There have been rumors lately that J. Cole and YoungBoy Never Broke Again are beefing. Cole, though, made a guest appearance on Drake’s new album For All The Dogs, in which he seemingly puts the rumors to rest.
On “First Person Shooter,” Cole raps, “I still wanna get me a song with YB / Can’t trust everything that you saw on IG / Just know if I diss you, I made sure you know that I hit you like I’m on your caller ID.”
As for what’s going on here: In 2021, it was reported that NBA Youngboy had a studio session with Cole scheduled, but he apparently made Cole wait for 8 hours and never actually showed up. YoungBoy claimed at the time, “They lied and said I stood J. Cole up. They lied, they said I ain’t wanna go in the studio with him. That wasn’t even the case. I was going through something so what the f*ck I’ma go in this man’s studio session for a meet up with him, knowing that I ain’t in a mode to talk or just to be in the mode to f*ck around. What the f*ck I’ma go around this man if I know I ain’t in a mood to talk to nobody or sit there, or even be around somebody.”
Fast-forward to earlier this year, when YoungBoy rapped on “F*ck The Industry Pt. 2,” “J. a ho, that n**** played it cold like he was gon’ do a feature / So I texted his line a muscle sign, I swear it’s gon’ be nice to meet you.”
Last month, Cole featured on Lil Yachty’s “The Secret Recipe” and rapped, “N****s makin’ threats and I laugh, that’s ’cause you ain’t a threat / Don’t ask how I feel ’bout no rappers, sh*t, they OK, I guess / Incomin’ call, press the button, the one that say accept / He FaceTime to ask for a feature and saw the face of death / I’m on your song, your streams goin’ up, not quite the Drake effect / But don’t complain, b*tch, take what you get and cut the label check.”
While that was widely interpreted as being about YoungBoy, Cole’s manager Ibrahim Hamad wrote on X (formerly Twitter), “I’m pretty sure this is [cap]. Not sure how y’all heard that cole verse and put that together, impressive.”
Listen to “First Person Shooter” above.
For All The Dogs is out now via OVO Sound. Find more information here.