J. Cole has shared a brand new tune, “Port Antonio,” addressing the dormant feud between Kendrick Lamar and Drake. Test it out under.
The tune is Cole’s first main contribution to the crowded field of diss tracks and spin-offs since his verse on Drake’s “First Person Shooter” declared Cole, Drake, and Lamar “the massive three” of mainstream rap, and his “7 Minute Drill” tentatively upped the stakes with quibbles about Lamar’s current music. Lamar, in fact, responded on “Like That”—“Motherfuck the massive three.… it’s simply large me”—prompting Drake to answer with “Push Ups,” Cole to apologize for “7 Minute Drill,” and… properly, you already know the rest.
Now, Cole seems to be mediating between the 2 rappers. “They are saying I’m pickin’ sides, don’t you lie on me,” he raps on “Port Antonio.” “Drake, you’ll all the time be my n***a/I ain’t ashamed to say you probably did rather a lot for me, my n***a/Fuck all of the narratives, tappin’ again into your magic pen is what’s crucial.”
Over a flip of Cleo Sol’s “Know That You Are Loved,” Cole additionally alludes to rappers utilizing “algorithm bot n****s” to juice streams and sway public opinion, in addition to lamenting the state of rap feuds and diss tracks extra broadly—“on social media, competing to your favorable memes to be thought-about greatest.”
“Port Antonio” finally performs as a justification for staying out of the feud: “I pulled the plug as a result of I seen the place that was ’bout to go/They needed blood, they needed clicks to make they pockets develop/They see this hearth in my pen and suppose I’m dodgin’ smoke/I wouldn’t have misplaced a battle, canine, I woulda misplaced a bro.”
Learn Alphonse Pierre’s column “Drake and Kendrick’s Beef Is the Most Miserable Spectacle in Rap History.”
