On November 18, J. Cole announced on Instagram that he was dropping a new podcast called Inevitable. Featuring conversations with filmmaker Scott Lazer and his “right hand” Ibrahim Hamad, the rapper will share not only stories of his come-up but also unreleased music.
“If you rocked with me at any point so far on my journey, I hope this will give you even more perspective and fill in a lot of blanks. If you have your own dream in life that you hope to achieve, in any field, I hope that this will feed your spirit, giving you confidence to believe in that dream and the encouragement to push through the tough times. To go for it even when you may be afraid to,” he said in the caption of his announcement.
He wasn’t afraid to shout out someone who has influenced his career—but also one of his biggest current haters—Ye.
Cole’s kind words for Ye
In the first episode of the show, J. Cole talked about his love for the Chicago rapper and how he became his favorite artist.
“He kinda cracked my mind open. Kanye was the first time I saw myself in somebody … He just made it possible to talk about your life or regular perspectives in a way that’s appealing. I didn’t know how to talk about my life. And then, f***** Kanye West happened,” Cole said.
Ye’s influence on his music can be seen in earlier projects, with Cole rapping on West beats (like “Just to Get By”) on 2009’s The Warm Up. He also used Yeezy’s song “Last Call” as the basis for the mixtape and his eventual album 2014 Forest Hills Drive.
A pettier person might not have chosen this time to give Ye his flowers, considering all the jabs Ye has brazenly taken at Cole this year.
How Ye has stayed on J. Cole’s head
Ye dropped his remix of Future, Metro, and K. Dot’s diss-filled track “Like That” on April 20 to join the Drake hate train. However, he also had some scathing words in store for Cole.
“Y’all so outta sight, outta mind, I can’t even think of a Drake line, Play J. Cole, get the pussy dry, Play this shit back a hundred-thirty times” he spits on the track. He doubled down and posted a raunchy meme about the rapper you would see at 3 A.M. on X.
He took it a step further during his appearance on The Download podcast with Justin LaBoy on April 23. He took the opportunity to go in about how much he didn’t like Cole’s apology to Kendrick Lamar earlier that month at the Dreamville Festival.
“F**k all that pussy sh*t … “F**k all that sh*t. Because, like that n**ga J. Cole went on tour with Drake, he know what it is. Like, n**ga, you can’t run now. It’s you also,” he said on the show.
As if he couldn’t be more of the conductor of the J. Cole hate train, Ye also shared that he never listened to his music or gave him a co-sign. “I don’t listen to J. Cole so I wouldn’t even know, … I just heard he had a song called ‘False Prophets‘ and somebody told me it’s halfway about me,” he said.
When asked if it was up for Cole by the podcast, he stated defiantly that “you can’t put ‘Cole’ & ‘Up’ in the same sentence.”
On 2016’s “False Prophets,” Cole raps that “There was a time when this nigga was my hero, maybe, That’s the reason why his fall from grace is hard to take, ‘Cause I believed him when he said his shit was purer and he, The type of nigga swear he real but all around him’s fake…”
He later confirmed in a 2018 interview with Angie Martinez that the first verse was definitely about Ye.
Nevertheless, just like with his apology to K. Dot, Cole continues to try to bring positivity to the rap game—even though there are hip-hop heavyweights sick of his Michelle Obama “when they go low, we go high” approach.
