Back in May, Kendrick Lamar dropped his second Drake diss track, “6:16 In LA.” In it, he throws various jabs at the Toronto rapper, DJ Akademiks, and more. He even name-drops Kash Doll, which still has her perplexed. “F*ckin’ with good people make good people go to bat / Conspiracies about Cash, dog? That’s not even the leak / Find the jewels like Kash Doll, I just need you to think,” he spits.
During a recent appearance on The Joe Budden Podcast, she weighed in on the reference, revealing that she’s not entirely sure what it means. She recalled being bombarded with messages about it when Kendrick’s song first dropped, and shared some of the theories she’s heard about it. One is that it was a nod to her 2019 single “Ice Me Out.” Another is that it’s a reference to her being robbed of roughly $500K worth of jewelry. According to Kash Doll, some social media users even insisted it had nothing to do with her at all.
Kash Doll Wonders What Kendrick Lamar Meant By “Find The Jewels”
joe budden asking kash doll about Kendrick Lamar mentioning her in the drake beef in 6:16 in LA. Conspiracies about Cash, dog? That's not even the leak / Find the jewels like Kash Doll, I just need you to think pic.twitter.com/fhuZo3OIX0
Kash Doll explained how her mentions were flooded with news of the name-drop. At first, she says she was nervous to hear what was said about her. “Like Kendrick Lamar, what the f*ck he say?” she remembered thinking. “So I’m nervous, like, which way did this go? But I know I ain’t never did nothing or I haven’t even met Kendrick. So I’m listening to it and I’m trying to figure out, what did he say?” She went on, describing how she’s still surprised and confused by the whole thing.
Despite this, she thanked Kendrick for the unexpected shout-out. This reaction doesn’t necessarily come as a shock, as it appears to line up with a tweet she shared shortly after the song dropped. “Facts cause I’m tryna understand the lyrics lol,” she replied to a gif of a confused man at the time. “Where the music lyric geniuses at….”
DJ Akademiks reacted to Kendrick Lamar mentioning him on his Drake diss track, “6:16 in LA,” during a recent appearance on The Joe Budden Podcast. As the group listened to the song, Lamar rapped: “Yeah, somebody’s lyin’, I can see the vibes on Ak’ / Even he lookin’ compromised, let’s peel the layers back.” It resulted in everybody turning their heads to the livestreamer.
“Don’t look at me when that sh*t comes on,” DJ Akademiks joked. “Right before that line, I felt like the first half– because even when I was playing it off his Instagram, I played it like two minutes after he uploaded it, I was like, ‘This isn’t getting at Drake.’ It felt like it was something older that was already cooked up and right at that line, when he says something about the carcass and industry, even the vocal tone changes, and it feels like, ‘Now, I’m getting to the sh*t I wanna get to.’”
INGLEWOOD, CALIFORNIA – JUNE 19: Kendrick Lamar performs onstage during The Pop Out – Ken & Friends Presented by pgLang and Free Lunch at The Kia Forum on June 19, 2024 in Inglewood, California. (Photo by Timothy Norris/Getty Images for pgLang, Amazon Music, & Free Lunch)
Earlier in the show, they discussed Lamar’s lyrical prowess, at which time Akademiks praised him. “I don’t want to be rap beefing with no n**a who talking about sh*t like that,” he joked. The group then debated the importance of understanding what an artist is saying in their lyrics. In response to the clip, users on X (formerly Twitter) had mixed opinions. “The fact you have to look it up makes it MORE fire. Bc it does what hip hop has ALWAYS done throughout history. Teach inform and acknowledge,” one user wrote. Another countered: “Kendrick got idiots thinking they’re intellectuals listening to him.”
Akademiks Reacts To Kendrick Lamar’s Lyrics
Check out Akademiks’ latest remarks on the viral feud below. They don’t mark the first time Ak’s made headlines for discussing the two artists this week. He also went viral after theorizing that Lamar is using the same public relations team as Cardi B. Be on the lookout for further updates on DJ Akademiks, Kendrick Lamar, and Drake on HotNewHipHop.
