J. Cole may not be as recognizable as most of his fans think.
A TikToker shared a video from a Tesla car dealership showing the North Carolina emcee shopping around for a new Cybertruck. However, the salespeople appeared to be “ignoring” the Grammy award-winning artist and instead spending more time with other customers—like the mentioned TikToker.
“J Cole & I shopping for teslas at the same time while the manager kept ignoring him bc he didn’t know who he was & continued persuading me to place the order for a car [melting face emoji],” the video closed caption read. However, despite the lack of celebrity worship or general acknowledgment, Cole didn’t seem to care about being treated like a regular person. He has a history of not caring about such things.
In May, Cole was spotted out at a beach, seemingly at peace with apologizing to Kendrick Lamar for releasing “7-Minute Drill Freestyle”—a response to K. Dot’s “Like That” verse. The TikToker shared that she intended to go to the beach “to clear my head” and casually met Cole. Cole took a photo with the fan and was pictured in his usual laidback outfit, complete with headphones connected to a laptop.
J. Cole has kept a relatively low profile since bowing out of the battle against Kendrick Lamar and has been quieter on the music front as a result. Fans have eagerly waited for King Cole’s return to Hip-Hop to see what he would have to say in the aftermath of Kendrick and Drake’s feud. But Cole seems to have had other plans with his latest musical contribution.
On Friday (May 25), Cash Cobain dropped off the “Grippy Remix” featuring a verse from Cole, and most of his fans were not happy. The track finds Cole taking a hyper-mainstream approach to his delivery and subject matter to match the energy and vibes of Cobain’s initial track, “Dunk Contest,” and his bars make sense in the confines of the song. But Dreamville fans were looking for something with more bite, and this song wasn’t for them.
“J Cole pushing 60 talking about ‘its grippy,’ Drake STILL tryna force the Carribean thing after 12 yrs talking about ‘Wagwan Delilah,’ Kendrick was right it ain’t no big 3….its really just him,” one fan typed on X/Twitter. “Since Kendrick said ‘F**k the Big 3, it’s just Big Me,’ J. Cole released ‘Grippy,’ and Drake went and covered ‘Hey There Delilah.’ Grim stuff, man,” another critic quipped. “I don’t think that j.cole verse was that bad, but at the same time, I don’t think I’d have this in my rotation at all. This was definitely a bad move to drop this especially after the beef. I just hope The Fall Off makes up for this,” another account stated.
It could be possible that Cole’s “Grippy” verse was recorded before Drake and Kendrick Lamar’s Cold War defrosted. With that in mind, Dreamville fans could potentially see their king address the apology, the battle, his mindset, and more at a later date. Only time will tell.
Listen to the song below and watch the Tesla video above.