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Kanye West has once again found himself at the center of an X storm, this time directing his ire at rapper J. Cole.
The drama ignited when a fan posted a clip from Cole’s verse on Benny the Butcher’s “Johnny P’s Caddy,” claiming that Cole had spared Kendrick Lamar in the 2024 rap battle. The tweet suggested that Cole’s absence in the aftermath left Kendrick to dominate Drake, which rubbed Ye the wrong way. Kanye fired back with a rant that quickly spiraled out of control.
Kanye’s frustration boiled over as he expressed his distaste for J. Cole’s music, tweeting, “I hate J Cole music so much. It’s like between Kendrick and J Cole I bet you industry plants have been accosted with a J Cole Super Bowl commercial with no SZA song to save it.”
This bizarre statement set the tone for a series of increasingly absurd comments, including a strange jibe at J. Cole’s fanbase: “No one listens to J. Cole after losing their virginity.” The outburst seemed to hit a personal nerve, as Kanye continued to fuel the fire with more vitriol. The feud took an interesting turn when fans resurfaced J. Cole’s 2016 track “False Prophets,” a song many speculated was about Kanye himself.
The timing of Kanye’s rant seemed eerily similar to the themes in the track. With the sequence of events unfolding almost like the song’s lyrics, fans couldn’t help but draw comparisons, suggesting that the feud was a full-circle moment.
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Dreamville Festival was launched in 2019 and save for one year skipped due to a nationwide shutdown due to the pandemic, it has occurred annually since. Dreamville Festival organizers released the finalized lineup for this year’s event which features J. Cole, 21 Savage, Lil Wayne, and Erykah Badu among its headliners.
Now in its fifth and final year, Dreamville Festival will return to Dorothea Dix Park in Raleigh, N.C. on Saturday, April 5 and 6, featuring familiar acts for past attendees along with new names in the star-studded lineup.
The top headliners for the festival are Lil Wayne, joining forces with the Hot Boys and the Big Tymers, and J. Cole on the following day ending the festival. Joining these acts on the opening day (April 5) are 21 Savage, PARTYNEXTDOOR, Ab-Soul, and Ludacris. Keyshia Cole will also be performing and celebrating the 20-year anniversary of The Way It Is project. Dreamville Records acts Ari Lennox, Bas, Lute, and Omen will also take the stage.
On day two (April 6), Tems and GloRilla will rock the Dreamville stages and will be joined by Dreamville Records star J.I.D., Wale, Coco Jones, and BigXThaPlug. Dreamville’s EARTHGANG and Cozz will also rock the stages.
“Our team looks forward to welcoming fans from around the world to Dreamville Festival this spring for our fifth anniversary celebration. The first weekend in April has grown to become one of our team’s favorite times of the year as an annual NC reunion,” said Dreamville Cofounder and Festival President Adam Roy in a statement.
A limited number of two-day general admission passes are available now and portions of the sales will be donated to the Dreamville Foundation charity, and the Dorothea Dix Park Conservancy. So far, all of the general admission plus and VIP ticket packages are sold out but waitlists are available on the festival’s website.
Learn more here.
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Photo: Shaun Llewellyn / @shaunllewellyn_
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J. Cole inserted himself in the middle of Drake and Kendrick Lamar‘s feud with “7 Minute Drill” from his Might Delete Later project, a song he actually did delete later. J. Cole, who caught plenty of ire over walking back the diss, addresses Kendrick Lamar on the new “Port Antonio” track and X has thoughts as expected.
After an active 2024 with several features alongside the likes of Tee Grizzley, Tems, and A$AP Rocky, J. Cole dropped “Port Antonio” via his YouTube channel. The track, reportedly produced by DZL, Dreamville artist Omen, and Cole himself, has a sound somewhat reminiscent of Jay-Z’s ” Dead Presidents II” while also sampling Cleo Soul’s live version of “Know That You Are Loved.”
The verse is a return of the ultra-confident emcee, but with the added nuggets of wisdom that the North Carolina star often adds to his lyrics. However, the second verse is where he gets into his connection to the Drake and Kendrick Lamar feud and shouts the Canadian superstar out by name while also giving him advice.
