J. Cole has weighed in on the high-profile Drake and Kendrick Lamar feud on his surprise new single, ‘Port Antonio’.
Back in April, Lamar and Drake went head to head in a scathing rap battle after the former called out the Canadian rapper and Cole on Future and Metro Boomin’ ‘Like That’. The ‘No Role Modelz’ star did originally reply with ‘7 Minute Drill’ on the mixtape ‘Might Delete Later’, but retracted the diss track and apologised swiftly after.
On Wednesday (October 9), the LaFayette native surprised fans by dropping ‘Port Antonio’, which samples Lonnie Liston Smith’s ‘A Garden of Peace’ and Cleo Sol‘s ‘Know That You Are Loved’. Cole defended his decision to step back from the conflict on the five-minute track.
He rapped: “I pulled the plug because I seen where that was ’bout to go / They wanted blood, they wanted clicks to make they 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 then commented on the savage allegations Drake and Lamar exchanged on their respective diss songs: “Jermaine is no king if that means I gotta dig up dirt and pay the whole team / Of algorithm bot n****s just to sway the whole thing / On social media, competing for your favourable memes to be considered best.”
“I understand the thirst of being first that made ’em both swing / Protecting legacies, so lines got crossed, perhaps regrettably / My friends went to war, I walked away with all they blood on me,” Cole continued, suggesting both rappers went too far in the feud.
‘Port Antonio’ arrived on the one-year anniversary of ‘First Person Shooter’ – the Drake and Cole collaboration Lamar replied to on ‘Like That’. Cole directly addressed the song: “They say I’m pickin’ sides, aye, don’t you lie on me, my n***a / To start another war / Aye, Drake, you’ll always be my n***a / I ain’t ashamed to say you did a lot for me, my n***a / Fuck all the narratives / Tapping back into your magic pen is what’s imperative.”
“Reminding these folks why we do it / It’s not for beefing, it’s for speaking our thoughts,” Cole said, explaining why hip-hop is important and not just a device to stir up hatred. He added: “Pushing ourselves, reaching the charts / Reaching your minds, deep in your heart / Screaming to find emotions to touch / Somethin’ inside to open you up / Help you cope with the rough times and shit / I’m sending love, ’cause we ain’t promised shit.”
The Drake-Lamar conflict came to a halt this May after the Toronto star dropped ‘The Heart Part 6’, on which he said his team fed Lamar false information and denied allegations of paedophilia lobbied against him on ‘Meet The Grahams’ and ‘Not Like Us’.
‘Not Like Us’ has since become one of Lamar’s most successful songs, landing as his fourth Billboard Number One and breaking the Spotify record for the most streams in one day for a hip-hop song. At his sold-out Juneteenth ‘Pop Out’ concert, Lamar played the song six times – Dr. Dre introduced the song the first time, whispering the opening lyrics, “I see dead people.”
Lamar will headline next year’s Super Bowl Halftime performance. There was a rumour that Drake served Lamar a “cease-and-desist” letter so he couldn’t perform ‘Not Like Us’ at the career-defying gig but the ‘Headlines’ rapper denied the claim.
Recently, a new documentary called Public Enemies: Kendrick vs Drake was green-lit by the UK broadcaster, Channel 4, and will be a “cultural exploration of two of the most influential voices in modern music.” A release date has not been announced, nor has a broadcast plan for the US.