Rapper J.Cole recently faced verbal lashes from industry giant Kendrick Lamar on "Like That," a track off of Future and Metro Boomin's WE DON'T TRUST YOU.
Cole had previously rapped on "First Person Shooter," a collaboration with Drake, "Love when they argue the hardest MC/Is it K-Dot? Is it Aubrey? Or me?/We the big three like we started a league."
K-Dot shut down any trifecta discourse himself with his appearance on Future and Metro Boomin's "Like That." Lamar boldly declared, "F--ck the big three/N--- it's just big me," erasing Drake and Cole from the picture entirely.
Drake responded to the "Like That" diss through posts on Instagram. Cole, meanwhile, returned with the pen as his sword when he released "7 Minute Drill," the final song on his surprise mixtape, Might Delete Later.
"7 Minute Drill," which is actually only three-and-a-half minutes long, is Cole's clapback to the "Silent Hill" rapper's original insults. He takes on a more upbeat production before the song switches halfway through into a sample of recalls Drake's "Energy," a hit off of his mixtape, If You're Reading This It's Too Late.
Cole fires shots at Lamar's discography, first praising good kid, m.A.A.d city as a "classic" before attacking the rest of the rapper's albums. He refers to 2022's Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers as "tragic" before rapping that the critically acclaimed To Pimp a Butterfly "put n---s to sleep, but they gassed it." He declares Lamar's DAMN as "massive" and his prime, but quickly follows up that Cole himself is now at "the front of the line with a comfortable lead."
The Dreamville rapper continues to take shots at Kendrick and his release schedule: "If he wasn't dissin', then we wouldn't be discussin' him," a nod to the rapper's relatively infrequent drops.
Cole elaborates that he doesn't really want to be doing this, "Don't make me have to smoke this n-- cause I f-- with him." Yet, if "push come to shove, on this mic, I will humble him," he chides, throwing one of Kendrick's own song titles back at him.
He details that his "text flooded with the hunger for a toxic reply" from presumed friends, family and fans who were hoping for a quick response to Lamar's "Like That" verse. Cole explains his complicated feelings towards dissing his fellow rapper, "I'm hesitant, I love my brother, but I'm not gonna lie/I'm powered up for real, that shit would feel like swattin' a fly."
Cole finishes off the track with a punctuated declaration that he "can drop two classics right now," opening the door for a response from Lamar.
What perhaps matters most is not Cole's diss itself, but the public's reaction to the track. The internet effectively cheered at Kendrick's original verse on "Like That," with hip-hop heads eagerly awaiting a response from either Cole or Drake. Twitter delivered mixed opions, with the phrases "Damn Cole" and "Nah Cole" both trending among hip-hop head circles.
One question remains: will Drake throw his lyrical hat into the ring?
