The big rap story of 2024 has been Drake and Kendrick Lamar. For a good reason. In terms of fame and success, these two artists are the most important of their age. But Drake and J. Cole is also a very interesting story. The pair has worked together since 2010, and on the hit song “First Person Shooter” in 2023, they got back together. That one that started the whole “Big Three” war? Drake went after Kendrick Lamar by himself after J. Cole had left the fight. Cole said that in his brand-new song “Port Antonio.” Drake seemed to pay attention.

On October 9, J. Cole dropped “San Antonio” out of the blue. Fans were happy to hear new music, but no one saw coming the topics Cole writes about in his songs. He takes the fight between the “Big Three” head-on and even names Drake in one of his lines. That’s clear: he doesn’t dislike the 6 God, and he thanks him for all the help he’s given him in his work. “They say I’m picking sides, don’t you lie on me, my n**ga,” he says. “Hey Drake, you’ll always be my n**ga. The start of another war.” “I’m not ashamed to say that you helped me a lot, my n**ga.” It looked like the Toronto artist cared about what Cole had to say. He liked the Instagram post that put the song online in the first place.

The shout out came at an interesting time. Drake was recently in the news for some not-so-great reasons. He went to a public event in Toronto and talked about how people he thought were friends had hurt him. “My real friends are definitely in the building,” the 6 God told the people. “You’re going to come to a point in life where people you thought were friends, or people you thought were close to you, switch up.” Since J. Cole not only said sorry for making fun of Kendrick Lamar, but also went on to work with some of Drake’s enemies, it’s likely that he is one of the fake friends Drake talked about.

J. Cole spent the rest of the song telling Drake and K. Dot why he didn’t want to fight. He thought that he didn’t want to be known for making fun of people he thought were similar to him. He also didn’t want to find out bad things about people he’s known for a long time. “Jermaine is not king,” he raps. “If that means I have to dig.” And pay a whole team of algorithm bot n**gas to change everything on social media by fighting for memes that make you look good. Let’s hope that J. Cole’s offer of peace is enough to make things better between him and Drake.