It is always a bonus for fans when their favorite rapper finally addresses old rumors on a new track.
This was the case on the latest J. Cole project, The Off-Season, when Cole referenced an incident from way back in 2013 involving him and Diddy at the MTV VMAs afterparty.
According to the story, which was never officially confirmed by Cole or Puff’s teams, an intoxicated Diddy confronted Kendrick Lamar at the event about the Compton rapper’s verse on Big Sean’s “Control” when he infamously referred to himself as “the King of New York”. Puffy allegedly tried to spill a drink on Kendrick before J. Cole intervened and started a scuffle between the two entourages. However, according to a new interview with Cole’s manager, Ibrahim “IB” Hamad, that’s not exactly how it went down.
Speaking with the hosts of the Say Less podcast on Monday, May 24th, IB confirmed that something did happen between Cole and Diddy that night, but the truth doesn’t quite line up with the rumors.
“It was definitely not like he was defending Kendrick or something,” IB explained. “It wasn’t like, ‘Don’t talk to Kendrick like that!’” IB proceeded to set the scene of the star-studded evening at the moment the disagreement occurred, saying, “Kendrick was there, Top was there, [Jay-Z] was there, Beyonce was there. Me and Cole. You know, grown men got a little heated.”
IB also added that he and Jay-Z shared a knowing glance as the situation escalated, saying, “All I remember is me and [Jay-Z] looking at each other like, ‘Oh, these n***as ‘bout to fight.’”
He went on to explain that, while the story quickly made internet waves due to the close proximity of media personalities, the men involved quickly sorted things out and all was calm by the following day. Clearly things are now peaceful between Cole and Diddy considering the latter provided the outro for one of Cole’s newest tracks, “let.go.my.hand”.