Ab-Soul has admitted that he was “upset” with J. Cole after the two artists didn’t end up collaborating on the TDE artist’s 2022 Herbert album.
The Carson-raised rapper stopped by DJ Hed and Gina Views’ Effective Immediately on Tuesday (October 22), to discuss his career, and his relationship with Cole was raised.
He was asked about the “Pi” song and the context regarding it. He began: “Shout out to Cole … First of all, I was a little upset with Cole — not upset, but Cole was supposed to be on ‘Fuck Out My Face [FOMF].’ Cole is the homie. That’s what I wanna make clear to the whole world … I played him the album and he picked it … I bugged him about it, because I was tryna play the game at that point. It just didn’t come into fruition.
“I did this joint, me and Lyt [Daylyt] did this song ‘Pi.’ It’s Daylyt’s record and I said like, ‘Let’s collab. Let’s do a back and forth thing, a sparring segment … It’s called ‘Pi’ literally because when my and Daylyt’s song stopped, ended, it ended on 3:14. The length of the song. That’s where the title came about.”
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He added: “Soon after, I wake up one morning, he sent me the song. Cole on there going crazy. I’m like, ‘Wait, what?’ I’m low-key hot.”
He laughed while recalling wanting to be warned that Cole would be on their track. He added: “I called Cole immediately like, ‘Naw, bro!'”
Ab-Soul added that Cole said he “got in the spirit” and his “pen just started moving.”
He added: “I was like, ‘I respect that. That tell me too, Cole really an emcee emcee. I told him I was tryna play the game [with] ‘FOMF.’ Now it makes sense why he was more attracted to ‘Pi’ than ‘FOMF.’ That says a lot about him. All he had to do was a 12. He had the upper hand. I gave him the whole thing.”
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Check out the whole clip below, which begins at about the 49:30 mark.
Earlier this month, TDE president Terrence “Punch” Henderson cleared up claims that Ab-Soul dissed J. Cole on his latest song “Squeeze 1st 2.”
Arriving shortly after Cole’s own new track “Port Antonio,” the Crooklin-produced song hears Solo spit: “Metasota warned me they wanna war/ But actually they forfeiting.”
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Many fans interpreted the line as being about J. Cole backing out of his brief battle with Soul’s former TDE labelmate Kendrick Lamar earlier this year.
HipHopDX‘s Jeremy Hecht even posed a theory that “Squeeze 1st 2” was possibly a response to Cole featuring Ab-Soul on his Might Delete Later cut “Pi,” on which the Dreamville rapper seemingly took shots at K. Dot (“His album dropped, it was trash/ I litter it like I can’t spell it … I’m seeing hints of a trans fella/ In cancel culture’s vicinity, he’s no killer, trust me/ Beneath his chosen identity, there is still a pussy, period”).
However, Punch hopped on X (formerly Twitter) to shut down the speculation, saying: “I hate to clear up rumors, I usually let them fester and see how far they go, but ALL verses on Pi were recorded long before Like That,” referencing the Future, Metro Boomin and Kendrick collaboration that ignited the rap wars.
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He added: “When an emcee is in his or her ‘I’m the best’ bag, they’re usually dissing everyone and no one at the same time. It’s a part of the motif for most emcees. The lines are usually open ended and can apply to any other rapper. Unless it’s a specific reference.”
Punch then criticized the listening comprehension of rap fans: “Man, we might need a ‘how to listen to rap music’ guide book. Or App. It’s getting scary.”
