How Drake made J Cole change his sound out of fear
J Cole was partially disgraced last year after getting roped into Drake and Kendrick Lamar’s feud. The Fayetteville native was featured on the song ‘First Person Shooter’ with Drizzy in 2023, following the line “Love when they argue the hardest MC / Is it K-Dot? Is it Aubrey? Or me? We the big three like,” Kendrick responded with a diss of his own.
The battle between Drake and Kendrick Lamar escalated quickly. However, due to his initial involvement in ‘First Person Shooter’, J Cole released his diss track entitled ‘7 Minute Drill’.
However, during a performance at his annual festival, the Dreamiville Fest in Raleigh’s Dorothea Dix Park on April 7th, the ‘Wet Dreamz’ emcee told fans he was proud of his 2024 project, Might Delete Later but was ashamed of the song ‘7 Minute Drill’ and even apologised to Kendrick for it.
While taking a break onstage, Cole explained to the crowd his feelings about Might Delete Later, stating, “I’m so proud of that project except for one part [but] 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.'”
Despite last year’s drama and craziness, before he even became famous, J Cole was aware of Drake. He stated that the Toronto native made him change his sound. In fact, Cole insinuated that before he heard Drake, he was planning on entering the industry by fusing R&B with hip-hop and wasn’t interested in anything conscious. During an episode of Inevitable, Cole recalled hearing Drizzy for the first time online, reflecting, “It was one dude in particular that I remember seeing on MySpace, and he was this light-skinned R&B-looking n*gga, but he had raps.”
While speaking with Dreamvilee co-founder Ibrahim Hamad, Cole admitted that he loved Drake’s style but didn’t understand why he was so popular on MySpace, stating, “It was kind of neo-soul-type raps, like on some Little Brother sh*t, but he was talking about women or something. The n*gga’s whole demeanour was hella smooth. He continued, “His plays were through the roof for a n*gga you’ve never heard of or has never been signed! I was like, ‘Who is this n*gga?! How does he have 20,000 plays in a day?!”
Although J Cole liked Drake’s music, he felt that the Views creator was stepping on his toes, explaining, “For so long, I felt confident in the fact that I was the only one occupying that space, the only one with that perspective and that sharp of a pen!”
He added, “I was like, ‘That’s gonna be my thing, that’s what’s gonna separate me from the pack. So the second I heard [‘Say What’s Real’], one, I was blown away because of how good it was. But two, subconsciously, I was like, ‘Ha! There was someone else out there the whole time that was working maybe just as hard as I was working, was thinking the same things, and who had the same opportunity to occupy a certain lane that I never saw any competition for.'”
“My deal with Jay ain’t even done. I’m not even anybody yet. And this n*gga’s off to the races with hits, like cultural-shifting sh*t.’ At that moment, I had to shift my mindset about what The Warm Up was about to be ’cause Drake just changed the game.”