The 15 Best Lines from Kendrick Lamar’s ‘6:16 in LA’

3 May, 2024

They say styles make fights.

What we’re seeing here are two rappers standing on top of the game at different sides of the spectrum. There’s Drake, the hitmaking machine who’s never backed down from a challenge. Then there’s Kendrick, the more complicated lyricist who’s managed to collect plaques without chasing commercial appeal, but someone who hasn’t been battle-tested like the person he’s currently in the ring with. This doesn’t mean Kung Fu Kenny isn’t familiar with the “Secretz of War“; he’s a student of the game, after all.

On “Taylor Made Freestyle” — the diss track Drake was forced to take down — Drake goes on a rant at the end, telling Kendrick he hopes he’s in the lab cooking up quintuple entendres. That’s just what Kendrick did on this latest diss track “6:16 in LA.” If you let the chatter online tell it, the title is a play on numerous things. One is an obvious play on Drake’s timestamp series. Another is a nod to Ice-T’s “6 ‘N the Mornin’.” But once you get into numerology games, you slowly start to resemble that Always Sunny meme with Charlie losing it in front of an evidence board trying to tie everything together.

Here’s a list of all the things the song title could maybe refer to:

– June 16 is Tupac’s birthday
– June 16 is Canadian Father’s Day
– June 16 was the series premiere of Euphoria
– June 16 was Nicole Brown’s funeral
– 6:16 can also be applied to various Bible verses (see Ephesians 6:16)
– This tweet
– The song features a sample of Al Green’s “What A Wonderful Thing Love Is”
- – Al Green once got hot grits poured on him in the morning.

All that, plus Jack Antonoff (frequent collaborator of Taylor Swift, oft-mentioned by Drake throughout this feud) produced the song alongside Sounwave — and the streets are even saying the cover art is a picture of Drake’s Maybach driving gloves.

We haven’t even gotten to the bars yet. We have to mention a line from “euphoria” first, though. Remember when Kenny spit, “‘Back To Back,’ I like that record/ I’ma get back to that, for the record”? Who knew he was talking about himself surprising everyone with another diss track so soon? The guy is an acrobat, the Simone Biles of Rap.

Below, we compiled a list of what we thought were the best lines off “6:16 in LA.” This was a diabolical showing from the King of the West. With rumors of a Whoo Kid disstape on the way, we await the King of the North’s next move. God, I love this game.