“6:16 in LA” is Kendrick Lamar’s second diss track directed at Drake in their public 2024 beef. It follows “euphoria,” which released three days prior. It first appeared on Kendrick’s Instagram page at 6:16 AM Pacific.

The song may have been “bait” for Drake to respond with his following diss track, “Family Matters,” to see if he mentioned Kendrick’s family. When he did, Kendrick dropped “meet the grahams” 57 minutes later. Notably, the lyrics suggest that Kendrick Lamar has an inside man within Drake’s team, giving Lamar information about Drake’s plans and activities. For example, on the verse Kendrick says:

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

The cover art for the song is cropped from a larger picture which originally served as cover art for “meet the grahams.” It featured a glove with the Maybach logo on it, a division of car manufacturer Mercedes-Benz, which shares a name with rapper Rick Ross’s music label, Maybach Music Group. Ross dropped a Drake diss track of his own in April 2024, titled “Champagne Moments.”

Kendrick initially threatened a second diss at Drake on “euphoria,” when he said:

‘Back To Back,’ I like that record
I'ma get back to that, for the record

In Drake’s infamous 2015 beef with Meek Mill, he dropped two disses aimed at Meek within four days—“Charged Up” and then “Back to Back”—not giving Meek any time to respond to his first punches in the fight.

The title of the track also plays off of Drake’s timestamp series, of which there have been seven installments in Drake’s discography at the time of this release. It follows a not-so-subtle titular jab at Drake in Dot’s previous diss track, as Euphoria is the title of the hit HBO Max series which Drake is an executive producer on; incidentally, Euphoria premiered on June 16, 2019.

June 16, 1994 is also the same date that the OJ Simpson murder trial was submitted in LA. This may add to the use of a single black glove on the cover art, since a glove was famously presented as evidence in the case.

The title may have several other potential meanings, whether intentional or purely coincidental, for example: June 16 is the birthdate of the late 2Pac, while Kendrick’s birthday falls on June 17; Father’s Day will fall on this day in 2024; June 16 was also the date of Kendrick’s first concert in Toronto. His 2011 tweet was even quoted by the founder of Twitter at the time, Jack Dorsey.

“6:16 in LA” was co-produced and co-written by Jack Antonoff, a pop producer known for his collaborations with Taylor Swift. Antonoff’s inclusion is likely a response to Drake’s “Taylor Made Freestyle,” where he said:

But 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

The instrumental samples Al Green’s October 1972 track “What a Wonderful Thing Love Is,” which features Drake’s uncle, Teenie Hodges, on guitar. Notably, the sample has been manipulated to sound similar to “Boi-1-da”—one of Drake’s in-house OVO producers.