Noname has revealed she’s made peace with J. Cole, several years after the rappers traded barbs in a pair of songs.
On Thursday (October 26), the Chicago rapper opened up about her “spirited debate” with the “MIDDLE CHILD” hitmaker in a new interview with Complex.
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“I wouldn’t say [Cole] was necessarily wrong,” Noname admitted. “I think we both could have went about it in a better way… [W]e both could have done better. I’m like, ‘Bro, I’m only on Twitter, I’m not even talking about you. It’s tweets, I thought you wasn’t on Twitter.'”
The Sundial rapper — who said Cole helped her gain “hella followers” due to the spat — then explained how she and the Dreamville boss connected earlier this year.
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“I had a block party this past summer and I was hitting him to see if he could pull up on some special guest shit, and he was really about it,” she said. “He wasn’t able to because he’s a father with children, but he was down to donate.
“We have prison chapters for our book club, so he was like, ‘I’m definitely down to support.’ He’s really sweet. We do not have beef, we love Cole over here.”
Noname reflects on her back-and-forth with J. Cole and reveals they've been in touch 👀 pic.twitter.com/abK3tpp1L3
— Complex Music (@ComplexMusic) October 26, 2023
The dispute between the pair began when on his 2020 song “Snow On Tha Bluff,” Cole criticized someone he described as “a young lady out there she way smarter than me.”
“I scrolled through her timeline in these wild times and I started to read/ She mad at these crackers, she mad at these capitalists, mad at these murder police,” Cole spits on the track. “She mad my n-ggas, she mad at our ignorance, she wear her heart on her sleeve/ She mad at the celebrities, low key I’m assuming she talking bout me.
He goes on: “Now I ain’t no dummy to think I’m above criticism/ So when I see something that’s valid, I listen/ But shit, it’s something about the queen tone that’s bothering me.”
Many assumed that Cole was talking about Noname. The part about the woman’s “tone” riled up fans, fellow artists, and even Noname herself — who then responded with the track “Song 33.”
“I guess the ego hurt now/ It’s time to go to work, wow, look at him go/ He really ’bout to write about me when the world is in smokes/ There’s people in trees when George was beggin’ for his mother/ Saying he couldn’t breathe, you thought to write about me?” she raps on the response record.
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Just days later, Noname backpedaled somewhat, saying on social media that she was “not proud” of herself for responding with the song.
“I tried to use it as a moment to draw attention back to the issues i care about but i didn’t have to respond,” she wrote. “My ego got the best of me. i apologize for any further distraction this caused.”
