’/Even he lookin’ compromised, let’s peel the layers back,” K-Dot has presumably brought Akademiks into the fold due to his relationship with Drake and his ties to the rappers’ feud. And due to Akademiks‘ involvement in the beef—he’s shared info from Drake directly to Ak’s streaming audience—Kendrick thinks Drake has made himself susceptible to any disses formed against him.
Akademiks has been a figure within the Drake and Kendrick diss war, with Ak being the source to confirm the non-leaked version of “Push Ups,” and using his platform to offer other beef-related insight. After the track initially made its way online somehow, Akademiks premiered a higher quality version of the cut via his livestream. A week later, Drizzy dropped “Taylor Made Freestyle,” an A.I.-generated record featuring the voices of Tupac Shakur and Snoop Dogg. Drake hit Ak’s line directly after the rapper shared the song on Instagram.
Despite Kendrick’s stance on Ak’s position, Akademiks questioned the truth behind this on livestream.
2. There’s Possibly a Mole in Drake’s OVO Crew
Kendrick insinuates that there’s someone within Drake’s OVO camp that is secretly betraying the Toronto rapper and providing intel to his opps. “Are you finally ready to play have-you-ever?/Let’s see Have you ever thought that OVO was workin’ for me?” he raps.
K-Dot isn’t the first artist to make a similar statement. During Drizzy’s beef with Pusha T, the Virginia rapper said the information he received about Drake having a son came from Drizzy’s go-to producer, Noah “40” Shebib. Most recently, The Weeknd, who also has static with Drake, suggested that Aubrey has “leaks” in his operation on the song “We Still Don’t Trust You,” which is the title track on Metro Boomin and Future album of the same name.
3. Kendrick Trolls Drake Using Connections to Taylor Swift
On Drake’s “Push Ups,” he references Taylor Swift’s fan base, the Swifties. Fast-forward to today, Kendrick has trolled Drake and connected those dots by reportedly getting Swift’s main producer, Jack Antonoff, to coproduce “6:16 in LA” with beatmaker Sounwave. This is also a pun aimed at Drake’s second diss towards Kendrick, “Taylor Made Freestyle,” which Drizzy later removed from his Instagram page after being hit with threats of a lawsuit from Tupac’s estate for including an A.I.-generated version of ’Pac’s voice.
4. Kendrick Name-Drops Zack Bia and Accuses Drake of Using Bots
K-Dot fearlessly mentions socialite Zack Bia, when accusing Drake of conspiring with Bia to tarnish Kendrick’s reputation. Within these lines on the diss, Kendrick also ridiculed Drizzy for his alleged use of Twitter bots to slander Kendrick’s name. Following the rap beef between Drake and Pusha T, Push’s name and likeness were maliciously attacked by random bots as well.
5. The Big 3 Reference Pops Up in a Different Way
It’s worth mentioning that Kendrick potentially referenced The Big 3 of himself, Drake and J. Cole on this line: “Trifecta: money, morals, and culture, that’s my leisure.” Some rap fans suggest the money refers to Drake, morals are connected to Cole due to him bowing out of the feud and apologizing for his “7 Minute Drill” Kendrick diss then removing it from DSPs, and culture for Kendrick. On “Euphoria,” Kendrick emphatically stated that his dissecting of Drizzy’s flaws were sentiments of the overall rap culture.
6. K-Dot May Think He’s a God
On the bar, “The Elohim, KTW, no you can’t sleep,” Kendrick references Elohim, a name for God often used in the Hebrew Bible. While there is some debate as to what KTW exactly means, some have surmised that K-Dot is referring to himself as a God, or even a God of rap, and specifically referenced Elohim because Drake is of Jewish faith.
7. Al Green Song Is Sampled
Kendrick Lamar’s song sample of choice for “6:16 in LA” is “What a Wonderful Thing Love Is” by Al Green. The significance of this is that Drake’s uncle, Mabon “Teenie” Hodges, was the guitarist and a songwriter for Al Green. Hodges, who was Drake’s father’s brother, died in 2014.
8. A Closing Mention of Michael Jackson
Kendrick capped things off with another Michael Jackson reference, a mention that also appeared in his initial verse on Metro Boomin and Future’s “Like That.” K-Dot rhymes on “6:16 in LA”‘s final bar: “Ask what Mike would do?” On “Like That,” Kendrick likened himself to Prince and Drake to MJ, rapping, “N***a, Prince outlive Mike Jack.” Both pop stars were iconic, but the fact was that Prince’s career exceeded Michael Jackson’s. Since Drake tied Michael Jackson’s record for the most No. 1 singles last year, he’s been connecting himself to the King of Pop ever since.
