The “beef” between this generation’s “Big 3” of rap, Drake, J. Cole, and Kendrick Lamar, started on Metro Booming and Future’s new album We Don’t Trust You, on the song “Like That,” where he took repeated shots at J. Cole and Drake without mentioning them by name, but referring to them, including a bar where he says “MotherF*** the big three, n*****, it’s just big me.” This bar got fans begging J. Cole and Drake to respond to start another rap war.
Cole responded first in “Might Delete Later,” only 13 days after “Like That” was released. The last song on this mini album was a 7-minute drill where he threw repeated verbal jabs at Kendrick, saying things like, “Your first sh*t was classic, your last sh*t was tragic/ Your second sh*t put n***** to sleep, but they gassed it/ Your third sh*t was massive and that was your prime/ I was trailin’ right behind and I just now hit mine.” This song had mixed opinions, with some thinking that J. Cole did what he needed to do and others thought he went too easy on Kendrick. Only two days after releasing the track, J. Cole apologized to Kendrick for his diss, saying that “It was the lamest sh*t I ever did.” The response was mostly negative, with people saying that J. Cole was “soft” for apologizing and should have stood by his track. According to Belmont Hill’s Dininar Alpers ’26, “J Cole’s apology was weak and showed no grit.” With J. Cole backing out of the beef, it was Drake’s turn to fight back.
Drake responded to Kendrick’s diss with a track called “Push-Ups,” where he took shots at not just Kendrick but Metro Boomin, Rick Ross, J. Cole, and more, including saying, “What the F*** is this, a 20-v-1” and ending the song with “It’s me twice in my Big Three, I had to leave you out” referring to Kendrick Lamar. While this track was leaked, prompting people to speculate that AI made the song instead of Drake, Drake released multiple things hinting that he made the song, including making fun of Metro Boomin on his Instagram story. Drake’s most recent diss makes fans wonder how Kendrick will respond to this unreleased Drake song.
