J. Cole chose his peace over beefing with Kendrick Lamar, leading to a truckload of memes afterward. The J. Cole memes continued as Kendrick and Drake battled each other with diss tracks. As the lyrical warfare continued, fans gradually began to understand why J. Cole didn't want all that heat. Thus, the J. Cole memes shifted from ridiculing the "Work Out" crooner to more or less applauding his decisions, especially as the Kendrick vs. Drake beef makes its place in hip-hop's history books.
There are too many aspects of the beef that make it genuinely remarkable. From J. Cole's decision to quit to Kendrick and Drake going against each other diss track after track and not to forget Metro Boomin's "BBL Drizzy" diss beat. However, the hilarious J. Cole memes also added color and humor to the beef and have come to stay. Let's explore the best J. Cole memes that broke the internet while Drake and Kendrick Lamar feuded.
The Beginning Of The Rap Beef
On Oct. 31, 2023, Drake released the single "First Person Shooter" from his eighth studio album For All The Dogs. The track featured J. Cole, who delivered the famous bars, "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 right now, I feel like Muhammed Ali/Huh, yeah, yeah, huh-huh, yeah, Muhammed Ali." With those lines, J. Cole appreciated the greatness of himself, Drake, and Kendrick but emphasized his thoughts that he was the best out of the three. Those bars brought back memories of Big Sean's "Control" featuring Kendrick and Jay Electronica. In the track, Kendrick mentioned many rappers including Drake and J. Cole and said he was "tryna murder you ni**as." K. Dot also touted himself as the "King of New York" on the track.
Kendrick Responds to J. Cole and Disses Drake
Kendrick responded to J. Cole and Drake's "First Person Shooter" via a verse on Metro Boomin and Future's "Like That" from their We Don't Trust You album. In his verse, Kendrick rapped, "F**k sneak dissin', first-person shooter, I hope they came with three switches." Later in the verse, he rapped, "Motherfuck the big three, nigga, it's just big me." With those bars, K.Dot showed he had come for Drake and J. Cole and duly set the rap scene ablaze, shocking many fans. Fans waited to see what Drake and J. Cole's response would be. They didn't have to wait long.
J. Cole Responds To Kendrick Lamar
J. Cole was the first to respond to Kendrick's diss directly. He did so through a song on his surprise mixtape Might Delete Later. In the project's last song "7 Minute Drill," J. Cole addressed K. Dot's diss, rapping, "I got a phone call, they say that somebody dissing / You want some attention, it come with extensions." The Fayetteville, North Carolina native also rapped, "He still doing shows but fell off like The Simpsons / Your first shit was classic, your last shit was tragic / Your second shit put n***as to sleep but they gassed it / Your third shit was massive and that was your prime / I was trailing right behind and I just now hit mine.
Continuing with his response, J. Cole rapped, "He averaging one hard verse like every 30 months or something / If he wasn't dissing, then we wouldn't be discussing nothin' / Blood don't make me have to smoke this n***a 'cause I f*ck with him / But push come to shove on this mic I will humble him."
J. Cole's Apology
After J. Cole dropped his response to Kendrick, many fans were thrilled and applauded him. However, much to their dissatisfaction, he made a U-turn. J. Cole made a public apology to Kendrick during the Dreamville Festival in North Carolina on April 7. In his apology, J. Cole said he was proud of his project, Might Delete Later, except for one part. He said, "There's one part of that sh*t that makes me feel like, 'Man, that's the lamest sh*t I ever did in my f*cking life.' And, I know this is not what a lot of people wanna hear. I can hear my n***s up there right now like, 'Nah, don't do that.' But, I gotta keep it 100 with y'all. I damn near had a relapse."
J. Cole further said he was blessed to know Kendrick and Drake. He added, "I felt conflicted 'cause I'm like, bruh I know I don't really feel a way. But the world wanna see blood… so I say all of that to say, in my spirit of trying to get this music out, I moved in a way that spiritually feels bad on me. I tried to jab my n***a back and I tried to keep it friendly." J. Cole emphasized that being in a rap beef disrupted his peace. He concluded by praising Kendrick, saying, "I wanna say right here tonight, how many people think Kendrick Lamar is one of the greatest muthaf*ckas to ever touch a microphone? Dreamville, y'all love Kendrick Lamar correct? As do I." J. Cole also promised to remove "7 Minute Drill" from all streaming platforms and kept to his word.
Kendrick Vs. Drake
Two weeks after J. Cole apologized, Drake released "Push Ups," his first diss track and direct response to Kendrick, sparking their rap beef. He followed that up with the AI-generated "Taylor Made Freestyle." Kendrick took his time to respond and did so with "Euphoria" and "6:16 In LA." Drake came back firing with "Family Matters," but K. Dot shot back almost immediately with "Meet The Grahams." With Drake and Kendrick going against each other with so much heat and making various unverified allegations against themselves, fans began to see why J. Cole didn't want to take part in a diss with Kendrick.
Thus, the memes began to change from ridiculing J. Cole to showing him at peace while his colleagues poured dirt on each other. Kendrick followed "Meet The Grahams" with the club banger "Not Like Us," while Drake responded with "The Heart Part 6," in which he many took as he was done with the beef. Since then, everything has quietened down but the viral J. Cole memes continue to dominate the internet.
Let The J. Cole Memes Begin
J. Cole's apology threatened his legacy and social media erupted with dozens of memes expressing disappointment at the rapper. The J. Cole memes changed course as the K. Dot and Drake's rap beef progressed. After J. Cole apologized, the memes focused on how humiliating it was for him to do that and the damage it could have on his career. The best memes that typified these were from TikTokers, BasikEarth, iitz.samurai, and Karai The Curator.
However, when Drake and Kendrick's beef heated up so much, no one was blaming J. Cole for bowing out. Instead, the J. Cole memes that went viral were of him having a good time while Drake and K. Dot traded words. The best memes that typified included X user, @Justhugee's meme from the Spider-Man movie, X user, @@BabuVersus's meme from "Family Guy," and X user @timeimmemorial_'s meme from The Sopranos.
After Drake and Kendrick took a break from releasing diss tracks, TiktToker @2kold.fr shared a video that showed the ocean waves. The video then cut to her sitting next to J. Cole on a sandy beach. The rapper looked chilled in the video. He wore a black T-shirt, shorts, white socks, and sneakers and had his head phones connected to a laptop. The TikToker's video confirmed people's feelings that J. Cole was relaxing while Drake and Kendrick went for the kill. Eventually, most people agreed that J. Cole probably did the right thing by sitting the beef out. Do you agree?
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