Are J. Cole and Lil’ Yachty working together?
The country was still coming to terms with the election of Donald Trump and the NFL’s exile of Colin Kaepernick when a wave of inspired and impassioned Rap, Soul, R&B and Pop projects arrived. Solange delivered A Seat At The Table, 6LACK arrived with Free 6LACK and Donald Glover shifted back into an evolved Childish Gambino with Awaken! My Love. Among those releases was J. Cole’s 4 Your Eyez Only. Sandwiched in between 2014 Forest Hills Drive and KOD, the 10-track LP felt more like a letter to a lost friend that was meant to be kept private than a project that would sell hundreds of thousands of copies. But before the world even had a chance to hear it, the North Carolina Tarheel shared two tracks — “Lost Prophets” and “everybody dies.”
“Bunch of words and ain’t sayin’ sh*t, I hate these rappers/Especially the amateur eight-week rappers/Lil’ whatever, just another short bus rapper,” Cole raps.
Unlike the direction of “Lost Prophets,” the target of Cole’s fury throughout “everybody dies” was a bit less direct, but many thought that the aforementioned bar was meant for Lil’ Yachty. Shortly after it dropped, Lil’ Yachty met up with the good folks at Power 106 and responded to the social media speculation.
“I listen to it though,” he said.
“He said, ‘little.’ I’m not little. My name has little in it, but I’m not little. There’s a lot of little rappers.”
Lil’ Yachty didn’t feed into the talk surrounding the record and made it clear that he has love for J. Cole. Well, it appears that J. Cole has love for Lil’ Yachty as well. This Thursday, the two rappers linked up for a new track called “The Secret Recipe.” Differing from the alternative direction of his last album, Lil’ Yachty’s latest effort is anchored by a horn-heavy beat that is more in line with his Rap-infused roots. No hook in place, the two southern rappers trade witty bars and ear-catching punchlines before the curtain eventually closes.
