A hater’s well never runs dry, and Kendrick Lamar‘s is overflowing. The rapper started this week off by letting Drake know just how much he hates him on the single “Euphoria,” released without warning on Tuesday morning. Drake knew the response was coming — in fact, he released two back-to-back singles urging Lamar to get in the booth. “Euphoria,” as it turns out, was only the beginning. On Friday morning, the rapper came back for more with another surprise release, “6:16 in LA.”
Rolling Stone confirmed that Jack Antonoff worked on the track. Lamar previously appeared on Swift’s “Bad Blood” remix in 2014, but the inclusion of Antonoff appears to reference Drake’s most recent diss track “Taylor Made Freestyle,” where he rapped: “Now we gotta wait a fuckin’ week ’cause Taylor Swift is your new Top/And if you ’bout to drop, she gotta approve/This girl really ’bout to make you act like you not in a feud/She tailor-made your schedule with Ant, you out of the loop.” Lamar’s longtime collaborator, Sounwave, also reportedly served as co-producer.
On “6:16 in LA,” Lamar tells Drake: “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.”
The reference to “Toosie Slide,” Drake’s attempt at sparking a TikTok trend in 2020, nods to some gripes that Lamar expressed on “Euphoria,” where he rapped: “I make music that electrify ’em, you make music that pacify ’em/I can double down on that line, but spare you this time, that’s random acts of kindness.”
A few hours after “Euphoria” was released, Drake referenced it in an Instagram Story. Responding to Lamar declaring “I hate the way that you walk, the way that you talk, I hate the way that you dress” with a scene from 10 Things I Hate About You, where Julia Stiles delivers the classic monologue that follows the same pattern: “I hate the way you talk to me and the way you cut your hair. I hate the way you drive my car. I hate it when you stare; I hate your big dumb combat boots and the way you read my mind.”
On “6:16 in LA,” Lamar makes a note of Drake’s affinity for memes, rapping: “You’re playin’ dirty with Zack Bia and Twitter bots/But your reality can’t hide behind Wi-Fi/Your lil’ memes are losing steam, they figured you out.”
The record also references the role of rap media personality DJ Akademiks in this ongoing fuel. After “Taylor Made Freestyle” was released and before it was removed following the threat of legal action from Tupac’s estate, Akademiks said that Drake sent him a text message noting, “I was waiting on Kendrick for years to go first … then I could actually drop … I was tryna come off tour and relax, and niggas fucked up my whole Feng shui.”
Akademiks’ reactions to the ongoing circus — often captured on livestreams, like the one he’s on right now as this is being written — have become an act within the feud, as Lamar notes: “Yeah, somebody’s lyin’, I could see the vibes on Ak’/Even he lookin’ compromised, let’s peel the layers back/Ain’t no brownie points will be on your chest/Harassin’ and fuckin’ with good people.”
Drake has yet to respond to either diss outside of his Instagram Story.
