On Thursday, J. Cole found himself targeted in another song by a West Coast artist.
Cole, who made headlines this week by expressing remorse about dissing Kendrick Lamar, has just been name-dropped by Los Angeles-based rapper Symba in a new freestyle he released on his birthday.
"It’s my birthday and Yaw know what time it is ..THIS IS HIP HOP!!! .. 🦁," he captioned the video, which sees him spitting over the infamous "Control" beat.
"The Big 3 fucked up, Cole gave up his spot now," Symba raps. "Can't say you top five if you scared to be hostile/I remember feeling your pain when you let Nas down/But you done let Bas down and Cozz down/You done let the squad down."
He continues, "Can't say you the GOAT if you ain't popping it/We ain't trying to hear all them apologies/Dot told you n***as that he usually homeboys with who he rhyming with/But this is hip-hop and you n***as should know what time it is."
Symba says his latest freestyle is "friendly competition" and compared it to late basketball legend Kobe Bryant running through his then-Lakers teammate Pau Gasol in the 2008 Olympics.
"Rap is just like a sport, so if you stand-down, you’re taking an 'L.' It’s just words and what is wrong with a little friendly competition, it’s what keeps our art alive," he said in a press release. "Do you remember when Kobe blasted his boy Gasol in the Olympics? It set the tone but, it was still all love."
It's also worth noting that Lebron James, hip-hop A&R and four-time NBA champion, took to the comments section to give Symba his flowers for the freestyle. "HAPPY BDAY MY G!!! And keeping [sic] Electric Sliding on em!" he wrote with several smoke-blowing emojis.
Symba's bars come after J. Cole publicly showed remorse for his "7 Minute Drill" diss track he released last Friday, where he defended himself against Kendrick Lamar's scathing lyrics on the No. 1 hit "Like That." The Future/Metro Boomin track showed up on their first of two joint albums, We Don't Trust You. Part two, We Still Don't Trust You, arrives Friday.
It's unclear exactly when the current J. Cole and Drake versus Kendrick situation began, but tensions noticeably heightened after Drizzy's release of "First Person Shooter," featuring Cole, which had the "Big 3" mention that K.Dot took offense to.
