J. Cole recently revealed that he threw direct shots at Kanye West on “Looking For Trouble,” after Kanye made a comment that Cole found disrespectful.
On the Inevitable audio series, Cole recalled Kanye dismissing him during a UStream.
“Kanye’s answer was, like — I don’t think anybody watching it would notice, but me being me, I looked at him like, ‘Aw, that shit was hella dismissive,’” he said.
When Kanye was asked if he’d work with Cole, he said, “‘I mean, we might put him on one of the G.O.O.D. Fridays or something.’ It was like a, ‘Yes, but.’ He’s not a n-gga that I would [feature on my album] […] If he would’ve been like, ‘Yeah, it would be fire to put him on a G.O.O.D. Friday [song]’ it would have been a different feeling.”
Later, Kanye called Cole to record for the G.O.O.D. Fridays track. Cole, who was on tour in Michigan, initially turned him down because he didn’t have time.
But Kanye insisted, saying others would make it happen. Cole ended up driving two hours to a Detroit studio to record, writing his verse on the way.
On the track, Cole’s verse was clearly aimed at Kanye. He rapped, “‘Cole World, make way for the chosen one / What you now hear is puttin’ fear in all the older ones / Downplayed me to downgrade me like they don’t notice him / Your shoes too big to fill? I can barely squeeze my toes in ‘em.’”
“The world has never known that. Those were direct shots [at Kanye] because days prior I had seen the n-gga be like, ‘Ah, we might put him on a G.O.O.D. Friday song or something.’ […] And those are shots I know only [Kanye] would feel,” he explained.
When Kanye heard the verse, he was impressed and added his own bars, but when Cole heard the final mix, he felt his vocals had been “sabotaged.” He said his verse sounded “stiff” because the vocals were “nudged” offbeat, and he suspected it was a subtle act of spite.
Since then, Cole has dissed Kanye in songs like “False Prophets” and “Middle Child.”
Their relationship remains tense, and they haven’t worked together since.
