J. Cole has publicly apologized to Kendrick Lamar for dissing him on “7 Minute Drill” while performing at Dreamville Festival.
Walking back his lyrics about his longtime friend on the surprise song that was released on last week, Cole expressed regret about releasing the track.
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“I’m so proud of [Might Delete Later], except for one part. It’s one part of that shit that makes me feel like, man that’s the lamest shit I did in my fuckin’ life, right? And I know this is not what a lot of people want to hear,” he said to the crowd during his headlining set on Sunday night (April 7).
“I was conflicted because: one, I know my heart and I know how I feel about my peers. These two n-ggas that I just been blessed to even stand beside in this game, let alone chase they greatness. So I felt conflicted ’cause I’m like, bruh, I don’t even feel no way. But the world wanna see blood. I don’t know if y’all can feel that, but the world wanna see blood.”
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Cole went on to praise Kendrick: “That shit disrupts my fucking peace. So what I want to say right here tonight is in the midst of me doing that, trying to find a little angle and downplay this n-gga’s fucking catalog and his greatness, I want to say right now tonight, how many people think Kendrick Lamar is one of the greatest motherfuckers to ever touch a fucking microphone? Dreamville, y’all love Kendrick Lamar, correct? As do I.”
He continued: “I just want to come up here and publicly be like, bruh, that was the lamest, goofiest shit. I say all that to say it made me feel like 10 years ago when I was moving incorrectly. And I pray that God will line me back up on my purpose and on my path. I pray that my n-gga really didn’t feel no way and if he did, my n-gga, I got my chin out. Take your best shot. I’ma take that shit on the chin, boy. Do what you do.
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“All good. It’s love. And I pray that y’all forgive a n-gga for the misstep and I can get back to my true path. Because I ain’t gonna lie to y’all, the past two days felt terrible. It let me know how good I’ve been sleeping for the past 10 years.”
The Dreamville boss also said he would be taking the diss track off streaming services but at the time of writing it is still available on Spotify and Apple Music.
J. Cole’s apology was not well received by many in Hip Hop. Terrence “Punch” Henderson, the president of Kendrick Lamar’s former label Top Dawg Entertainment, simply wrote on X: “lol.”
Fellow TDE executive Moosa seemingly taunted Cole by posting a clip of OneRepublic’s hit “Apologize” along with the caption: “Sing.”
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TDE signee Reason expressed dismay by writing: “Idk man, I just….idk,” while Kendrick collaborator Terrace Martin appeared to imply that Cole is soft by tweeting: “Cotton ball.”
Hit-Boy also criticized the apology, writing: “It might be over for real shit. damn.”
Chicago MC Mick Jenkins was especially vocal in his disapproval, tweeting: “As a. rappers rapper. As a competitor. I am surprised. I am disgusted. I am disappointed.”
Brian “B.Dot” Miller, veteran Hip Hop journalist and co-host of the Rap Radar Podcast, joked: “might delete later, indeed.”
“7 Minute Drill,” the closing song on J. Cole’s Might Delete Later, came in response to Kendrick Lamar’s blistering verse on Future and Metro Boomin’s “Like That.”
That track, released two weeks earlier on Future and Metro‘s joint album We Don’t Trust You, found K. Dot taking thinly-veiled shots at both Cole and his “First Person Shooter” collaborator Drake.
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“Fuck sneak dissin’, first-person shooter, I hope they came with three switches,” he rapped over the Three 6 Mafia and Eazy-E-sampling production.
He also declared: “Motherfuck the big three, n-gga, it’s just big me” before issuing a menacing threat to Drizzy, who he has long been at odds with: “‘Fore all your dogs gettin’ buried/ That’s a K with all these nines, he gon’ see Pet Sematary.”
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Drake, for his part, has yet to directly respond to Kendrick’s verse, but he has made a number of comments that appear to address it.
During a show in Florida days after “Like That” dropped, the 6 God gave a defiant speech in which he claimed: “There’s not a n-gga on this Earth that could ever fuck with me in my life!”