Dj akademiks on the joe budden podcast talking about Kendrick Lamar mentioning him on the drake diss tracks . And ish talks about the Kendrick Lamar lyrics , he says if jay electronica said the same bars as kdot people would clown him pic.twitter.com/C7Iq6LhgUb
Kendrick Lamar seemingly made reference to his diss track, “6:16 in LA,” in the announcement video that he’ll be performing at Super Bowl LIX. “You gotta make sure you catch it with the hands open like that. We running real routes. You gonna be messing up,” he says in the video. Cole Cuchna caught the subtle reference in the latest episode of his Dissect podcast, noting that on “6:16 in LA,” Lamar raps, “Your lil’ memes is losin’ steam, they figured you out / The forced opinions is not convincin’, y’all need a new route.”
Fans on social media have been having mixed reactions to the ideas. “Some of these seem like reaches…Either that or Kendrick has done the best research papers as a kid in the history of school lol,” one fan on X (formerly Twitter) wrote. Another user theorized: “I thought the whole thing was Kendrick throwing the ball to his kid while sending shots at Drake then also parenting in itself sending a shot at Drake.”
Kendrick Lamar Films Music Video For “Not Like Us”
Watts, CA – June 22: Kendrick Lamar smiles alongside Jay Rock, center, in between filming for the music video for “Not Like Us” at Nickerson Gardens on Saturday, June 22, 2024 in Watts, CA. (Michael Blackshire / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
Elsewhere in the announcement video, Lamar more directly trolls Drake. “You know there’s only one opportunity to win a championship. No round twos,” he remarks at one point. The Toronto rapper had recently teased being ready for a “Game 2” with Lamar on his Instagram Story.
Fans Analyze Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl Announcement
JAY-Z played a key role in the NFL selecting Lamar to perform at the halftime show. Along with his Roc Nation company, he will serve as an executive producer of the event. “Kendrick Lamar is truly a once-in-a-generation artist and performer,” JAY-Z said in a statement. “His deep love for hip-hop and culture informs his artistic vision. He has an unparalleled ability to define and influence culture globally. Kendrick’s work transcends music, and his impact will be felt for years to come.” Be on the lookout for further updates on Kendrick Lamar and Super Bowl LIX on HotNewHipHop.
I never peeped the 50 yard line or caught that 616 ‘route’ callback! Leave this man alone aubrey pic.twitter.com/618qSWjk9J
Drake should probably stay offline for the next few hours, lest he find a jump scare with two of his rap beef rivals “teaming up.” Moreover, a new mashup of Pusha T and Kendrick Lamar’s diss tracks against him, “The Story Of Adidon” and “6:16 In LA” respectively, has hit the Internet, and The Boy’s haters are loving it. Of course, this is unofficial and is just an example of a fan having fun with these disses, but it does open up the convo around Push and K.Dot’s beefs once again. Many felt that the latter carried the former’s torch forward, whereas others expressed disappointment with their similar angles.
Furthermore, this comes as folks like DJ Akademiks expressed their belief that Kendrick Lamar is “milking” this Drake beef too much. “So my last thoughts on this is a pathetic attempt, I believe, by pgLang and TDE to try to bait Drake out,” DJ Akademiks posited. “Talking about ‘redemption is not off the table.’ N***a, listen, call me the spokesperson for Drake or OVO, but I can tell you, n***a. Drake is gonna drop amazing music, it’s gonna be good. If you think he gon’ keep going back and forth with that n***a calling him a pedophile and lying, he’s not. So move on, hurry along, and y’all go drop y’all music. See you n***as on the f***ing charts. That’s it, okay? That’s it. There’s no more conversation, that’s it.”
Regardless, this is one of many mashups involving Drake disses these days, and they probably won’t slow down anytime soon. It also comes amid new music rumors for both Kendrick Lamar and Drizzy, whereas Pusha T has also teased new material in the last few months. Whether the Toronto superstar chooses to go for a round two or not is a mystery, but it seems quite unlikely. If OVO waits out the storm, then pgLang will be the one to tire folks out first.
But that camp will also always have the joy of trolling Drake over his losses, which is exactly what mashups like these create online. Even if Kendrick Lamar and Pusha T never talked about him again, these connections entrench them in history too deeply. We doubt that either “The Story Of Adidion” or “6:16 In LA” will ever truly take the 6ix God down. But they sure do sound great together.
The rap beef that keeps on giving has both Kendrick Lamar and Drake fans reaching, denying, speculating, and continuing to decide on who won this exchange. However, many recent interpretations and conversations around K.Dot’s “6:16 In LA” diss against Drizzy are more concerned with admiration and creativity rather than victory… if a lick of them are true, that is. Moreover, spurred by a recent YouTube video from What’s The Dirt? about the track, many fans are currently running with a theory that the first part of this song (before Kendrick mentions DJ Akademiks) is actually a verse from Drake’s perspective.
