What Happened Between Kendrick Lamar And J. Cole? – Full Beef Deconstructed As Hip-Hop Era Finds New Rivalry

As soon as Future and Metro Boomin’ collaborative album We Don’t Trust You dropped a couple of its much-anticipated tracks, Kendrick Lamar took the stage and decided to spit pure fire through his verses and bars in the track titled Like That. 

The reason this stirred the entire industry as well as the public was because it explicitly dissed Drake and J. Cole, two of the biggest names in Hip Hop right now.

Kendrick Lamar | Credits: Wikimedia Commons
Kendrick Lamar | Credits: Wikimedia Commons

This diss has fanned the flames of a new beef in the Hip Hop scene after quite some time, which has naturally got the people excited and curious about how and when it all started. Thus, an explanation with respect to the overall beef is in order!

The Beef Between Kendrick Lamar And J. Cole Explained

J. Cole in a still from his music video Everybody Dies
J. Cole in a still from his music video Everybody Dies

Since many people are claiming Like That to be the song that will start a much-wished Hip Hop beef between two world-class hip-hop artists, fans are curious to know why Kendrick Lamar took up arms and decided to fire shots at J. Cole and Drake.

While it was mainly the Hotline Bling singer who became the catalyst for this confrontation, Cole is the one who is receiving the brunt of its effect and attention from the media.

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It all started after Lamar was firing verses at Drake in the past because the Humble singer was being overshadowed by the popularity of the Grammy-winning artist, but they had a common friend in the form of Cole.

Since Drake and Lamar were being considered as the two biggest names in the industry, Cole was being referred to as the third musketeer along with them, calling them the Big 3. In a freestyle on Drake’s 2021 song Pipe Down, Cole acknowledged the fact everyone believes he’s in third place to his peers when it comes to the Hip Hop scene. He freestyled:

“Love when they argue the hardest MC/Is it K-Dot? Is it Aubrey? Or me?/We The Big Three, like we started a league.”

But in response to this verse, Lamar shot back with his own lyrics in his latest song from Future and Metro Boomin’s latest album, singing:

“Motherf*ck the Big Three, it’s just Big Me.”

The main reason for this blow by the rapper at Cole was because he is with Drake at the moment, accompanying him on several venues on the record-breaking rapper’s It’s All a Blur Tour.

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As for Cole, he is currently prepping up for his long-awaited album The Fall Off, which is being claimed to be his best work yet and an instrument to end the debate of who’s the best among the three. It might even contain a direct comeback at Lamar’s shots.

What Is The Beef Between Drake And Kendrick Lamar?

Drake | Credits: Wikimedia Commons
Drake | Credits: Wikimedia Commons

The King’s Dead singer got annoyed and heated as Drake’s popularity soared. As is popularly known, both of these artists were considered good friends at first, even collaborating on projects like Poetic Justice on Lamar’s good kid, M.a.a.d. City album. But their professional friendship turned into hostility a year later when he name-dropped Drake in his song Control, which consisted of hostile verses for him and other rappers in the industry as a call-to-arms.

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Yet again, Lamar’s verbal attacks didn’t stop there as two months at the 2013 BET Hip-Hop Awards, he rapped:

“Nothing’s been the same since they dropped ‘Control’/and tucked the sensitive rapper back in his pajama clothes.”

In response, Drake made his own remix to Future’s track Sh!t and ended his verse by singing:

“Fuckn-ggas, gon be fuckn-ggas/that’s why we never gave a fuck/when a fuckn-gga switched up.”

And after all that, the culmination of their beef has boiled down to his latest track, which has put both Drake and Cole on alert.

Like That, music audio is currently streaming on YouTube.

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