Shortly after J. Cole interpolated Common’s “The Light” on The Fall-Off, Kendrick Lamar tapped the same track for bars on Baby Keem’s new project, Ca$ino.
Kendrick references Common’s 2000 classic on his feature for Baby Keem’s “Good Flirts.” “The Light,” produced by J Dilla, samples Bobby Caldwell’s “Open Your Eyes.” Other artists who have sampled the track include Madlib (“Do It Real Big”) and The Game (“The Light”).
“Good Flirts” also features Momo Boyd who expressed gratitude for the opportunity via social media. “Thank you Keem, Kendrick and Dave for believing in me, empowering me and being the kindest people towards me,” she wrote on X. “What an honor to stand next to you three and feel so much love and respect.”
“I never knew a luh-luh-luh, a love like this / Flood your contour, make you blush like this,” K Dot raps on the song.
It’s worth noting that Kendrick sampled the song a while back, before Cole did it this year, on an unreleased song called “Falsehood” that dropped in 2022.
The moment carries added weight for hip-hop fans who are well aware of Kendrick Lamar and J. Cole’s complicated history. Once viewed as two-thirds of the genre’s so-called “Big 3,” the longtime peers briefly found themselves at odds after Lamar’s verse on “Like That” sparked tension. Cole responded with his diss track “7 Minute Drill,” but later walked back the record publicly, issuing an apology that became one of the most talked-about moments in rap last year.
More recently, Cole reflected on the fallout in his Birthday Blizzard ’26 freestyles, signaling that he has put the episode behind him and is focused on recalibrating his place in the rap landscape.
This comes just weeks after Cole interpolated the same song on "I Love Her Again" from The Fall-Off which dropped on Feb. 6.
Cole also shared a conversation he had with Common on his Trunk Sale Tour Vlog earlier this week.
Meanwhile, J. Cole has been everywhere — from selling copies of his new music out of his car trunk to appearing in a fan’s TikTok and hanging out in NYC bodegas as he promotes his new album.