Earlier this year, J. Cole made the wise decision to remove himself from the tangled web of Drake and Kendrick Lamar‘s ruthless rap battle. His only contribution was the diss record “7 Minute Drill,” which was aimed at Kendrick but in a way that still held immense respect for him.
The rapper himself walked the track back as being “the lamest shit I ever did in my fucking life” just days after releasing it. In the weeks that followed, Drake and Kendrick both made it clear that any sense of respect between them had been obliterated. Cole spent the summer watching from the sidelines and has returned to report his findings on the new single “Port Antonio.”
“They instigate the fuckery because it’s profitable/But singin’ “stop the violence” tunes when dudes in hospitals/I pulled the plug because I’ve seen where that was ’bout to go,” Cole raps on the second verse of the song. Part of the lyric could be interpreted as a nod to the Kendrick single “Euphoria,” where he takes aim at Drake and raps: “I hate when a rapper talk about guns, then somebody die/They turn into nuns, then hop online, like ‘Pray for my city’/He fakin’ for likes and digital hugs.” Either way, when Cole made a prediction about the route he was riding down as part of the Drake defense squad, he didn’t like what he saw and chose to take the exit.
“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,” he continued. “I 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?” There’s no way to know what the outcome could have been in a battle that he didn’t truly fight — he said his own diss track disturbed his spirit and had him losing sleep — but he still wants to defend his right to have been involved to begin with. Maybe he would have come in second by default after Kendrick eliminated Drake with the two-punch knockout with “Euphoria” and “Not Like Us.”
“I understand the thirst of being first that made ’em both swing/Protecting legacies, so lines got crossed, perhaps regrettably,” Cole raps, positioning himself as a voice of reason between his two rap peers. Like in his original diss track, the rapper continues to naively frame the Drake and Kendrick beef as being a battle over status and accolades. It’s what Drake and Cole were both talking about on their 2023 collaboration “First Person Shooter,” circling around the ranking of rap’s big three. Kendrick issued his response to the debate on Metro Boomin and Future’s “Like That,” where he boasted: “Motherfuck the big three, nigga, it’s just big me.”
“Like That,” in many ways, marked the true starting point of this whole back and forth. Drake issued a number of attempted responses, most of which didn’t land all that well and only gave Kendrick more fuel to fire back at him. He didn’t have the foresight to bow out like Cole did, now come February he’ll have to watch Kendrick perform a song that calls him a “certified pedophile” on stage at the Super Bowl. This is the level of escalation that Cole hoped to avoid. But as Kendrick proclaimed on “Euphoria,” Cole has the wrong idea of what the “why” is here. “This ain’t been about critics, not about gimmicks, not about who the greatest,” Kendrick spit. “It’s always been about love and hate, now let me say I’m the biggest hater.”
On “Port Antonio,” Cole is feeling somber about the whole thing. “My friends went to war, I walked away with all they blood on me/Now some will discredit me, try wipe away my pedigree,” he raps. “They strip me of my spot, and now I’m finally free, my nigga/They say I’m pickin’ sides, ayy, don’t you lie on me, my nigga.” The rest of the verse speaks directly to Drake with much kinder words than anything Kendrick had to offer him.
“Then start another war, ayy, Drake, you’ll always be my nigga/I ain’t ashamed to say you did a lot for me, my nigga/Fuck all the narratives/Tappin’ back into your magic pen is what’s imperative/Remindin’ these folks why we do it, it’s not for beefin’/It’s for speakin’ our thoughts, pushin’ ourselves, reachin’ the charts,” Cole says. “Reaching your minds, deep in your heart, screamin’ to find/Emotions to touch, somethin’ inside to open you up/Help you cope with the rough times and shit/I’m sendin’ love ’cause we ain’t promised shit.”
