J. Cole Apologized

it has been a rough 72 hours for the

jcole fandom the guy gets dissed

seemingly out of nowhere several weeks

ago on the new Metro boomman and future

project by Kendrick Lamar then after

that I'm sure it's days and days and

days of prodding and questioning and uh

even harassing I'm sure from friends and

fans and haters alike all asking Cole

what are you going to do we need a

response eventually this last weekend we

finally get that it arrives in the form

of a single track off of this latest

project he has just put out might delete

later the song is 7-minute drill we

talked about it in the previous video on

this channel it was a lame it was a weak

nothing Burger uh response to say the

least and now over the weekend on which

this response was released at a live

show for J Cole's dreamville Fest the

guy is on the stage

apologizing for the response dreamville

y'all love Kendrick Lamar

correct as do I so I just want to come

up here and be like publicly be like bro

that was the lamest like goofiest

and it make I say all that to say it

made me feel like 10 years ago when I

was moving incorrectly Cole pretty much

takes everything back not only the Jabs

and the downplaying of Kendrick l Mars

discography but even the energy he went

into the response with which I may be

wrong and correct me if I am in the

comments but this is a progression of

events that I think is just unforeseen

in rap music like a dis a challenge an

attack happens lyrically speaking and

then eventually a response comes and the

responder doesn't even give that

response a week's time to breathe and is

apologizing for responding there's two

directions this video can take from here

the easy tempting immature response

where I just jump on Cole and feel

validated for calling out his response

as being mediocre being underwhelming

shoving it in the face of J Cole fans

and maybe even you know like asking for

an apology you know for being told like

oh you're just biased you don't know a

lame track when you hear one you just

hate J Cole Kendrick Lamar is trash

actually I I think the tone this video

should take is the more mature tone

where I actually uh agree with a lot of

what J.Cole is saying here and I praise

him for being frank and being open and

being real about his feelings that were

yes very transparent and very obvious

very on the surface of that diss track

like clearly on seven-minute drill jcole

was throwing his shots at Kendrick Lamar

he was going at him uh but from his

voice from his onliners from even his

beat choice you could tell tell his

heart was not in that song it was not in

that response it was not something he

wanted to do we have heard J.Cole on

tracks before Spitting Fire going at the

beat like coming at it hungry aggressive

just like ready to go he was not ready

to go on that track because I I I don't

think that's his energy that's the way

he wants to carry himself in the world

and he makes that clear in this response

and yeah while he does uh apologize to

Kendrick J Cole's statement here that he

makes on the stage uh runs so much

deeper than you know one dude

apologizing to another it's clear that

the sort of energy uh that he had to put

into that track to do it even in the

half-ass way that he did uh that's not

the way he wants to carry himself in the

world and he is apologizing uh to the

fans and the audience as well for being

not true to himself which again

authentic Frank real and ultimately I

think is a good thing the fact of the

matter is is this even though I think uh

that Kendrick Lamar shot at J Cole and

Drake was funny and entertaining I have

acknowledged before and I will

acknowledge again it is out of nowhere

and it is kind of like unnecessary we

don't need to have this winter take all

zero some game crabs in a bucket uh

mentality in order to have good music

out there that Everyone likes in order

for numerous artists on the rap circuit

to be eating and succeeding and doing

their thing so yeah even if you can

technically put a point on the board for

Kendrick right now that attack was just

out of nowhere so frankly again I

commend jcole for acknowledging the

absurdity of this whole thing and

realizing just how unnecessary this

response was to his Artistry to his

success to his spot in hip-hop broadly

and ultimately I think this response

could have a long-term positive effect

in terms of how fans perceive rap

generally bars and disses and Artistry

aside this guy was man enough to come up

on stage and acknowledge the fact uh

that he went into this whole situation

inauthentically he did something that

wasn't really him and now there's a lot

of jcole fans and a lot of rap fans that

are going to have to deal with like some

cognitive dissonance as a result of this

cuz J.Cole told them the very thing they

do not they absolutely do not want to

hear that this rat beef stuff is lame

and the attacks that he leveled at

Kendrick Lamar that many of them got

100% on board for that they were wrong

and they were dumb and he takes them

back so now do you continue standing

behind this guy whose music you love and

obviously he means something to you on

some level do you continue to ride with

him as he is growing and changing and

becoming more self-aware or do you throw

him in the trash and say screw him he's

lame he's a loser he should have went

harder he should have never apologized

you just embrace the pump chest

machismo posturing and as a result

you're left with one less artist to

listen to who you enjoy even if what

jcole is saying here does sound a little

bit lame I think he's inadvertently

acknowledging a truth and a reality uh

that all of us are going to have to come

to grips with at some point and that's

disc culture beef culture in hipop it's

pretty much dead or it's certainly on

its way out the door which is something

I would like to Circle back on in

another vid later when I have more

thoughts collected on this topic but uh

I'll I'll kill two birds with one stone

here and close this up by saying Drake

because obviously he's implicated in

this whole thing too it's most likely

not even a good idea for him to respond

to this whole thing at this point not

only given how J Cole's response here

kind of changes the tone of the whole

thing right now but also on top of it if

Drake were to respond and the response

was decent and things kind of ramped up

from there How likely would it be that

we would end up in another push a te

situation where uh things kind of get a

little too hot for him and as a result

he just kind of cries foul calls the

whole thing off and puts out a press

statement I don't want to let jcole off

the hook too easy though I do commend

him for apologizing here in the way that

he has but I think he really could have

gotten specific uh in his apologies in

terms of just how awful and trashy some

of these disses and attacks were on this

might delete later project not just on

the closing track of that record but on

the track Pi which contains a bar that

many fans have accurately interpreted as

being pretty transphobic talking about

this rapper presumably Kendrick who is

portraying themselves as loud and tough

but them not actually being uh that way

and of course J.Cole uses uh transness

as an example of a thing where somebody

is being inauthentic or something they

are not and one also has to presume on

some level that this is coming up as a

topic on this bar due to the Kendrick

Lamar Trak Auntie Diaries because uh if

it's not then why is jcole even bringing

it up does he just have trans people on

his head uh ready to send Strays their

way whenever he has a rapper or a person

to make fun of that he doesn't like but

yeah while Cole was sort of in apology

mode something acknowledging that uh

certainly would have been nice but yeah

I think I'm going to leave it there um J

Cole apology honestly respect it let me

know what you guys think about all of

this down in the comments below I'm sure

lots of discourse will be had over here

next to my head is another video you can

check out hit that up or the link to

subscribe to the channel Anthony fantano

J Cole forever