J. Cole. (Photo by Paras Griffin/Getty Images)
J. Cole doesn’t want any rap beef. Instead, he’s doubling down on his apology to Kendrick Lamar.
Cole, 39, took the title of his latest album, Might Delete Later, seriously by removing his now-infamous diss track about Lamar, 36, titled “7 Minute Drill,” from streaming services, according to Pitchfork. The song, which was originally the final track of Cole’s mixtape, is now absent from Spotify, Tidal and Apple Music as of Saturday, April 13.
“7 Minute Drill” included lyrics taking shots at Lamar such as, “He averagin’ one hard verse like every 30 months or somethin’” and “He still doin’ shows, but fell off like The Simpsons.” The decision to remove the song from streaming comes days after Cole publicly apologized for the diss track during his set at Raleigh’s Dreamville Festival on Sunday, April 7.
“I’m so proud of [Might Delete Later], except for one part,” Cole told the crowd last week. “It’s one part of that s—t that makes me feel like, man, that’s the lamest s—t I did in my f—king life, right?” Cole added that he “damn near had a relapse” due to the stress.
“The past two days have felt terrible. It let me know how good I’ve been sleeping for the past 10 years,” he said. The musician apologized for his “misstep,” asking for forgiveness to “get back to [his] true path.”
He concluded, “I want to say right now tonight, how many people think Kendrick Lamar is one of the greatest motherf–kers to ever touch a f–king microphone?” The question was met with cheers from the audience.
J. Cole. Photo by Prince Williams/Wireimage via Getty Images
Cole and Lamar have a long-standing rivalry, but their feud escalated in October 2023 after Drake and the “No Role Modelz” rapper dropped the song “First Person Shooter,” where they referred to themselves, plus Lamar, as the “big three” of rap.
For almost as long as the Grammys have existed, musicians have criticized the voting process, the nominations and the winners. Grammy disses have taken many forms over the years, but in the 21st century, much of the commentary has focused on the awards show’s history of excluding women and Black artists from the major categories. […]
Lamar, taking offense to this, fired back with his verse on Future and Metro Boomin’s song “Like That,” where he asserted that there was no “big three,” rapping, “It’s just big me.” (The song appeared on Metro Boomin and Future’s collaborative album We Don’t Trust You which dropped on March 22.)
On Friday, April 12, Cole appeared as a guest feature on the track “Red Leather,” which appeared on We Still Don’t Trust You, a sequel to Future and Metro Boomin’s March release. “Red Leather” is another 7-minute song, but this time, it appears to feature a swipe at Drake rather than Lamar.
