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Kendrick Lamar surprised the rap world by hurling another bomb in Drake’s direction with “6:16 in LA” arriving on Friday (May 3).
The Al Green-sampling Drake diss track has yet to hit streaming services and is currently only available on Kendrick Lamar’s Instagram, but that didn’t stop fans from going ballistic Friday morning heading into the weekend.
K. Dot accuses Drake of having traitors inside the OVO camp leaking information to the opposition while name-dropping 6 God affiliates like Akademiks and Zack Bia.
“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 out of this one, it’s just gon’ resurface,” Lamar raps.
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Fans, critics and more flooded social media with opinions of Kendrick’s surprise attack, with “6:16” arriving just three days after the scathing “Euphoria,” which served as the Compton legend’s response to Drake’s “Push Ups” diss.
“Kendrick don’t give two sh–s about you needing a club banger… This rider music. Underground rap fan heat,” Hot 97 host Ebro Darden wrote.
Another person saluted Akademiks being name-dropped on tracks by both sides in the war. “Akademiks being mentioned by both Drake and Kendrick Lamar in diss records is legendary. He’s apart of HipHop history, even if you love him or hate him, thats objectively a win for independent media,” they wrote.
While Spotify’s Carl Chery added: “Every now and then I hear people say Kendrick is too high brow and his lyrics are too hard to understand. I heard it a few times in the context of this battle. This is rap. You guys just have a low rap IQ.”
Some fans were left with their jaws on the floor after finding out that Taylor Swift’s frequent collaborator Jack Antonoff was a co-producer on “6:16 in LA.” (Drake poked at Lamar for working with Swift on “Push Ups.”) “So this track literally is Taylor Made Okay Kendrick I see you,” one Drake fan said on X.
The debate about who’s winning the Drake-Kendrick war is sure to rage on well into the weekend as fans await the 6 God’s next move — which better be his best move — in the battle.
Find more of the reactions to “6:16 in LA” below.
Kendrick don’t give two shits about you needing a club banger…This rider music.Underground rap fan heat.— the Old Man Ebro (@oldmanebro) May 3, 2024
The title of ‘6:16 in LA’ might be the QUINTUPLE entendre that Drake asked for 🤯🤯• Kendrick Lamar drops the song at exactly 6:16am• 16th of June 2024 is father’s day in Canada• 16th of June 1972 Tupac Shakur was born• 16th of June 1994 OJ Simpsons murder trial… pic.twitter.com/q7sUA33Vat— Hip Hop All Day (@HipHopAllDayy) May 3, 2024
This may be the last era of battle rap we see at a mainstream level. A lot of the new rappers solve their beef in the streets or they don’t care lyrically enough to engage. We gotta enjoy Drake & Kendrick while they here— Naji (@NajiChill) May 3, 2024
looked deeper into the lyrics and found that kendrick lamar rushed for 616 yards during the first super bowl that was ever played on june 16, 1916his QB? that’s right — jesus christ.— charles (“you look good” – andy reid) mcdonald (@FourVerts) May 3, 2024
Unlike many, I don’t think Kendrick even hates Drake. I think he just don’t take that nigga serious and is offended that somebody so lame is still walking around like they’re not a lame because they got bread and relationships they essentially paid for. We all know one of those.— Lawrence Burney (@TrueLaurels) May 3, 2024
drake’s been rapping about his paranoia for years and years now and then kendrick drops a diss entirely of telling him “yeah your entire inner circle hates you and is giving me information” LMFAO— 💆🏽♂️ (@ziyanm_) May 3, 2024
Kendrick is living the dream of everyone who hates someone but didn’t really have a reason to go off until the person he hated opened his mouth.— Joel D. Anderson 🆓 (@byjoelanderson) May 3, 2024
The craziest thing about that Kendrick song is Drake’s uncle is playing guitar on that Al Green song he sampled to diss him on. That’s extremely calculated on top of all of the other entendres.— LAKIM (@LAKIMisAlive) May 3, 2024
Drake really want to diss everybody again. Kendrick life boring as hell. I know he got some shit on the rest of them. That 20 v 1 narrative was a winning strategy.— 🗝®️ (@MADEREESE) May 3, 2024
If your girl believes Drake is winning right now, keep her. She’s a real a dummy🤣— MrMajestrix (@MrMajestrix) May 3, 2024
Still tied, but Drake has the edge. 2-2— Fw (@Relly__1) May 3, 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 […]
Kendrick Lamar went back-to-back with the release of “6:16 in LA” taking aim at Drake once again on Friday (May 3).
Produced by Sounwave and Jack Antonoff, fans quickly picked up that the eviscerating diss track sampled Al Green’s “What a Wonderful Thing Love Is.”
The Willie Mitchell-produced song originally landed on Green’s I’m Still in Love With You Album, which was released in October 1972 and peaked at No. 4 on the Billboard 200.
The soul singer took advantage of the spotlight by tweeting out the YouTube link to his sampled track. “What a Wonderful Thing Love Is,” he simply wrote to X on Friday.
