J. Cole has shared a new song, “Port Antonio,” addressing the dormant feud between Kendrick Lamar and Drake. Check it out below.
The song is Cole’s first major contribution to the crowded field of diss tracks and spin-offs since his verse on Drake’s “First Person Shooter” declared Cole, Drake, and Lamar “the big three” of mainstream rap, and his “7 Minute Drill” tentatively upped the stakes with quibbles about Lamar’s recent music. Lamar, of course, responded on “Like That”—“Motherfuck the big three.… it’s just big me”—prompting Drake to reply with “Push Ups,” Cole to apologize for “7 Minute Drill,” and… well, you know the rest.
Now, Cole appears to be mediating between the two rappers. “They say I’m pickin’ sides, don’t you lie on me,” he raps on “Port Antonio.” “Drake, you’ll always be my n***a/I ain’t ashamed to say you did a lot for me, my n***a/Fuck all the narratives, tappin’ back into your magic pen is what’s imperative.”
Over a flip of Cleo Sol’s “Know That You Are Loved,” Cole also alludes to rappers using “algorithm bot n****s” to juice streams and sway public opinion, as well as lamenting the state of rap feuds and diss tracks more broadly—“on social media, competing for your favorable memes to be considered best.”
“Port Antonio” ultimately plays as a justification for staying out of the feud: “I pulled the plug because I seen where that was ’bout to go/They wanted blood, they wanted clicks to make they pockets grow/They see this fire in my pen and think I’m dodgin’ smoke/I wouldn’t have lost a battle, dog, I woulda lost a bro.”
Read Alphonse Pierre’s column “Drake and Kendrick’s Beef Is the Most Miserable Spectacle in Rap History.”