The American rapper J Cole has finally opened up about why he withdrew from a battle with fellow artist Kendrick Lamar.
On the song “First Person Shooter” from the previous year, Cole hinted that Drake, Kendrick Lamar, and himself were the current “big three” names in hip-hop.
But Lamar wasn’t in agreement with Cole. He stated that there was “no big three — it’s just big me” in his verse on the song “Like That.”
Additionally, he declared Cole to be the “Prince to Drake’s Michael Jackson” and referred to his best verses as “insubstantial”.
Cole responded to Lamar with the song “7 Minute Drill,” claiming that he had “fallen off like The Simpsons.”
He also called Kendrick Lamar‘s most recent album, “Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers,” “tragic” in the song.
In April, Cole apologised to Lamar for his “lame” and “goofy” response. He also said he had gotten “a thousand missed calls” and felt pressured to write a comeback.
In a recently released song titled ‘Port Antonio’, the Dreamville rapper defended his decision to step back from a rap battle with longtime friend Kendrick.
In the five-minute track released on Wednesday night, Cole argued that the people promoting the controversy wanted “blood” and publicity to profit from it.
“I pulled the plug because I’ve seen where that was ’bout to go / They wanted blood, they wanted clicks to make their pockets grow / They see this fire in my pen and think I’m dodgin’ smoke / I wouldn’t have lost a battle, dawg, I woulda lost a bro / I woulda gained a foe,” he raps.