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Plenty of fans flooded Al Green’s replies urging the “Let’s Stay Together” artist to clear the sample so “6:16 in LA” could properly land on streaming services. It’s still unclear if he cleared the sample for further commercial use.
Kendrick isn’t the only rapper to sample “What A Wonderful Thing Love Is,” as Kanye West previously used it on “Out the Game,” which landed on Consequence’s Take ‘Em to the Cleaners mixtape om 2004.
There’s even a deeper Drake connection to “What a Wonderful Thing Love Is.” As pointed out by Complex, the original 1972 track’s credits find Mabon “Teenie” Hodges playing the guitar, who is a relative of Drake’s.
Kendrick Lamar continues to be well-calculated while throwing punches in Drake’s direction as he’s now dropped a pair of nuclear bombs on the 6 God. Three days after his scathing “Euphoria” diss, Kendrick unleashed the “6:16 in LA” track firing away at Drake and accusing him of having a leak in the OVO camp.
“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 out of this one, it’s just gon’ resurface,” he raps.
Following the release of “Push Ups” and the “Taylor Made” freestyle, Drake has now received a two-pack combination of disses courtesy of K. Dot. The ball’s now in Drizzy’s court with the rap world awaiting his rebuttal in what will be a pivotal moment in the boiling feud.
Listen to “6:16 in LA” below.
One might say Kendrick Lamar’s “6:16 in LA” is “Taylor Made.” A rep for Jack Antonoff confirmed to Billboard that the Bleachers frontman and frequent Taylor Swift collaborator worked on K. Dot’s latest Drake diss track.
Antonoff co-produced the seething “6:16 in LA” alongside Lamar’s in-house beat maestro Sounwave. (Variety was first to report that Antonoff co-produced the track.) The rapper uploaded the Al Green-sampling diss taking aim at the 6 God to his Instagram account on Friday morning (May 3).
In the track, Kendrick continued his psycho-analyzation of Drake while accusing OVO of having leaks in its camp. “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 out of this one, it’s just gon’ resurface,” he raps.
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Lamar continued to hammer home allegations of betrayal behind Drake’s back while spewing: “100 n—as that you got on salary/ and 20 of them want you as a casualty/ and one of them is actually/ is next to you / and two of them is practically tied to your lifestyle.”
Kendrick shared the track on social media with the cover art featuring a black Maybach glove. Fans began to speculate the meaning behind “6:16,” and some brought upon theories of June 16 being 2Pac’s birthday. Drake used AI-assisted Pac vocals in his “Taylor Made” freestyle, which he deleted from social media following a cease-and-desist from the late rapper’s estate.
Others pointed to June 16 being Father’s Day in Canada this year, while producer 9th Wonder reminded fans via X that HBO’s Euphoria debuted on that day in 2019. Drake served as an executive producer on the show, which also doubled as the title of Kendrick’s first diss targeting Drizzy earlier this week.
“6:16 in LA” arrives three days after K. Dot dropped his scathing “Euphoria” diss, and the 6 God is yet to officially respond.
However, Drake appeared to react to “Euphoria” by posting a clip from the 1999 rom-com 10 Things I Hate About You on Instagram, and hinted at his retort while leaving the stage after a surprise appearance at Nicki Minaj’s Toronto stop on the Pink Friday 2 World Tour on April 30. “You know what time it is — you know what I have to do,” he cryptically said at the time.
Antonoff’s work on “6:16” comes as a surprise, and serves as his first collaboration with Kendrick Lamar. Earlier this month, he helmed Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department as the primary producer; the record-breaking album arrived on April 19.
Listen to “6:16 in LA” below.
Gunna season has arrived just in time for the summer. The YSL rapper unleashed the second single from his anticipated One of Wun album on Friday (May 3), as “WhatsApp (Wassam)” hit streaming services.
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Gunna reconnects with frequent collaborator Turbo for a slippery chorus, which Turbo tells Billboard is inspired by a six-figure wire transfer the rapper received to perform at a private party.
“Man, wassam/ They sent the wire through WhatsApp (WhatsApp)/ Hope ain’t nobody to cuss at/ S–t changed but it still get pushed back/ I drop, make these little n—as push back,” Gunna raps.
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“WhatsApp (Wassam)” serves as the second single from Gunna’s upcoming album, following the Offset-assisted “Prada Dem.” Gunna also announced that One of Wun is slated to land next Friday (May 10).
“What’s app (wassam) @turbothegreat One of Wun May 10th,” he wrote on Instagram alongside an accompanying clip from the unreleased music video featuring Gunna having a conversation on the phone with Turbo the Great.
One of Wun contains 20 tracks, including the two previously released singles. Prior to the album’s arrival, Gunna will hit the road in support of the LP with The Bittersweet Tour kicking off this weekend in Columbus, Ohio.
Produced by Live Nation, the 16-date trek will make stops in Chicago, Houston, Miami, Denver, Seattle and more major markets before wrapping up with a hometown show at Atlanta’s State Farm Arena.
