J.Cole and Drake: Friendship timeline explored as latter seemingly reacts to Rapper’s latest track addressing Kendrick Lamar feud

J.Cole and Drake friendship
Drake and J Cole (Image via official Instagram @champagnepapi and via official Facebook @J.Cole)

J. Cole and Drake have been friends since their early careers and have a mutual relationship and trust. Recently, J. Cole has been part of the Drake and Kendrick Lamar feud. Cole, however, stopped participating soon after the release of his song 7 Minute Drill in April 2024.

Now, the rapper has addressed why he dropped from the feud in a new song, Port Antonio, released on October 9, 2024. The singer rapped in the song:

"Protectin' legacies, so lines got crossed, perhaps regrettably/My friends went to war, I walked away with all they blood on me. Now some will discredit me, tryna wipe away my pedigree/But please, find a ni**a out that's rappin' this incredibly."

The singer continues in the song:

"I pulled the plug because I seen where that was ’bout to go/They wanted blood, they wanted clicks to make they pockets grow./ They see this fire in my pen they think I'm dodging smoke/I wouldn't have lost a battle, dawg, I would have lost a bro/And all for what?"

The song continues:

"Just to obtain some ol' props from strangers that don't got a clue what I been aiming fo' since the age of 14/ Jermaine is no king if that means I got to dig up dirt and pay a whole team of algorithm bot ni**as just to sway the whole thing on social media/"

The song continues:

"Competing for your favorable memes. Hey Drake, you'll always be my ni**a/I ain't ashamed to say you did a lot fo' me, my ni**a/F**k all the narratives/Tapping back into your magic pen is what's imperative"

Cole posted the song release on his official Instagram page on October 9, 2024. Drake reacted to the post by liking it. Drake's liking of Cole's post has since then gone viral, with many publications taking note of it, as exemplified by the tweet embedded below:


J. Cole and Drake's friendship timeline: Details of musical collaborations

2010: Cole and Drake first started their friendship just after their career started. The two collaborated on J Cole's song In the Morning, released November 12, 2010. Subsequently, the two performed the song together live at a New York City concert in December 2010.


2013: J. Cole name-dropped Drake in the song Cole Summer, released as part of the EP Truly Yourz 2. Subsequently, Drake bought out all the copies of Cole's album Born Sinner.

Later in the year, Drake collaborated with Cole on his single Jodeci Freestyle, which Bink! produced. The song's reference to autism caused controversy, and both rappers subsequently had to apologize.


2014: Drake allowed J.Cole to use his instrumental track for the song Mo Money, released as part of the album Born Sinner. This information was revealed by JakeOne in 2014.


2015-2016: In October 2015, Drake brought Cole to the Austin City Limits festival. Then, Drake brought Cole to the Summer City Tour in 2016. Cole performed a medley on 2014 Forest Hill Drive.


2019: Drake once again brought Cole during live concerts during his Assassination tour. The duo also confirmed that they were collaborating on new music.

2021-2022: J. Cole borrowed from Drake's song Pipe Down for his song Heaven’s EP, released on the 2022 mixtape titled D-Day: A Gangsta Grillz Mixtape. The track remains the duo's last collaboration so far.

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Edited by Sarah Nazamuddin Harniswala