J. Cole and Kendrick Lamar have been embroiled in a feud lately — but now the rivalry has reached a peaceful end, with J. Cole apologizing to Lamar, saying that he "felt terrible" and would pull his diss track from streaming services.
Performing on Sunday (April 7) at North Carolina's Dreamville Festival, Cole said his song "7 Minute Drill" was "the lamest shit I ever did in my fuckin' life" and admitted, "I damn near had a relapse."
In a lengthy monologue between songs, Cole said, "In my spirit of trying to get this music out, I ain't gonna lie to y'all — I moved in a way that I spiritually feel bad on me. Like I tried to jab my n— back, and I tried to keep it friendly. But, at the day, when I listen to it, and when it comes out and I see the talk, that shit don't sit right with my spirit. That shit disrupts my fuckin' peace."
He noted that he doesn't actually believe the things he rapped about but that his friends had been asking him to respond to Lamar by saying, "It's wartime."
He called Lamar "one of the greatest mother fuckers to ever touch a fucking microphone." He said, "Dreamville, y'all love Kendrick Lamar, correct? As do I. So I just want to come up here and publicly be like, bro, that was the lamest, goofiest shit."
The recent rap war started with Lamar's recent verse on Future and Metro Boomin's "Like That." Responding to the idea that Lamar, Drake and J. Cole make up the current "big three" of hip-hop, Lamar rapped, "Motherfuck the big three, n—, it's just big me."
This prompted a limp response from J. Cole on "7 Minute Dill," which featured the lines "He still doin' shows, but fell off like The Simpsons / Your first shit was classic, your last shit was tragic." He also suggested that 2015's seminal To Pimp a Butterfly "put n—s to sleep, but they gassed it." That simply isn't true!
Hear Cole's apology below. And go check out "7 Minute Drill" on streaming services now, since apparently it won't be there for long. It's appropriate, given that Cole's new mixtape is titled Might Delete Later.
While he's at it, how's about deleting that transphobic bar from "Pi"?