Gunna’s last album, A Gift & a Curse, was released in June 2023 and served as his first since being released from jail. The effort arrived free of features and topped Billboard‘s Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart, and peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard 200.
Listen to “WhatsApp (Wassam)” below.
Mariah the Scientist has been arrested on battery charges for an alleged incident that took place at a nightclub in Atlanta. TMZ was first to report the news.
The singer — born Mariah Buckles — was booked on Wednesday (May 1) on misdemeanor battery and simple battery charges, according to the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office. Jail records show that the artist has since posted a $5,000 bond.
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Billboard has reached out to Mariah the Scientist’s reps and attorney.
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According to legal documents obtained by Billboard, Mariah is accused of intentionally causing “bruises and cuts” and “visible bodily harm” to a woman on the night of March 28. The documents say the “Aura” singer allegedly made “physical contact of an insulting or provoking nature” by “grabbing [the victim’s] wig and pulling her to the ground.”
In the Atlanta Police Department’s incident report obtained by Billboard, the victim went to the Zone 2 precinct on March 29 and claimed that a “female grabbed her by her wig and pulled the wig off her head,” then “proceeded to drag her on the table and floor.” The victim said in the police report that she wasn’t wearing her glasses at the time, so was unable to ID her attacker, but later learned that it was Mariah the Scientist, and told police that the alleged incident had been posted to social media. The victim also told law enforcement that in addition to having her wig removed, “she suffered minor scratches on her feet from being dragged while she was wearing heels.”
In the incident report, the reporting officer noted that a call was made to Mariah the Scientist, who said that the night of the alleged incident, she and the club owner had gone over “to talk to the victim and the victim threw a drink at her.” According to the report, Mariah then claimed “a friend that was with the victim swung at her and missed, so she grabbed the victim and friend and the table broke and they all ended up on the ground.”
The victim said “that she never threw anything at the suspect and never touched the suspect,” according to the police report.
As part of Mariah the Scientist’s bond order, in addition to paying the $5,000 fine, she is ordered to have no contact with the victim and will have to stay away from Club Cavo in Atlanta, where the alleged altercation took place. The 26-year-old will also have to take and pay for an anger management class, and may not consume any alcohol or drugs, or possess weapons.
The artist is slated to wrap up her 45-date To Be Eaten Alive Tour in Atlanta on Friday night (May 3), with a show at the Tabernacle.
After a scorching round one display from Kendrick Lamar earlier this week with “Euphoria,” the pgLang stalwart is doubling down and taking a page out of Drake’s book by going “Back-to-Back” with his latest diss track, “6:16 in LA.” Released early Friday morning (May 3), Lamar charges Drake with a barrage of attacks about having […]
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4batz has finally dropped his debut mixtape U Made Me a St4r on Friday (May 3). The mixtape features previously released singles “Act I: Stickerz ’99,’” “Act II: Date @ 8,” “Act III: On God (She Like),” and “Act V: There Goes Another Vase.” Drake hopped on the remix for his viral smash “Act II: […]
The Game is not impressed with the current rap feud between Drake and Kendrick Lamar.
The Compton rapper — who has been in his fair share of rap beefs — reacted to a tweet from The Joe Budden Podcast co-host Officially Ice in which he says he wants someone to go at The Game so we fans “can see what a proper diss record looks like.”
The Game responded, saying that the reason no rappers go at him is because his “level of disrespect has no limit” and he can “actually rap rap.” Moreover, he says that the rap game overall is not the same as the one he came into because fans are unable to objectively pick a winner. Instead, he says, “fans gone choose up with whatever artists is currently safe for the culture to love.”
He then goes on to blame J. Cole for turning a rap game that he views as watered down into “Kool-Aid [with] no sugar” because he apologized to Kendrick Lamar onstage of the 2024 Dreamville Festival. His comments must have struck a nerve, because the West Coast MC doubled down in his Instagram Stories, saying, “Idk who softer these days these rap n—s or the rap fans.”
That said, many fans agreed with Game’s sentiment. The wrinkle of songs possibly being AI have made things equally interesting and annoying. Also, the way music is consumed today has given fans the expectation that diss tracks should be recorded and sent out ASAP. Then there’s J. Cole’s apology, which rubbed listeners and some of his peers the wrong way. All of these variables have turned many fans off of the whole beef.
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The Game took a more diplomatic approach to the Drake and Kendrick beef when talking to HipHopDX in 2022. In an interview about his Drake-featuring single “100,” The Game, when asked who he got, said, “I don’t know, man. Kendrick is just too f—ing incredible. And then Drake is so dope too. I mean, I would just like to be a fan of the moment and sit back and watch two of the greatest artists of all time have a go,” he answered when asked who would win in a battle.
The Game has beefed with a plethora of rappers throughout his career, including 50 Cent, Eminem, Jay-Z, Joe Budden, Young Thug and many more.