First, a few opening arguments and allegations: to folks’ knowledge, Kendrick Lamar doesn’t own a Rolls Royce or a yacht. Drake does, yet Kendrick raps having or dismissing these on “6:16 In LA” in its opening moments. He also talks about tatted passports and asking where he’s from, whereas on “Meet The Grahams” he says that Aubrey goes to Turks to pop percs and has a lot of identity issues. Still, the mention of Estelle (presumably a family member of the Compton lyricist’s that he also mentioned on Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers) and some other lines that could equally apply to Kendrick (“Who am I if I don’t go to war?“) do serve as counter-arguments against this theory.
Kendrick rapping in the perspective of Drake in the first verse of 6:16 in LA never even crossed my mind and im shocked ian catch that cause yeah… he doesn’t rap about shit like that lmfaooo like at all.
— Damatré and Jermel’s Angel (@N3YYZ0N6) June 28, 2024
This whole breakdown is why anyone who said “Kendrick didn’t even say anything” “there were no bars” etc were only outing themselves as casual listeners that aren’t used to analysing well written lyrics. Anyone who loves rap knew that 6:16 in LA was insanely dense from the jump pic.twitter.com/Lu6j2Xpgtx
As such, the more likely scenario is that some elements of “6:16 In LA” are up for interpretation, and that Kendrick Lamar is drawing parallels between him and Drake and explaining how their choices concerning these comparisons are what make them different from one another. Overall, it seems like a bit of a reach, but the What’s The Dirt? video talks about a whole lot more than that. It’s definitely an interesting possibility to consider, and one that either provides more empathy for the 6ix God on Mr. Morale’s behalf or talks about Kendrick’s own conflicted feelings in this battle. At the end of the day, it’s just a theory.
Meanwhile, folks continue to debate over who’s the better rapper, and Kendrick Lamar and Drake have a lot of eyes on their next moves. “The Pop Out” happened, the Camila Cabello collabs are out, and we as fans are starting to move away from the obsession over the outcome. Now, we could go back and reevaluate the disses from a more appreciative and calm lens. Lord knows we needed some clarity and rest after this firestorm… but we’ll happily stay amid the flames if it musical discussion is to follow.
According to HITS Daily Double, across Lamar’s fiery tracks, in just this week (week ending 5/09), he supposedly pulled in an estimated $562,368. In the age of streaming, several musicians (such as Snoop Dogg) have expressed their frustrations with each platform’s pay model. On the flip side, for Lamar the feud has seemingly proven to be lucrative, specifically in relation to his streaming income.
“Not Like Us” alone reportedly grossed a total streaming revenue of $264,325 (58,739,000 counted streams). The second highest streamed (45,755,00) solo diss track from Lamar, “Euphoria,” is estimated to have earned $205,896. Lastly, with a total stream count of 20,478,00, Lamar’s “Meet The Grahams” supposedly brought in $92,147.
According to the outlet, the track to set it all off, Metro Boomin and Future’s “Like That,” also generated a pretty penny. With 29,978,000 counted streams, that track is estimated to have generated $134,900 in streaming income alone.
Now, these numbers could fluctuate based on Lamar’s royalty percentages (sound recording, mechanical rights, and the performance rights). Still, even if the final number dropped significantly, this is quite a massive payout for essentially airing out your grievances. Most people have to pay a therapist big bucks for that.
Artists sampled in Kendrick Lamar’s diss to Drake receive a streaming boost.
According to Billboard, Teddy Pendergrass’ “You’re My Latest, My Greatest Inspiration” saw a significant surge of 76% in streams, jumping from 76,000 from Apr. 26-29 to 134,000 from May 3-6, following its use at the beginning of “Euphoria.” Similarly, Al Green’s “What a Wonderful Thing Love Is” experienced a remarkable increase of 283% over the same time frame after being featured on “6:16 in LA.”
Additionally, “BBL Drizzy,” the King Willonius song sampled by Metro Boomin for his anti-Drake beat challenge, has seen a substantial rise in streams, soaring from a negligible amount at the end of April to 185,000 from May 5-6.
Al Green has acknowledged his sample on Kendrick Lamar’s “6:16 in LA.” Hitting X, Green dropped the title of the song sampled, tweeting, “What a Wonderful Thing Love Is.”
With the dust settling on “euphoria,” Kendrick dug into Drake’s bag of tricks and dropped a timestamp record, “6:16 in LA.”
