There were a few shocking guest appearances on Future and Metro Boomin’s We Still Don’t Trust You album, but perhaps J. Cole had the most surprising of them all.
Cole appeared on disc No. 1 closer “Red Leather,” which hit streaming services on Friday (April 12), and finds him running the pick and roll with Future for seven minutes of smooth rapping at a high level.
Cole’s appearance on the project comes less than a week after his apology to Kendrick Lamar for dissing him on “7 Minute Drill.” That only came about because of K. Dot taking aim at the Dreamville boss and Drake with his “Like That” verse on Young Metro and Pluto’s We Don’t Trust You first installment.
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It’s unclear when the verse was recorded, but it appears to be previous to all of the Kendrick Lamar-induced drama and not an official response to the Compton legend.
“My energy was never on some toughest n—a s–t/ I was just a conscious rapper that would f–k a n—a b—h,” he raps.
Regardless, fans didn’t understand why J. Cole would clear a guest appearance like this after what transpired the last week between himself and Kendrick Lamar, as well as the optics of joining up with Future and Metro, who allowed the shots to be fired at his tourmate, Drake.
“Who is advising J. Cole right now? Seriously,” one person asked on X.
Just two days after dropping Might Delete Later and “7 Minute Drill,” J. Cole walked back his sentiments dissing Lamar’s discography while on stage headlining his Dreamville Fest in North Carolina last Sunday (April 7). He went as far as referring to the track as some of the “lamest s–t” he’s ever done in his career.
“That s–t don’t sit right with my spirit,” he said. “That s–t disrupts my f—ing peace. So what I want to say right here tonight is in the midst of me doing that and in that s–t, trying to find a little angle and downplay this n—a’s f—ing catalog and his greatness, I want to say right now tonight, how many people think Kendrick Lamar is one of the greatest motherf–kers to ever touch a f—ing microphone? Dreamville, y’all love Kendrick Lamar, correct? As do I.”
The North Carolina rapper continued: “I just want to come up here and publicly be like, bruh, that was the lamest, goofiest s–t. 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—a really didn’t feel no way and if he did, my n—a, I got my chin out. Take your best shot, I’ma take that s–t on the chin boy, do what you do. All good. It’s love.”
As for Future and Metro Boomin, they are riding high coming off of We Don’t Trust You, which took the rap game by storm to top the Billboard 200 with 251,000 total album-equivalent units in the week ending March 28, per Luminate.
Listen to “Red Leather” below.