From “Port Antonio”:
They instigate the f*ckery because it’s profitableBut singin’ “stop the violence” tunes when dudes in hospitalsI pulled the plug because I’ve seen where that was ’bout to goThey wanted blood, they wanted clicks to make they pockets growThey see this fire in my pen and think I’m dodgin’ smokeI wouldn’t have lost a battle, dawg, I woulda lost a broI woulda gained a foe, and all for what? Just to attain some mo’Props from strangers that don’t got a clue what I been aimin’ for?Since the age of fourteen, Jermaine is no kingIf that means I gotta dig up dirt and pay the whole teamOf algorithm-bot n*ggas just to sway the whole thingOn social media, competin’ for your favorable meansTo be considered best of live and rest, the weight of both thingsI understand the thirst of being first that made ’em both swingProtecting legacies, so lines got crossed, perhaps regrettablyMy friends went to war, I walked away with all they blood on me
Later in the verse, J. Cole speaks directly to Drake saying, “Drake, you’ll always be my n*gga/I ain’t ashamed to say you did a lot for me, my n*gga/F*ck all the narratives, tappin’ back into your magic pen is what’s imperative.”
On X, folks are taking shots at the Dreamville honcho for mentioning the beef and propping up Drake, although some applauded the maturity of J. Cole. We’ve got reactions from all sides below.
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Malcolm-Jamal Warner is currently the host of a new podcast which made its debut earlier this week, titled Not All Hood. Alongside his co-hosts Candace Kelley and Wesui Baraka, Malcolm-Jamal Warner made waves after a clip from the podcast went viral where the famed actor shared he no longer listens to J. Cole because of the rapper’s use of the N-word.
Not All Hood debuted on Monday (June 10) and the opening episode, titled “Welcome Comrades,” served as a warmup for what’s to come with the program. Malcolm-Jamal Warner, Candace Kelley, and Wesui Baraka employed a breezy, comfortable flow as they introduced the podcast and themselves to the listening and viewing audience.
During a portion of their conversation, the cast mentioned the use of the word n*gga in modern Hip-Hop which prompted Warner to also mention the use of b*tch in songs.
“I’m more against it now because it’s used so gratuitously, it’s used without regard,” Warner said to Baraka. “At this point, for me in hip-hop, I think n*gga and b*tch, there should be should be a moratorium on both of those words in hip-hop because it’s low-lying fruit and it’s so easy, everybody is f*cking does it to the point it’s corny.”
Warner added, “There are MC’s who I love who I cannot listen to anymore. I love J. Cole, but I had to stop listening to J. Cole, I got tired of hearing n*gga and b*tch every two sentences.”
The spirited discussion between Malcolm-Jamal Warner, Candace Kelley, and Wesui Baraka came with a different perspective, especially when Baraka mentioned ahead of the segment that even famed Black leaders such as the late Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. reportedly used the word.
We’ll share the clip below, courtesy of The Art of Dialogue, along with the full episode of Not All Hood, which can be found on YouTube and wherever you listen to podcasts.
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Black Thought is easily one of the best lyricists ever, so it would figure that many artists who’ve had chances to work with him know that their work is cut out for them. During a recent chat, the frontman for The Roots shared that he may have scared off J. Cole from working on a collaborative project.
Black Thought, 52, was a guest on the This Week in White Supremacy podcast with host Dr. Jasiri X and discussed the journey of the Philadelphia star as a rapper en route to becoming a New York Times bestselling author.
After sharing details of his book, The Upcycled Self: A Memoir on the Art of Becoming Who We Are, the artist born Tariq Trotter shared how he connected with J. Cole about six years ago to attempt a joint project.
“I don’t know the brother well, but he and I had talked about doing music together at one point. At the beginning of 2018, he hit me like, ‘Yo, let’s do an album,’” Thought shared around the 29:00-minute mark. “I told him to send me some music. I told him I was with it. It wasn’t, ‘Send me some music to see if I want to do it,’ it was like, ‘Let me see what you’re thinking.’
Thought added that the beats Cole sent him initially were too close to the sound he achieved with The Roots and his solo projects are audibly different from those with his band. After requesting a new set of beats, Thought said the energy somewhat shifted.
“So I asked him to do a different batch, I gave him an explanation, and in my explanation I think I scared him off. Maybe some of the trigger words that I was using, like, ‘I want something hard. This beat ain’t aggressive enough.’
Black Thought offered his opinion on J. Cole apologizing to Kendrick Lamar after dropping and later deleting “7 Minute Drill” and more.
Check out the full interview below.
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While the Hip-Hop world awaits Kendrick Lamar’s response to Drake’s last few diss tracks, Kanye West has inserted himself into the battle by throwing an arrow at the King of the North on Future’s “Like That” remix. Interestingly enough, Ye also took issue with J. Cole for removing himself from the drama and apologizing for even participating.
