While Ye (formerly Kanye West) has continued to badger J. Cole and his music, the North Carolina rapper took the high road during his set at Dreamville Festival 2025 on Sunday night (April 6).
Cole saluted the embattled rapper ahead of performing “Work Out,” which samples Yeezy’s “The New Workout Plan” off his acclaimed The College Dropout 2004 debut album.
“I know n—-s feel a way about him right now, but I got love for [Ye] and I really appreciate him. He cleared all these f—ing samples for me,” he said.
Cole explained that even though he’s heard West’s track hundreds of times, this one was different as the song played from his laptop on the hotel room bed while he was in the bathroom. “I heard it differently that day,” he added. “I ran back to the other room. It’s like it spoke to me.”
The Dreamville boss explained that the label was looking for a “hit record,” which had him stressed, but ended up leading to “Work Out.” The track arrived in June 2011 and served as the lead single of his debut album, Cole World: The Sideline Story.
“Work Out” gave Cole his first top 40 hit as the multiplatinum smash reached No. 13 on the Billboard Hot 100 and topped the Rhythmic Airplay chart.
Earlier in April, Ye went on another explosive X rant during which took aim at Cole. “I hate J Cole music so much,” the “Stronger” rapper said matter of factly. “It’s like between Kendrick and J Cole I bet you industry plants asked J Cole to diss Drake then we would have been accosted with a J Cole Super Bowl commercial with no SZA song to save it.”
West — who has faced renewed criticism over his continued hate speech — claimed Cole’s music was strictly for virgins, and Drake giving him a platform was “hurting hip-hop.” He wrote in part: “When I met up with Drake during Donda most of the convo was me telling him he was hurting hip hop by giving J Cole a platform and I was saying how much I loved Future.”
Ye dissed Cole last year on the “Like That” remix. “Play J.Cole get the p—y dry,” he raps. The pair of rap titans have a checkered past, as Cole jabbed at West on tracks such as 2016’s “False Prophets” and 2019’s “Middle Child.”
