Kendrick Lamar and Drake may be at odds these days, but at one point in time, they were fairly close friends and collaborators. During a recent appearance on @thecompanyman Justin Hunte's Culture United podcast, former Aftermath artist Stat Quo opened up about their relationship and J. Cole's role in it. According to him, the Toronto rapper used to send his Californian counterpart songs when he was cooking up a new album in hopes of securing a feature.
"I don't know how many people are familiar with Cole and Kendrick's relationship," he explained. "When I first heard Kendrick, Cole came to work with us to write a record for Dre and Snoop. Before we started writing that record, he played us Kendrick Lamar. Dre had heard Kendrick, but what I'm trying to say is how much he loves Kendrick. He loves Kendrick."
Stat Quo went on to theorize that Kendrick felt like Cole and Drake attacked him on "First Person Shooter," prompting him to fire back.
Was Kendrick Lamar On The Fall-Off?
"Kendrick was supposed to be on that song," he added. "If y'all don't know, for a long time, every time Drake would do an album, he would send Kendrick something for Kendrick to get on it. So this is going on behind the scenes."
Stat Quo continued, speculating that J. Cole ended up pulling "7 Minute Drill" down out of fear of the information about him that could come out if the battle escalated. "If there is something for someone to throw out there about your career," he said, "That's when you start shaking in your boots."
Stat Quo's comments arrive shortly after J. Cole sat down with Cam'ron for an episode of Talk With Flee. At one point in the conversation, the Dreamville performer recalled his reaction to Kendrick's "Like That" verse. He admitted that he thought it was hard at first, but quickly became frustrated by the timing.
"I had The Fall-Off finished," he revealed. "I probably had to tweak a couple of mixes, but I had this album finished. It's like, yo, he was on two joints."