During a recent interview with Justin Laboy on The Download podcast, Justin mentioned J. Cole’s now- famous apology to Kendrick Lamar for clapping back at him on “7 Minute Drill” which caused Kanye to immediately respond by saying, “F*ck all that p*ssy sh*t.” A visibly surprised LaBoy didn’t expect such a blunt response, but that didn’t stop Kanye from going further into the subject saying, “F*ck all that sh*t man because it’s like that ni**a J. Cole went on tour with Drake. He know what it is. It’s like, ni**a, you can’t run now, it’s you also.”
Obviously, Kanye has a bone to pick with J. Cole, and he confirmed as much when he pointed out that his issue with the MC from NC stems from J. Cole’s cut “False Prophets” which Ye mistakenly called “False Idols” and said, “somebody told me it’s halfway about me.” Because of that Kanye says he doesn’t listen to J. Cole. Apparently, Cole is on Kanye’s sh*t list and now we know how he got there.
While J. Cole might’ve thrown some subliminals towards Kanye on “False Prophets” in 2016, we don’t know if this 2024 apologetic J. Cole will have some shots in the chamber for Yeezus; Kanye is seemingly ready for that smoke.
That being said, we’re almost sure Drake will take some time to acknowledge Kanye’s shots at him on the “Like That” remix in a bar or two on some verse in the near future. We just hope he doesn’t use an AI version of Jay-Z or someone else on it as well.
Also, during the interview, Kanye West said he’d like to have a threesome with Michelle Obama…but that’s neither here nor there.
What do y’all think about Kanye West taking shots at J. Cole for bowing out of the battle with Kendrick Lamar? Let us know in the comments section below.
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Snoop Dogg has found his way into the current “beef” between Kendrick Lamar and Drake, and it had nothing to do with him actually interjecting himself in it but with the use of AI.
Like the rest of the Hip-Hop and music world, Snoop Dogg was stunned to hear AI voice on Drake’s latest diss track at Kendrick Lamer, “Taylor Made Freestyle.”
On Friday (April 19), Drake released his “Taylor Made Freestyle,” which features the computer-generated voices of Snoop Dogg and the late 2Pac “pressing” their West Coast counterpart to respond to Drizzy.
On the song virtual Snoop raps:
“Dot, you know that the D-O-G never fucking doubted you/ But right now it seem like you posted up without a clue of what the fuck you ’bout to do.”
Not too long after the divisive record hit the internet, the Doggfather took to his Instagram account to post a hilarious reaction to AI bars.
“They did what? When? How? Are you sure? [Sigh] Y’all have a good night,” Snoop said in the Instagram clip. “Why everybody calling my phone, blowing me up? What the fuck— what happened? What’s going on? I’m going back to bed. Good night.”
Will Kendrick Lamar Finally Respond To Drake?
“Taylor Made Freestyle” comes a week after Drake’s first response record, “Push Ups.” When the song hit the internet, thanks to the rampant AI use in the music industry, the song’s validity was initially up in the air.
On the song, Drizzy accuses Lamar of taking his sweet time to respond due to Taylor Swift dropping a new album while also naming TDE’s boss, Anthony “Top Dawg” Tiffith.
“But now we gotta wait a fucking week ’cause Taylor Swift is your new Top/ And if you ’bout to drop, she gotta approve/ This girl really ’bout to make you act like you not in a feud/ She tailor made your schedule with Ant, you out of the loop.
While Drake continues to poke the bear, word on the podcast streets is that K.Dot has a response record ready, according to Joe Budden Podcast host Antwan “Ish” Marby, who claims the record is on the level of 2Pac’s “Hit Em Up.”
“Some people that have heard the Kendrick track, I heard that his energy is just something that’s going to be hard for Drake to match. They said he’s coming on some Pac’ Hit Em Up’ energy,” Ish claims.
We shall see if that’s the case. We just want Kendrick Lamar to take his time and deliver a worthy response, no one wants a wack a** diss record.
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Over the weekend, J. Cole made news not only for dropping a new diss record aimed at Kendrick Lamar, but ultimately apologizing to K. Dot as Cole regretted even going that route.
Naturally, fans were split on Cole’s words with some understanding Cole’s stance on beefing with his rap peer while others were upset that the Might Delete Later artist would cheat everyone out of a highly-anticipated rap battle. All the while Kendrick’s other target, Drake, has remained mum on a response to K. Dot’s shots on “Like That.” He did, however, react to J. Cole’s shocking apology.
