J. Cole's Apology to Kendrick Lamar

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Overview

J. Cole's Apology to Kendrick Lamar refers to rapper J. Cole apologizing to fellow rapper Kendrick Lamar at the Dreamville Festival in April 2024, concerning J. Cole's diss track "7 Minute Drill" that was aimed at Kendrick Lamar. The event and viral video inspired numerous reactions and memes on social media in the following week, centering on the beef between the two rappers, including others in the business like Drake and Future.

Background

On October 6th, 2023, J. Cole was featured on Drake's album For All The Dogs on the track "First Person Shooter."^[1] In his verse, he said, "Love when they argue the hardest MC / Is it K-Dot? Is it Aubrey? Or me? / We the big three like we started a league, but right now, I feel like Muhammad Ali." K-Dot referenced Kendrick Lamar and Aubrey referenced Drake. In the verse, J. Cole suggested that he was the best MC out of all three.^[2]

On March 22nd, 2024, Kendrick Lamar was featured on producer Metro Boomin's album WE DON'T TRUST YOU on the track "Like That."^[3] In his verse, he responded to J. Cole's claim, saying, among other bars, "Fuck sneak dissin', first-person shooter, I hope they came with three switches… Motherfuck the big three, nigga, it's just big me." Lamar was responding to J. Cole, seemingly taking offense to his verse on "First Person Shooter" in which he claimed that he was the best MC.^[4]

On April 5th, 2024, J. Cole released his album Might Delete Later which included the song "7 Minute Drill" as the last track on the album.^[5] The diss track was aimed at Kendrick Lamar, evident in lyrics like, "I got a phone call, they say that somebody dissin' / You want some attention, it come with extensions," among others.^[6]

YouTuber and music reviewer Anthony Fantano posted a video^[7] about "7 Minute Drill" on April 5th in which he speculated that Cole didn't want to release the track. Fantano believed that Cole likely wanted to make a public statement addressing Lamar's diss, saying that he didn't want to diss Lamar and meant no offense by his verse on "First Person Shooter," but because of the climate of rap, he felt the need to respond aggressively instead.

On April 7th, 2024, J. Cole was on stage at the Dreamville Festival which was broadcast live on Amazon Music. X^[8] user @Glock_Topickz tweeted a video of Cole backtracking on his diss track "7 Minute Drill," saying, among many things, “I just want to come up here and publicly be like, bruh, that was the lamest, goofiest shit."^[9] The video received over 1.9 million views and 4,900 likes in a day (shown below).

The video also went viral when it was posted by other X^[10] accounts on April 7th, 2024, furthering its virality online.

Online Reaction

J. Cole's apology inspired numerous viral reactions in the days that followed, such as a post shared by X^[11] user @ayeejuju on April 7th, 2024, who said, "j cole already apologized to kendrick LMFAOOOOO," gaining over 69,000 likes in a day (shown below, left).

X^[12] user @KdotJohnson_ tweeted a list on April 7th outlining different blights in J. Cole's career, receiving over 31,000 likes in a day (shown below, right).

Discourse also ensued on Reddit on April 7th when Redditor^[13] PickMeUpForeIDrown started a thread on /r/fantanoforever about J. Cole's apology, receiving over 580 upvotes in a day. On the same day, Redditor^[14] Life_Ad_2218 shared a post about the apology to /r/hiphopheads, gaining over 5,700 upvotes in a day.

TikTokers also joined the conversation, like TikToker^[15] @thinkpiecetribe2 on April 7th, 2024, who showed disbelief over J. Cole's apology, gaining over 917,200 plays and 150,600 likes in a day (shown below, left).

Also on April 7th, TikToker^[16] @ogmaroo posted a video making fun of J. Cole's apology, using the audio from a Druski sketch, earning over 206,500 plays and 51,100 likes in a day (shown below, right).