Drake Allegedly Left Dreamville Festival Before J Cole Went On Stage, Mandii B Claims

BYGabriel Bras Nevares4.7K Views
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INDIANAPOLIS, IN - FEBRUARY 03: (L-R) Rapper's Drake and J. Cole attend First Down Friday at Sensu on February 3, 2012 in Indianapolis, Indiana. (Photo by Johnny Nunez/WireImage/Getty Images)
While these are unverified and contested claims by some fans and social media users, you can't deny that it isn't a juicy prospect.

Get your tinfoil hats on, folks: we have another possible development in the Drake and Kendrick Lamar beef, which once upon a time also included J. Cole. Moreover, these new claims come from guest Mandii B on the Need To Know podcast, who alleged that Drake was actually in attendance at this year's Dreamville fest. If you recall, this was the moment in which Cole apologized to K.Dot for his response track, "7 Minute Drill," affirming that beef wasn't in his spirit and he would remove the track from streaming services out of love for the Compton rapper.

Well, according to Mandii, Drake was actually backstage at the Dreamville Festival in North Carolina, and was presumably slated to appear alongside J. Cole. She even insinuated that they meant to perform "First Person Shooter" together, but that when Drizzy found out that the "No Role Modelz" MC was going to back out, he left 30 minutes before his colleague hit the stage. Of course, it's important to note that this is an unverified allegation, one that fans and social media users disputed in the comments section of the post below. Still, considering how the public has reevaluated Jermaine's decision, this is an interesting possibility to think about.

Drake Attended Dreamville Festival But Left Before J. Cole Performed: Hear The Alleged Story

For one, fans could assume, if this story is true, that Drake meant to explicitly team up with J. Cole against Kendrick Lamar through this statement performance. While we'll probably never know for sure what the dynamic was here, it at least suggests that Cole let Aubrey know of his plan beforehand. Now that the beef between the "Poetic Justice" duo has seemingly settled for now, many are taking a retrospective look at the bread crumbs behind us. Even if this story isn't true, it's fair to say that there is a lot of tension between all parties now as a result, even if some is stronger than others.

We already saw what it looks like when other rappers like Lil Yachty appeared in the mix involuntarily, or when folks like Rick Ross doubled down and chased equal engagement. None of it's been very pretty. As such, we'll probably see a lot more theories come up as to what really happened between Drake, Kendrick Lamar, and J. Cole. The most likely outcome is that this is the latest myth in hip-hop history, and one we'll be scratching our heads with for years to come.

About The Author
Gabriel Bras Nevares is a staff writer for HotNewHipHop. He joined HNHH while completing his B.A. in Journalism & Mass Communication at The George Washington University in the summer of 2022. Born and raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Gabriel treasures the crossover between his native reggaetón and hip-hop news coverage, such as his review for Bad Bunny’s hometown concert in 2024. But more specifically, he digs for the deeper side of hip-hop conversations, whether that’s the “death” of the genre in 2023, the lyrical and parasocial intricacies of the Kendrick Lamar and Drake battle, or the many moving parts of the Young Thug and YSL RICO case. Beyond engaging and breaking news coverage, Gabriel makes the most out of his concert obsessions, reviewing and recapping festivals like Rolling Loud Miami and Camp Flog Gnaw. He’s also developed a strong editorial voice through album reviews, think-pieces, and interviews with some of the genre’s brightest upstarts and most enduring obscured gems like Homeboy Sandman, Bktherula, Bas, and Devin Malik.
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