According to TMZ, the King of the North isn’t planning on falling back from the impending rap battle like his “First Person Shooter” partner. Apparently, DJ Akademiks spoke to Drizzy about J. Cole’s decision to step back from the Kendrick Lamar beef, and after dragging Cole a new one for his apology over “7 Minute Drill,” Akademiks says he warned Drake not to follow suit.
Per TMZ:
Ak has been losing sleep on his Rumble stream ripping into Cole’s apology, but told his chat he had a long convo with Drake who scoffed at the notion of saying sorry to Kendrick.
Ak says Drake literally laughed at him when warned not to apologize like Cole, and shared an incredulous message … “I can’t f***ing believe you would say some s*** like that to me.”
Well, fans have been wondering if Drake would respond on a new record as he wasted no time clapping at Meek Mill in 2017 with “Back To Back,” but did refrain from responding to Pusha T’s scathing “Story of Adidon” in 2018. So you never really know with Drake.
With every week that passes since Future and Kendrick Lamar flamed him on “Like That,” it seems more unlikely that Drizzy will get in the booth and clap back at his competitors in the rap field.
But if DJ Akademiks is to be believed, Drake’s putting something in the chamber and may let it off sooner… or later? We shall see.
What do y’all think? Is Drake going to respond to Kendrick Lamar or is he fronting in hopes that people just move on and forget about it? Let us know in the comments section below.
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J. Cole put the Hip-Hop world on notice after firing back at Kendrick Lamar on his surprise project, Might Delete Later. During his set at this year’s Dreamville Festival, J. Cole addressed the beef with K-Dot and said that “7 Minute Drill” will be removed from streaming services in an epic moment of walking it back.
J. Cole, 39, took to the stage on the closing night (April 7) of his annual Dreamville Festival in Raleigh, N.C., and addressed the crowd as he’s often done in the past. The massive elephant roaming through the festival grounds was the shot K-Dot took at Drake and Cole on Future and Metro Boomin’s “Like That” from the pair’s WE DON’T TRUST YOU project.
Taking a moment during his closing set, the Dreamville honcho addressed the crowd and checked himself for taking shots at Lamar and ending the feud, at least from his end.
“I’m so proud of that project [Might Delete Later] except for one part,” Cole said onstage. “There’s one part of that sh*t that makes me feel like, ‘Man, that’s the lamest sh*t I ever did in my f*cking life.’ And, I know this is not what a lot of people wanna hear. I can hear my n*ggas up there right now like, ‘Nah, don’t do that.’ But, I gotta keep it 100 with y’all. I damn near had a relapse.”
Cole admitted to being reactionary at the moment and expressed that he wasn’t pleased by the chatter sparked by his diss track although he framed it as friendly competition. In the end, Cole says he intends to remove “7 Minute Drill” from his latest project while stating he has love for both Kendrick Lamar and Drake.
On Xitter, fans are debating who won the mock meat tussle (more on that later) between J. Cole, Drake, and Kendrick, the so-called “Big Three” with some declaring winners and losers in a battle that never took off to the degree some seem to think.
We’ve got reactions below.
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2. Xitter is way too bored.
3. Seeing this live was something else.
9. Too much like right for some people.
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J. Cole is preparing for a big weekend in his home state as he is set to headline the closing night of the Dreamville Festival, but he had time to drop a new project. The North Carolina star released his Might Delete Later LP and the closing track features a response towards Kendrick Lamar and the recent “Big 3” jab.
J. Cole dropped Might Delete Later on Friday (April 5) ahead of the 2024 Dreamville Festival weekend and the 12-song project has features from Dreamville acts Ari Lennox and Bas, along with Young Dro, Central Cee, Cam’Ron, and Ab-Soul.
The one song that has everyone’s attention however is the closing track “7 Minute Drill,” the first response from J. Cole after Kendrick Lamar fired at Drake and Cole on Metro Boomin and Future’s “Like That” track from the pair’s collaborative album, WE DON’T TRUST YOU.
Early thoughts on the latest album from Cole are still coming in but most are focusing their energies on dissecting the “7 Minute Drill” track with some saying it was a light jab while others were underwhelmed.
Still, this is the first time the public has seen any manner of issues between the two and it’s clear that the battle is finally heating up. Drake still has yet to respond on wax but the Canadian superstar has made some defiant statements here and there while on his It’s All A Blur tour.
With J. Cole’s latest project and salvo against Kendrick Lamar, the social media streets are talking. We’ve got reactions from X listed below.
Check out Might Delete Later below as well.
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