Absolutely No One Should Be Shocked That J. Cole Apologized for Dissing Kendrick Lamar

We have to be honest: we’ve never seen anything like this short-lived Kendrick Lamar and J. Cole beef in the history of hip-hop. But should we be shocked?

If you weren’t up Sunday night, you missed the shocking discovery that J. Cole apologized for his Lamar diss, “7 Minute Drill,” during his set at his annual Dreamville Festival.

In the middle of his performance, Cole went on a four-minute monologue, explaining why he regretted doing the song in the first place, saying, “I put out this project on Friday called ‘Might Delete Later’ I don’t know how many people done checked it out or whatever.”

He added, “And I swear to god, I’m so proud of that project because I know one, it’s just an EP that leads me up to this one thing that I’ve been working on for a long time and I know the work that it took to get to a certain type of skill level. So that shit means a lot to me right.”

Here is the rest of what Cole said:

Cole’s words confirmed some things that I already believed.

It was clear from the initial moment I listened to “7 Minute Drill” on Friday. While some of the shots Cole through were solid, his delivery was poor. His voice was too narcoleptic and laid back for a song that was meant to diss your hip-hop rival.

Whether you think Lamar’s bars were better than Cole’s on “Like That” or not, one thing you couldn’t question is his belief in what he was saying. When K. Dot said, “Think I won’t drop the location? I still got PTSD/Motherf**k the Big Three, n***a it’s just big me/N***a bum!” it was clear that he meant every word.

In Cole’s case, it was not.

Since it sounded like he didn’t believe what he was saying, it should not be a shock to anyone that he apologized.

In his Lamar diss, he said, “He still doing shows but fell off like ‘The Simpsons’ / Your first shit was classic, your last shit was tragic / Your second shit put n****s to sleep but they gassed it / Your third shit was massive and that was your prime / I was trailing right behind and I just now hit mine.”

It was always weird to me that Cole dropped a diss track since Kendrick’s main target throughout his “Like That” verse was ALWAYS Drake. It was even more weird that he went at Kendrick’s discography of all things since that’s probably the most airtight argument about his resume.

Whether you enjoy “To Pimp A Butterfly” or not, you can’t deny that it was a unique and impactful piece of work that was culturally important. It’s clear Cole feels the same way about Lamar’s entire catalog, since he stated during his Sunday night apology, “In the midst of me doing that and trying to end that s**t, trying to find a little angle and downplay this n***a’s f***ung catalog and his greatness.”

He then asks the crowd, “How many people think Kendrick Lamar is one of the greatest “Motherf***ers to ever touch a f***ing microphone?”

They cheered.

Since Cole’s apology has been shared across social media, there’s been some mixed reactions across the hip-hop community. Some have commended Cole for admitting that he never wanted to diss Kendrick and are glad that he’s living his truth.

Others are disappointed that Cole is not standing by his bars on “7 Minute Drill.”

My thoughts are that you can be both proud and disappointed in J. Cole.

There’s a part of me that is happy he decided to drop this “feud” since Kendrick was barely even going at him on “Like That.” Yes, he received some stray shots, but nothing that was meant to hurt or disrespect Cole personally.

If it’s not in Cole’s heart to battle Kendrick, he shouldn’t. After all, It takes a lot of strength to say what Cole said on that stage, and he should be commended for that. But he did release a diss track, so it’s also fine for fans to be disappointed in Cole. It’s naive to say that they shouldn’t be.

As TDE rapper Reason said on Friday, “I hope y’all understand this sport and don’t take it too seriously, at least from dot and Cole. This just gon be friendly sparring. I’m exciting to hear both get the shit off with no real issues! Just rap!”

Hip-hop simply wanted to see who had the nicer pen in a battle of bars. It was never going to get super violent or personal. The two MCs could’ve traded bars and still be cool with each other in the future. Nobody in the world thought this beef was going to turn into a Biggie & Pac type of situation where lives were going to be on the line.

It was going to be a friendly battle of bars between two great MCs, and Cole robbed us of that opportunity.