J Cole Brings a Knife to a Fight in '7 Minute Drill'

Metro Boomin warned us before he and the Future fall We Don't Trust You: “Pick a side.”

As J. Cole learned over the past 12 hours, anyone who isn't firmly on one side of the Drake and Kendrick Lamar divide is likely to get caught in the crossfire. Last night, it fell It can be deleted later, a surprise EP of tracks that could have been hailed as another solid offering from the rap vet — or perhaps the conversation would have been about his disturbing (and trite) transphobic bars on “Pi.” Instead, the rap world is buzzing about “7 Minute Drill,” a song from the project where Cole responds to Kendrick's now-infamous verse on Future and Metro Boomin's “Like That.” The streets are talking — but Cole might not like what they're saying.

Cole didn't spend the entire song on Kendrick, but instead fired what he deemed a “warning shot” at his one-time friend. He applied Jay-Z's “Takeover” tactic, summing up Kendrick's catalog: “Your first shit was classic, your last shit was tragic / Your second shit put niggas to sleep but they got gassed / Your third shit was huge and that was your prime / I was moving right back and I just hit mine.” Cole also criticized Kendrick's sparse release schedule: “He averages a hard verse like every thirty months or something” / If he ain't fun, then we ain't talkin' about him.''But then he dialed back the vitriol, also saying, 'don't make me smoke that nigga cause I'm f*cking him'” on the second beat of the T-Minus and Conductor Williams-produced track , he admits, “I'm hesitant, I love my brother, but I won't lie / I'm real high, this shit would be like thinking a fly.” If this was a 106 & Park Freestyle competition Friday, I would imagine a judge asking Cole if he was actually wrestling or not.

Cole's reference to Jay-Z's “Takeover” taking down Nas' discography ignores the fact that Jay-Z's claim in 2001 that Nas had “one hot album every ten years on average” was also wrong — Nas' Illmatic I follow It was written is a classic consensual. Ditto Kendrick's To Pimp A Butterfly, regarded by a sizeable sect of rap fans as the best album of the 2010s. But “winning” a battle is about shifting public perception, which means manipulating public talking points that might not do you even believe. For some artists, it would make sense to attack Kendrick for the same things his critics are already knocking him for. But for Cole, those same judgments have arguably applied to him even more. Cole says To Pimp A Butterfly “put the niggas to bed,” but “J. Cole is boring” the feeling was so strong that he fought it throughout his career. He defended himself in 2013 saying that “the world that likes Soul plane they will probably think Redemption in Shawshank It's boring.”

J. Cole has a history of passive-aggressively referencing other artists in ways he may later dismiss as constructive criticism if pressed. He also walks close enough to the proverbial line to garner headlines and prompt listeners to wonder if he's taking shots at specific people. He's done it to Jay-Z on “Rich Niggas,” Kanye West and Wale on “False Prophets,” and Noname on “Snow on Tha Bluff.” The latter track was the biggest boomerang, as it amounted to the shaking of Noname's irrepressible radicalism (which struck at an inopportune time after the tragic death of activist Oluwatoyin Salau). One should consider this background when listening to “7 Minute Drill.” It's clearly a diss, and Cole's foot is on the line, but it's not ten toes down. The song's title refers to the military's seven-minute drill, in which officers discuss how to respond to an enemy threat. But it must also be understood that no one responds to a warning shot with else warning shot; it's battle time at this point.

The diss shows Cole in a precarious position, caught between two friends. He was just on tour with Drake and they compliment each other on any stage together. And even though Cole hasn't collaborated or appeared publicly with Kendrick in years, he even admits on “7 Minute Drill” that he “loves my brother.” Before Future and Metro Boomin's “Like That,” few would have batted an eye if Cole had gone on tour with Drake and then had Kendrick perform at Dreamville. But times are different. The battle lines have been drawn and fans want to see the “big 3” make big changes.

Even Drake, who dropped his verse from his BFB album Packman last week, understands that fans want to hear him go crazy the next time he's on a song. Cole may have thought he was doing the right thing by counting the “7 Minute Drill,” but rap beef is a toxic, stupid arena. Rap fans want to hear artists go all the way, not be overly conscientious and almost polite on the battlefield. If the “7 Minute Drill” is in fact a reference to military talk, perhaps the administration's decision should have been to stand down and say nothing at all.