In the song, Lamar acknowledges Drake and his OVO team are shook by the “euphoria” diss, evidenced by DJ Akademiks’s demeanor, who has been Drake’s mouthpiece throughout the beef.
Additionally, Lamar states that members of the OVO team are looking for Drake’s downfall and actually are working on his team.
“Everybody inside your team is whispering you deserve it Can’t Tootsie Slide out of this one it’s just gone resurface Every dog has its day, now live in yo purpose.”
By now, so many shots have been fired in the brutal rap beef between Kendrick Lamar and Drake that some of the disses have been completely buried. Kendrick’s “6:16 In LA” has been largely overlooked due to the track not being available on streaming platforms, though the song does have some incredibly scathing lyrics. The track premiered exclusively through Kendrick Lamar’s official Instagram account in the early morning hours of Friday, May 3, and ultimately served as the calm before the storm, with the harshest diss tracks of the entire feud releasing back to back later that very evening.
Now that the Kendrick Lamar and Drake beef seems to have at least slowed down, it’s worth revisiting “6:16 In LA” and discussing some of the best bars on the song. Without any further preamble, here are a few of the strongest lyrical showings on the diss.
Kendrick Prays & Comes From Love
Unlike some of the other tracks to come out of this feud, Kendrick Lamar opens up “6:16 In LA” with a few bars that aren’t direct insults or ad hominem attacks. Instead, “6:16 In LA” begins with the Compton rapper offering something of an explanation to both Drake and his fans as to why he’s engaging in this beef to begin with. He states, “Three angels watchin’ me all the time/ Put my children to sleep with a prayer, then close my eyes/ Definition of peace Tell me who gon’ stop me? I come from love/ Estelle cover my heart, then open me up.” Through these bars, Kendrick asserts that he has found peace within his life and enjoys quiet luxury and family values.
Familial and spiritual relationships rapidly became a focal point of the feud between Kendrick and Drake, as the PGLang founder has accused Drake of being a deadbeat father with no spiritual connection to god. Kendrick centers this lack of godliness with Drake’s many flaws and alleged lifestyle missteps and later commands the Toronto artist to seek therapy and look within.
Kendrick responds to some foul play within the music media industry in this track, arguing that Drake has streamers and podcasters on his payroll, including DJ Akademiks. He raps, “Yeah, somebody’s lyin’, I can see the vibes on Ak/ Even he lookin’ compromised, let’s peel the layers back/ Ain’t no brownie points for beating your chest, harassin’ Ant/ F*ckin’ with good people make good people go to bat.” Kendrick also takes this opportunity to defend his manager Anthony Saleh, whom Drake shaded multiple times on social media following his release of the track “Push Ups.” This lyric seems to be the last warning shot to Drake that things are about to escalate far beyond a simple showing of rap skill, as Kendrick takes issue with his opponent making the beef personal by calling out the people in his corner.
Kendrick first alluded to his willingness to take things further with lyrics such as “you a master manipulator and habitual liar too. But don’t tell no lie about me and I won’t tell truths ’bout you” on “Euphoria.” Kendrick later reiterated this position in the explosive song “Meet The Grahams,” where he raps, “This supposed to be a good exhibition within the game. But you f***ed up the moment you called out my family’s name. Why you had to stoop so low to discredit some decent people? Guess integrity is lost when the metaphors doesn’t reach you.”
Kendrick Claims To Have A Mole In The OVO Camp
Kendrick continues on the scathing record, “Are you finally ready to play have-you-ever? Let’s see/ Have you ever thought that OVO is workin’ for me?/ Fake bully, I hate bullies, you must be a terrible person/ Everyone inside your team is whispering that you deserve it.” This is one of the most fascinating bars in the entire beef, as Kendrick claims to have multiple moles within Drake’s camp who are only pretending to like Drake for his money and popularity.
At first, fans assumed this lyric was in place just to stoke Drake’s paranoia. Of course, the release of “Meet The Grahams” later that very evening seemed to confirm what Kendrick had to say in “6:16 In LA.” Kendrick seems to have had insider information regarding Drake’s next moves, as he was able to drop a diss record responding to Drake’s “Family Matters” in less than an hour’s time, with direct rebuttals to lyrics from the brand new song.
Kendrick caps this bar off with a flat and absolutely scathing “you must be a terrible person” which cuts directly to the core. Here, the former TDE signee confirms once again that this beef goes much deeper than rap and stems from his unabashed purported hatred for Drake as a man, an artist, and everything Drake represents.
