Why did J. Cole apologize after dissing Kendrick? For the uninformed, Kendrick Lamar disses Drake and J. Cole on the song “Like That” with Metro Boomin and Future. But first, Drake and J. Cole came out with a song called “First Person Shooter,” where Cole referred to himself as Drake and Cole as the big three. “Is it K-Dot? Is it Aubrey? Or me?
We, the big three, like we started a league.” This verse implies how J.Cole and Drake view themselves as the big three of the current rap game. Still, Kendrick took what they said personally and responded, “Motherf##k the big three, n###a, it’s just big me.” He also comes after the two with this lyric: “F##k sneak dissin’, first-person shooter, I hope they came with three switches.” In these lyrics, Kendrick was proving he was better than the other two, coming for their throats instead of trying to sneak the disses in his lyrics. He also told them they needed to watch their mouths because he would return bigger and better.
Recently, J. Cole dropped an album called “Might Delete Later.” Overall, it was a short project, but it was good. But on this album, there was a track called “7 Minute Drill” where J. Cole responds to Kendrick’s diss. In the song, he takes shots at Kendrick’s work, saying, “Your first s##t was classic, your last s##t was tragic. Your second s##t put n###as to sleep, but they gassed it. Your third s##t was massive, and that was your prime.” Here Cole is referring to Kendrick’s first three albums, “Section.80”, “good kid, m.A.A.d City,” and “To Pimp a Butterfly.” To go into further detail, Cole was honoring Section.80 as a classic album of Kendrick’s and his newest releases, “Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers,” a lackluster album compared to the rest of his discography. But m.A.A.d City was overrated, and it didn’t live up to the hype as his first studio album did finally, To Pimp a Butterfly, Cole deemed this album a commercial success and the prime of Kendrick’s career. Cole also came after Kendrick, saying, “He averagin’ one hard verse like every thirty months or somethin’.” When Cole said this, he was referring to how inconsistent Kendrick is when dropping music and trying to appease his fans. This isn’t all, though.
Just recently, J. Cole apologized to Kendrick while performing at the Dreamville festival. Cole felt some regret about dissing Kendrick. He even mentions it in “7 Minute Drill,” saying, “Lord, don’t make me have to smoke this n###a ’cause I fuck with him.” He took back what he said in the song because J. Cole messes with Kendrick personally. He thought it was lame even to diss him. Cole also felt he was being tested after Kendrick came out with that diss. He had the world and his friends on his back, saying how will you respond? What are you going to do, Cole? It’s time for war, man. Cole feels conflicted because he genuinely does idolize Kendrick and Drake. He feels honored to work beside them and compete against them in this rap game. Cole felt no way towards Kendrick’s diss, but the world wanted to see a war between the three and all the great disses that would come from each respective artist. All Cole was trying to accomplish was a friendly jab back at Kendrick, but the world was making it seem like these individuals really disliked each other, and Cole said it didn’t sit right with him that they perceived it as that. At the end of the day, I hope the big three stay relatively connected, and I hope they do produce good, friendly jabs back and forth with each other. J. Cole shouldn’t have publicly come out and said that he apologized for dissing Kendrick. It’s all a friendly rivalry in the end, but I feel like he shouldn’t have shown weakness and kept to himself.
