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Kendrick Lamar · S8 E3
6:16 in LA
The response cycle accelerates. Kendrick drops at dawn, Drake fires back by nightfall
May 3, 2024, 6:16 AM Pacific Time. Kendrick drops a diss track while most of Los Angeles is still asleep, and by the time Drake wakes up, the internet has already picked a winner.
Kendrick Lamar, Not Like Us & tv off (Super Bowl LIX Halftime Show, 2025). Less than a year after the beef, Kendrick performs the diss tracks that ended it on the biggest stage in the world. 130 million people watching, and he doesn't flinch. This is what winning a rap beef looks like.
The Super Bowl Halftime Show (2025)
Kendrick performed Not Like Us and tv off back to back at the Super Bowl, turning diss tracks into victory laps in front of the largest live television audience in American music. The production was stripped back compared to typical halftime spectacles: no pyrotechnics, minimal guest appearances, just Kendrick and Compton on stage. Listen for how the crowd reacts to the first notes of Not Like Us. That roar is the sound of a culture declaring a winner.
Sources
Apple Music Super Bowl LIX Halftime Show, February 2025
The Fastest Beef in History
The exchange between Kendrick and Drake in late April and early May 2024 was unlike anything hip-hop had seen. Tracks were dropping every few days, sometimes hours apart. Drake released "Push Ups" and "Taylor Made Freestyle." Kendrick responded with "euphoria," then "6:16 in LA," and the cycle was so fast that fans were refreshing streaming platforms at 3 AM.
Sources
Complex, Billboard, various, April-May 2024
TAP TO REVEAL: What does "6:16 in LA" refer to?
“6:16 in LA. I wake up, it's already done. That's how fast this man was working.”
— Rick Ross commenting on Kendrick's pace during the beef, Instagram, May 2024
How many diss tracks did Kendrick release between March and May 2024?
wacced out murals, Kendrick Lamar (2024)
The opening track of GNX, released six months after the beef. Kendrick reflects on the aftermath: the destroyed murals, the shifting alliances, the cost of going to war. Where "6:16 in LA" is pure adrenaline, this is the morning after. The beat is moody and introspective, Kendrick taking stock of what he won and what it cost.
wacced out murals, Kendrick Lamar (2024)
Read the lyrics while you listen. Kendrick opens GNX by addressing the beef's collateral damage. The title references real murals that were defaced during the conflict. His tone has shifted from the diss tracks: less fury, more reflection.
The Timeline
The tracks keep coming, but on May 4, Kendrick changes the rules entirely. Instead of another diss, he writes four letters: to Drake's son, Drake's mother, Drake's father, and finally Drake himself. Next: Meet the Grahams.
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