Drake has finally shared his thoughts on J. Cole’s decision to bow out of the bitter feud with Kendrick Lamar in 2024.
On “Make Them Pay,” one of the more pointed tracks on Iceman, Drizzy appears to accuse Cole of discussing his place in the rivalry with Jay-Z and unceremoniously backing out during his appearance at the 2024 Dreamville Festival.
“Your n***as run and talk to Hov for a second opinion / Me, I stood ten T’s and accepted the mission,” Drake raps on the track. “‘Cause I’d much rather death than submission / How can you press the ignition and let some memories of the past affect your decision? / I love you ‘cause of the history, but if we bein’ real, I could never forgive you / And you never called me back, but destiny’s written, for real / Fuck a big three anyway, there was too many chefs in the kitchen, it was a mess to begin with, yeah.”
Drake also appears to revisit Cole’s exit from the beef on the song “Make Them Remember,” which leaked shortly before the album dropped. “I could’ve fell back like the married rapper, but we engaged,” he raps.
On Drake and J. Cole’s 2023 collaboration “First Person Shooter,” Cole claimed that he, Drake and Kendrick were the “big three” in hip-hop. Months later, Kendrick Lamar kickstarted one of the biggest rap beefs of all-time when he responded in his verse on Future and Metro Boomin’s “Like That.”
“Motherfuck the big three, n***a, it’s just big me,” K Dot rapped on the song, which in turn prompted a wave of responses. Cole released “7 Minute Drill” on his mixtape Might Delete Later shortly after. Less than a week later, Cole apologized to Kendrick during his annual Dreamville Festival and removed the track from streaming services. What followed only escalated further, with five diss tracks being traded between Drake and Kendrick.
On an episode of the 7PM in Brooklyn podcast earlier this year, he revealed that Drake was originally expected to perform at the same Dreamville Fest where Cole apologized for dissing Kendrick. "He was supposed to be at Dreamville Fest. That was planned. He didn't come," Cole explained. “I appreciate him for [not turning up]. He's like, 'I didn't want to come down and put you in a situation on that stage and say something that you would have to stand behind.' And I'm like, 'Thank God that you didn't, because it left the space for me to receive what I was supposed to do.'”
