Chaos has recently broken out in the world of hip hop and rap music. With the creation of the albums We Don’t Trust You by Future and Metro Boomin on March 20 and “Might Delete Later” by J. Cole on April 5, pre-existing conflict between popular artists was amplified. Now, rappers from across the genre are picking sides in a feud that has no clear end in sight.
The conflict began back in 2023 with the release of Drake’s album For All the Dogs. The album’s most popular track was “First Person Shooter”, a song featuring J. Cole. This track was so popular that it blew up top billboard charts and even made it to the top of the Hot 100. In the song, J. Cole suggests that he, Drake and Kendrick Lamar are the “Big Three” names in the current rap genre.
However, in the new album We Don’t Trust You, Kendrick strikes back. In the song “Like That” featuring Kendrick, he makes his ideas on the “Big Three ” very clear. Stating “[Expletive] the big three, its just big me,” Kendrick claims that he is a bigger name in the rap game compared to J. Cole and Drake. With this simple lyric, a rap civil war began, and artists are now choosing to side with Drake and J.Cole, or Metro Boomin, Future and Kendrick Lamar.
“I like the conflict because they keep releasing awesome songs but if I had to choose which side I’m on, I’d have to go with Drake,” sophomore Mason Machiran exclaimed. “He’s top 5 on my list of favorite rappers.”
In J. Cole’s “7 Minute Drill”, he fired back with the lyrics “Your third [expletive] was massive and that was your prime / I was trailin’ right behind and I just now hit mine,” and “Front of the line, with a comfortable lead / How ironic, son as I got it, now he want somethin’ with me” explaining how he fell off and only had one hit album.
With this conflict going back and forth, rappers aren’t the only ones choosing sides, but the students of Marriotts Ridge as well.
“Kendrick is so tough I’m definitely with him,” senior Devin Bender emphasized. “His disses against J. Cole and Drake were so good.”
On the other hand, some students were heavily influenced by J. Cole’s “Might Delete Later” album and are now beginning to side with him.
“At first I thought that there was no way that J. Cole would be able to come back from what Kendrick said about him,” Machiran said. “But the bars he had on his new album were really good, I was surprised he was able to bounce back so quickly.”
Just recently, J.Cole had a concert where he then apologized to Kendrick Lamar for the diss track album he released.
“I’m so proud of the whole project, except for one part ” stated Cole. “It makes me feel like that’s the lamest [expletive] I ever did in my [expletive] life.”
With the apology from J. Cole it seems as though he has decided to voluntarily leave the rap civil war. However, this certainly does not mean it is over. Members from each side of the battle are still active and looking to make their next attack against the opposition. With the conflict still ongoing, Mustangs are likely to still have lots of upcoming music to look forward to.