Hours after Dreamville dropped their new project D-Day: A Gangsta Grillz Mixtape, Royce da 5’9” took to Twitter to give J. Cole his flowers, declaring that the North Carolina rapper has a leg up on the best rappers of his era.
“Ready to talk about EarthGang now?” Royce wrote. “Matter of fact...The WHOLE Dreamville...They ready for the Zombie Apocalypse out this bitch.”
The Detroit rapper went on to suggest that Cole has separated himself in the ongoing argument over who’s the best rapper between him, Kendrick Lamar, and Drake.
“Cole as an executive separates him from that 3 headed monster convo y’all been having for the last 10 yrs,” Royce said. “Put some respek on my brother’s name.”
In recent years, Cole hasn’t shied away from discussing his competitive relationship with Kendrick and Drake.
During an episode of Kevin Durant’s The ETCS podcast last May, Cole described how his perspective has changed in regards to how he perceives his contemporaries.
“I would assume it’s just like basketball in a sense,” he explained. “It’s like, man, these are the guys that push you, and you gotta push them. You know what I mean… I’ve never been a reach-out [person], especially because when there’s competition involved … It’s almost like working out together. I guess in the NBA, in the past, that was unheard of. Like, ‘Why would I work out with this n***a? … I’m trying to destroy this n***a.’”
Cole added, “That was kind of my mentality early on. But as I’ve gotten older, I realize … no one is truly my peer or can relate to what’s going on in my life better than these people right here—just in terms of whatever pressures there might be … nobody can really relate to that like these dudes, and I really genuinely fuck with these dudes.”
