J Cole is in a weird place. The rapper wasn't defeated in combat the way Drake was. The fact that he chose to forfeit, and cede ground to Kendrick Lamar, though, has been viewed by many as a fate worse than defeat. At least Drake stood on his convictions, right? The debate as to whether Cole made a smart or cowardly decision continues to rage on. Fat Joe recently weighed in on the legacy of the Dreamville star during a recent appearance on the Jay Shetty Podcast. He gave J Cole his flowers, but also noted that things will never quite be the same.
"He definitely got a stripe off," Fat Joe asserted. "They took a stripe off that because in hip-hop, when they call you out, you come out." The Terror Squad founder acknowledged that J Cole's sense of self preservation was smart in some ways, but noted that it came at a great cost. "He probably saw that it could get real messy and real ugly," Fat Joe added. "So he said, 'You know this ain’t me I don’t want no parts of it.'" Joe's reputation is ironclad when it comes to rap beef, so it's hard to argue with his stance. The rapper has gone at everybody, from 2Pac to JAY-Z to 50 Cent, and never backed down. As far as he is concerned, backing down is not an option.
Fat Joe Wishes That J Cole Had Risen To The Challenge
Part of Fat Joe's reasoning is that beefing on record is not the same as beefing in real life. The rapper was perplexed by J Cole's decision to throw in the towel, given that his battle with Lamar was strictly a lyrical one. "I had one of the biggest, most dangerous beefs with 50 Cent," Joe relayed to Shetty. "And I was sitting next to him at the game yesterday, having the best time in the world. We’re brothers." Once again, the rapper took Cole to task for shying away from competition. "When you’re called out in hip-hop, you gotta respond," he asserted. "I'm a big fan of J Cole, but it started from that."
Fat Joe isn't alone in his thinking. Kanye West absolutely laid into Cole on the "Like That" remix, throwing more shots at the Dreamville star than his supposed "main" target, Drake. The Game was also frustrated by Cole's reticence to attack Kendrick Lamar. "Hip hop [or] rap or whatever y'all calling it these days was already watered down," the Compton emcee tweeted. "Then Cole apologized and turned this sh*t into Kool-Aid wit no sugar." Here's hoping J Cole can bounce back. We will all agree to forget "Grippy."