Kendrick Is Too Boring In His Personal Life To Get Cancelled
By now, both sides have accused the other of scrounging around in the streets to dig up dirt. Kendrick and Drake have both levied some incredibly serious accusations at one another, though neither of them have provided receipts to fully back up the claims that they have made. Regarding this, Kendrick preemptively raps, “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/ But war-ready if the world is ready to see you bleed.” On these bars in “6:16 In LA,” Kendrick seems to confirm that Drake offered money to people who know him in his personal life in return for salacious gossip. Kendrick claims that Drake came up short on this front, as no such dirt exists.
Fans can assume that this is at least partially true, as Drake famously executed this strategy back in 2018 while trying to get back at Pusha T for the groundbreaking release of the diss record “The Story of Adidon.” Ultimately, Drake never managed to find any scathing dirt on Pusha T and never crafted a response to the record, essentially conceding the win to Push. Kendrick lives an incredibly private life and often refuses to make any of his personal business public, meaning it would likely be even more difficult to get any inside info on him.
In perhaps the most scathing bars of the entire track, Kendrick nears the conclusion of “6:16 In LA” with the lyrics, “Your entourage is only to hustle you/ A hundred 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.” Here, he suggests that Drake’s camp is full of disloyal opportunists, secretly rooting for his downfall. Kendrick takes things a step further, arguing that a large percentage of Drake’s so-called friends actually want him to outright die. The cover art of “Meet The Grahams” also confirms the suggestion that some of Kendrick’s moles are in extremely close proximity to Drake, featuring some of Drake’s personal belongings and even a few of his prescription medications.
While no hip hop fan wants to see this battle escalate into physical violence, Kendrick seems to be offering a stern warning to Drake throughout all of his diss records. The warning asks that Drake change his lifestyle and find god before something unfortunate happens to him, whether that means a possible assault from a rival rapper or even a loss of life.
Al Green has acknowledged his sample on Kendrick Lamar’s “6:16 in LA.” Hitting X, Green dropped the title of the song sampled, tweeting, “What a Wonderful Thing Love Is.”
With the dust settling on “euphoria,” Kendrick dug into Drake’s bag of tricks and dropped a timestamp record, “6:16 in LA.”
In the song, Lamar acknowledges Drake and his OVO team are shook by the “euphoria” diss, evidenced by DJ Akademiks’s demeanor, who has been Drake’s mouthpiece throughout the beef.
Additionally, Lamar states that members of the OVO team are looking for Drake’s downfall and actually are working on his team.
“Everybody inside your team is whispering you deserve it Can’t Tootsie Slide out of this one it’s just gone resurface Every dog has its day, now live in yo purpose.”
Today, Kendrick Lamar dropped yet another Drake diss amid their ongoing feud, “6:16 In LA.” Aside from jabs at the Canadian performer, the song includes references to DJ Akademiks, Kash Doll, and more. On it, he also warns Drizzy that not everyone on his time is actually rooting for him, instead suggesting that they’re working for him.
Of course, the unexpected drop has garnered major reactions from countless fans and peers alike. One person who’s kept fairly quiet on the matter, however, is Drake himself. Now, he’s taken to his Instagram Story with an apparent reaction, hinting that he doesn’t plan to go easy on Kendrick when his response drops.
To get his message across, Drake shared a snippet from the 2014 film The Equalizer. “I’m gonna kill each and every one of you,” Denzel Washington’s character says in the scene. “And the only disappointment in it for me is that I only get to do it once.” Obviously, Drake heard Kendrick loud and clear and is gearing up to fire back. At the time of writing, it’s uncertain when fans can expect to hear a response track from him.
He subtly hyped up his upcoming track today, however, liking a brief Instagram post from 50 Cent. “Oh sh*t it’s lit Kendrick went again, I heard Drake got a [bomb] waiting,” Fif’s post read. One of Drake’s producers Gordo also hinted at a hard-hitting reply, leaving a cryptic message in DJ Akademiks’ comments section. “The world is not ready,” he wrote. What do you think of Drake’s latest Instagram Story about Kendrick Lamar’s new diss track? Are you looking forward to hearing his response? Who do you think will come out on top? Share your thoughts in the comments section down below, and keep an eye on HNHH for more updates.
Damatré and Jermel’s Angel 
(@N3YYZ0N6) 
