Kendrick Lamar woke this morning feeling even more hate for Drake.
Just days after dropping his banger of a diss track, “euphoria,” Kendrick has come back for more.
Early Friday morning, Kendrick did what he always does and simply conveyed how he feels through his music. This time, it came in the form of another Drake diss track, titled “6:16 In LA.”
Hidden layers of “6:16 in LA.”
There are many layers to this song that need to be analyzed.
First, let’s talk about the title. It’s a timestamp record, which is something that Drake is known for naming songs where he plans on exercising his lyrical skills. Tracks like “5 Am in Toronto,” “6PM In New York” and “9AM In Dallas” come to mind.
Secondly, the track is co-produced by Sounwave and Jack Antonoff, according to Genius. Why is this notable? Because Antonoff is a producer and songwriter who works closely with Taylor Swift and has helped her craft some of her most recent and best work.
This is a direct response to Drake’s second diss track, which was titled, “Taylor Made Freestyle.”
Now let’s get to the numbers. The song is titled, “6:16 In LA.” If you turned that number into a date that would represent 6/16 or June 16th. This happens to be the day Tupac Shakur was born. It was also the day that the charges against O.J. Simpson were submitted in court, hence the gloves used as the cover art for the track.
Is this a reach? Possibly. But K-Dot is the type of artist where every detail needs to be analyzed. Just look at “euphoria.” That track dropped three days ago and people are still pulling out new info.
If we as hip-hop over-analyzed this, than so be it.
Notable lyrics
As always, no matter if he’s dissing his mortal enemy or just rapping for the fun of it, K-Dot is always going to give us meaningful lyrics.
In this case, he didn’t let up.
About halfway through the song, Kendrick says, “Yeah, somebody’s lyin’, I could see the vibes on Ak/Even he lookin’ compromised, let’s peel the layers back.”
This refers to DJ Akademiks, who has been the insider on nearly all the info about Drake and how he feels about this current beef between him and Kendrick.
Just a couple of bars later, Kendrick raps, “Are you finally ready to play have-you-ever? Let’s see/Have you ever thought that OVO was workin’ for me? Fake bully, I hate bullies, you must be a terrible person/Everyone inside your team is whispering that you deserve it.”
Kendrick suggests that there’s a mole in the 6 God’s camp, and says that this person is feeding him info.
To further that point, Kendrick also raps, “These images trouble you, know the wires in your circle should puzzle you/If you were street smart, then you woulda caught that your entourage is only to hustle you/A hunnid n****s that you got on salary, and twenty of ‘em want you 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.”
Those bars speak for themselves.
He also suggests that Drake sent people to find dirt on him, but came back with nothing by saying, “It was fun until you started to put money in the streets/Then lost money ‘cause they came back with no receipts/I’m sorry that I live a boring life, I love peace.”
K-Dot later adds: “You’re playin’ nerdy with Zack Bia and Twitter bots/But your reality can’t hide behind Wi-Fi/Your lil’ memes is losing steam, they figured you out/The forced opinions is not convincin’, y’all need a new route.”
Kendrick is now claiming Drake can’t hide behind the internet, and that the memes he’s been posting aren’t hitting like he thought they would. He also points out that he sees all the opinions people are spewing on social media about Drake, and sees they need to come up with a better argument.
The Compton MC sounds confident. It sounds like he has more in the tuck...this might just be a warning shot that Drake needs to be prepared to come back from.