J Cole disses Joey Bada$$ in brutal new freestyle
J Cole has seemingly dissed Joey Bada$$ in a new freestyle released on January 28th.
Cole celebrated his 41st birthday by dropping a new mixtape titled Birthday Blizzard ’26.
The project includes a song called ’99 Build Freestyle’, with lyrics that appear to take aim at the Brooklyn rapper.
Cole fires shots at Joey over the beat for The LOX’s ‘Money, Power and Respect’, calling him out for dissing people at random and not getting enough attention with his last album, Lonely at the Top.
He raps, “Known as the rap game, that’s been overcome/ With loads of marketin’ plans/ Based on randomly dissin’ and hatin’ on the next man/ I understand, imagine workin’ hard as you can/ On this album you planned, hopin’ it charges yo’ brand/ But as soon as you drop it, the world’s ignorin’ again.”
The Dreamville MC continues to direct lyrics in Joey’s direction while acknowledging his decision to back out of the Kendrick Lamar and Drake beef.
Cole spits, “Got you wonderin’ why, ’til you start to notice the trend/ Drama enhances the attention brought to the fans/ On popular channels, so you wanna hop on the band/ Wagon of battle rappin’, and throwin’ shots in a jam/ I had my chance, but I dropped it, which means my only option/ To do the opposite then (lead with the skill, n*gga).”
Joey previously dissed Cole on his song ‘Sorry Not Sorry’, which was released in February 2025, referencing ‘7 Minute Drill’ being deleted from his Might Delete Later mixtape.
In the first verse, he raps, “Might Delete Later, I know damn sure that Joеy won’t/ Fuck it, I want all the smoke, put my crеdit on the line/ ‘Cause n*ggas can’t fuck with me, we talkin’ ’bout it line for line/ The audacity of this n*gga, he must be out his mind/ Haunted by the ghost of Biggie and Pac, I’m them combined/ Spent many years mindin’ mines.”