J. Cole Appears to Take Aim at Kendrick Lamar on ‘7 Minute Drill’: Listen

J. Cole shook up the rap world with the surprise release of his Might Delete Laterproject on Friday (April 5).

The mixtape arrived on streaming services without warning and fans quickly took note of the potent project closer “7 Minute Drill,” which appears to find Cole responding to Kendrick Lamar’s disses on Future and Metro Boomin’s “Like That.”

“I got a phone call, they say that somebody dissing/ You want some attention, it comes with extensions,” Cole initially teased.

He then gets to taking shots at K. Dot’s discography by disparaging specific albums like calling 2022’s Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers “tragic” and claiming that the Grammy-winning To Pimp A Butterfly had listeners snoozing.

“He still doin’ shows, but fell off like the Simpsons/ Your first s–t was classic, your last shit was tragic/ Your second shit put n—-s to sleep, but they gassed it/ Your third shit was massive and that was your prime/ I was trailing right behind and I just now hit mine/ Now I’m front of the line with a comfortable lead/ How ironic, soon as I got it, now he want somethin’ with me,” the Dreamville CEO spews.

J. Cole informs Kendrick that this is just a “warning shot” and the gloves could come off entirely for more if the West Coast legend wants to go there.

“He averagin’ one hard verse like every thirty months or somethin’/ If he wasn’t dissin’, then we wouldn’t be discussin’ ’em/ Lord, don’t make me have to smoke this n—a ’cause I f–k with him/ But push come to shove, on this mic, I will humble him,” Cole promises.

The North Carolina native continues to tap Lamar about his lack of output. “Four albums in 12 years, n—a, I can divide,” he quips in a lyric that appears to imitate Jay-Z’s bars on his Nas diss “Takeover.”

The second part of “7 Minute Drill” features a beat switch with Conductor Williams taking the reins from T-Minus behind the boards and fans are speculating that the ominous production samples Drake’s If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late standout “Energy.”

For those wondering about the inspiration for “7 Minute Drill” as a song title, J. Cole’s manager Ibrahim Hamad explained last year during an appearance on the Say Less podcast that Cole will rap for seven minutes straight over a few different beats as an exercise to break writer’s block.

“He does these seven-minute drills that he got Cozz be doing… He’ll just be like, ‘You got seven minutes.’ It’s basically his way of breaking out of overthinking,” the Dreamville co-founder said. “Like don’t even think about it. Start a verse — what we gon’ talk about? He’ll be like, ‘Cozz, write a verse about pizza.’ They got seven minutes and they put the timer on.”

Might Delete Later kicks off a busy weekend for J. Cole, who will be headlining his fourth annual Dreamville Fest in Raleigh, N.C. on Sunday (April 7).

Take a listen to “7 Minute Drill” below.