The feud was lit when J Cole collaborated on Drake’s First Person Shooter, saying they made up the “big three” of hip-hop alongside Kendrick.
Animosity between Drake and Kendrick goes back years but the track prompted a new war of words, with Kendrick saying there was no “big three – it’s just big me”.
J Cole, who was born in Germany and raised in North Carolina, initially doubled down after Kendrick’s response but later pulled back.
He apologised for a follow-up track he released promising to “humble” Kendrick, saying it was the “lamest, goofiest” thing he’d recorded and was a “mis-step”.
In Port Antonio, he suggests he “pulled the plug” because he saw where the beef was heading.
“They wanted blood, they wanted clicks to make their pockets grow,” he raps.
“I wouldn’t have lost a battle, I would’ve lost a bro, I would’ve gained a foe, and all for what?”
Drake and Kendrick got a lot of attention for their warring songs.
Their diss tracks have been streamed millions of times – Kendrick’s Euphoria was even used in an official TikTok video for US President Joe Biden’s election campaign, before he dropped out.
