J. Cole Shows Gratitude to Drake in Surprise-Dropped New Song: 'You Did a Lot for Me'

J. Cole is in a decidedly reflective mood in his surprise-released new song .

The track, tentatively titled “Port Antonio,” is only available via Cole’s YouTube and Instagram as of this writing. As we reported last night , the vulnerable but confident track sees Cole looking back on his decision to remove himself from the early days of the Kendrick Lamar and Drake beef . According to Cole, while his “friends went to war,” he “walked away with all they blood on me.” But those are far from the only lyrics to have been linked to the events of what has undeniably been a year of beef.

While the first verse sees Cole likening himself to Michael Jackson in the “Beat It” era, the second opens with him pondering whether peace will come to his “cursed mind.” From there, he works his way to being more specific, touching on an assessment of himself that he believes shows he’s “matured” since he first started making music. This leads to Cole conceding that he “hates what rap’s become,” though he opts not to “knock it.”

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Still, Cole makes time to call out what he sees as hypocrisy in the game at large (“They instigate the fuckery because it’s profitable”) before landing at the war talk we already covered here . But the insight is arguably ratcheted up in subsequent lines, as Cole brings fans into his mind to dig into how being stripped of his spot means he’s now “finally free.”

As for Drake, whose 2023 For All the Dogs track “First Person Shooter” saw Cole positing them both alongside Kendrick as “ the big three ,” Cole pushes back against those arguing that he still chose sides despite stepping away from the larger back-and-forth after initially signaling that he was all in with the “ Like That ”-responding “ 7 Minute Drill .”

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Indeed, deeper into the second verse of “Port Antonio,” Cole tells Drake “You’ll always be my n***a” and expressed gratitude for him having done “a lot for me” over the years.

“Fuck all the narratives,” Cole raps before laying out a vision for what he feels rap should be, and not just for himself and Drake but for other fellow artists as well.

“It’s not for beefin,’” he argues.

See more below.

Now some will discredit me, try wipe away my pedigree
But please, find a n***a out that's rappin' this incredibly
My dawg texted me, I'll share the words he said to me
"If you refuse to shoot the gun, don't mean the gun ain't deadly,"
I guess in that metaphor, hypothetically, the gun is me
I text him back like, "Guess a gun ain't what I'm tryna be, my n***a"
They strip me of my spot, and now I'm finally free, my n***a
They say I'm pickin' sides, don't you lie on me, my n***a
Then start another war, Drake, you'll always be my n***a
I ain't ashamed to say you did a lot for me, my n***a
Fuck all the narratives
Tappin' back into your magic pen is what's imperative
Remindin' these folks why we do it, it's not for beefin'
It's for speakin' our thoughts, pushin' ourselves, reachin' the charts
Reaching your minds, deep in your heart, screamin' to find
Emotions to touch, somethin' inside to open you up
Help you cope with the rough times and shit
I'm sendin' love 'cause we ain't promised shit

Production for “Port Antonio” is credited to Omen, DZL, and Cole himself. Next for Cole, presumably, is The Fall Off, a long-speculated-about new full-length first teased in the title of the closing track to his 2018 album KOD.

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