Yesterday, two things happened in quick succession. J. Cole emerged from gorging on instrumentals to deliver his "Album Of The Year" freestyle, an apertif for his upcoming mixtape The Off Season. Around the same time, Freddie Gibbs took to Twitter to pee on a proverbial tree, establishing his superiority over his hip-hop compatriots. "I fell asleep listening to some of the “top” albums this year," writes Gibbs, taking to Twitter to voice his displeasure. Though he does not overtly condemn Cole by name, it doesn't take Sherlock Holmes and/or Watson to make some sort of connection.
To be fair, Gibbs has released nothing but heat with every release, and continuously stands among the game's most slept on lyricists. Yet his words seem to encompass a variety of potential targets; 2018 has seen critically acclaimed drops from Drake, Travis Scott, J. Cole, Denzel Curry, Royce Da 5'9", Trouble, YoungBoy Never Broke Again, A$AP Rocky, Kid Cudi, Pusha T, Kanye West, and more. Though many may assume his words were spurred by Cole's own bout of chest-thumping, Gibbs' words may bruise the ego of many a proud rapper.
To add insult to injury, Gibbs made sure to blanket "top" with a pair of passive aggressive quotation marks. To be fair, he wouldn't be the first rapper to hate on J. Cole, who has made himself somewhat of a preferred target for reasons unknown. What do you think of Gibbs' proclamation? Is the man spitting facts, or merely doing his part to spur the pot? Sound off below.