Not the next step you’d expect to follow up a diss track, but it seems J. Cole has woken up and chosen the opposite of violence, apologizing to Kendrick Lamar for his cutting words, and vowing to get back on his “true path.”
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In a surprising twist no one saw coming, during his Dreamville Festival in North Carolina on Sunday, J. Cole admitted the he regretted firing shots back at Kendrick on "7 Minute Drill" in response to verse on "Like That.”
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"I put out this project on Friday called, Might Delete Later, a bit of foreshadowing title that now kinda checks." He continued, “I don’t know how many people checked it out or whatever. And, I swear to God... I'm so proud of that project. Because, I know, one, it's just an EP that leads me to this thing that I've been working on for a long time and I know the work it took to get to a certain type of skill level... that s*** mean a lot to me... I'm so proud of that project, except for one part," he added, referencing his diss to Kendrick.
"It's one part on that s*** that make me feel like, 'Man, that's the lamest s*** I ever did. in my f***ing life' right? And, I know, this is not what a lot of people want to hear... I can hear my n****s up there right now like... 'Nahhh, don't do that.' But, I gotta keep it 100 with y'all. I damn near had a relapse, right? Because, y'all heard some s*** that happened two-three weeks ago, however long it was... Y'all heard that bazooka that was dropped on the motherf***ing game."
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Cole continued, "So all this time of me moving on my own accord for the first time, I was tested. Why am I tested? Cause I got the world and I got my n**** like whatcha gonna do Cole? Boy I must have had a thousand missed calls. oh my f***ing god. Texts flooded. I couldn't answer my s***. N**** it's war time, N**** wanna see blood and I was conflicted because one, I know my heart. I know how I feel about my peers, these two n*** that I been blessed to stand beside in this game let alone chase their greatness. So I felt conflicted cause like, bruh I don't really feel no way but the world wanna see blood. I don't know if y'all can feel that but the world wanna see blood.”
Going on to actually name drop Kendrick, and refer to his response a "misstep" and “lame,” Cole said — “Y'all love Kendrick Lamar correct? As do I, so I just wanna come up here and publicly be like bruh, that was the lamest goofiest s***, and I say all that to say it made me feel like 10 years ago when I was moving incorrectly, and I pray that god will line me back up on my purpose and my path. I pray that my n**** didn’t feel no way and if he did my n**** I got my chin out, take your best shot ima take that s*** on the chin boy. Do what you do, all good, it's love. And I pray that y'all are like forgive a n**** for the misstep and I can get back to my true path cause I ain't gonna lie to y'all the past two days felt terrible. Like it let me know how good I was sleeping for the past 10 years”
Cole then went on to perform "Love Yourz,” that to him is “a song that’s a reminder to me of keeping back on the right path, and getting in to it with God.”
Check out Cole’s full statement below.