After releasing a song last week that was directed at fellow rapper Kendrick Lamar, J Cole claims he “felt terrible” and has committed to remove the music from streaming services.
Cole’s song, titled “7 Minute Drill,” was an answer to Kendrick Lamar’s verse on the popular single “Like That,” where the rapper bragged about how great he was at rap.
Retaliating, Cole said that Lamar had “fallen off like the Simpsons” and referred to his most recent album as “tragic”.
However, Cole expressed regret for his “lame” and “goofy” remark in a speech on Sunday.”I ain’t gonna lie to y’all the past two days felt terrible,” he told an audience at the Dreamville Festival in North Carolina. “I damn near had a relapse”.
Calling the song a “mis-step” and expressing his desire to “get back to my true path,” he begged Lamar’s pardon.
The song “First Person Shooter” from last year, Cole’s suggestion that he, Drake, and Kendrick Lamar were the current “big three” names in hip-hop, set off the verbal spat.
Lamar objected to the portrayal. He declared there was no “big three – it’s just big me” in a heated line from the song Like That.
He continued by referring to Cole’s greatest verses as “a light pack” and saying that he was Drake’s Michael Jackson replaced by Prince.
‘War time’
Speaking on stage on Sunday, Cole said he had felt pressured to write a comeback.
“Y’all heard that bazooka that was dropped on the game, right? Boy, I must have had a thousand missed calls. Texts flooded.”
Friends and colleagues were calling it “war time” and said they wanted to “see blood,” he explained.
“I was conflicted because… I know how I feel about my peers, these two [rappers] that I’ve been blessed to even stand beside… But the world want to see blood.”
Although he tried to keep the tone of his verse friendly, the end result “didn’t sit right with my spirit”.
He went on to praise Lamar’s back catalogue, calling him “one of the greatest”, and hoping that he hadn’t taken offence.
“And if he did, I got my chin out. Take your best shot, I’ll take that on the chin.”
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Cole continued by promising to update or remove 7 Minute Drill from his most recent album when it was made available on streaming sites. But as of this writing, the original is still in tact.
Rappers taking back their controversial songs after they’ve been released is uncommon, but it does happen. Cole is actually not entirely unfamiliar with the phenomenon at this point.
When Cole’s career first began in 2011, seasoned New York MC Canibus dropped a song titled J Clone in which he called out the rising star for being disrespectful.
However, he released an apology video 48 hours later, declaring, “Hip-hop has spoken up loud and clear, it’s a ‘Cole world’ right now, and you’re reigning champ”.
“I take full responsibility for my actions and I apologise for stepping over the line. It comes off as tacky, unsophisticated, and it’s just not G. I love hip-hop too much to further justify my selfish behaviour.”
