J. Cole has addressed his much-discussed apology to Kendrick Lamar directly, offering rare personal reflection in a new freestyle from his surprise project Birthday Blizzard ’26. The line arrives without warning and without hedging, placing one of the most debated moments of his recent career back into his own narrative.
“I used to be top, see, the apology dropped me way out of the top 3,” Cole raps. “No problem, I’m probably my best when they doubt me.” Rather than defend the decision, Cole examines the cost of it, acknowledging how public perception shifted while asserting that creative clarity followed.
The freestyle continues with a broader meditation on status and ambition. “The top ain’t really what I thought it would be, so I jumped off and landed back at the bottom and restarted at a level where I wasn’t regarded as much, just to climb past them again and tell them all to keep up.”
The verse is part of Birthday Blizzard ’26, a four-track freestyle release hosted by DJ Clue and made available exclusively via thefalloff.com.
The drop arrives just over a week before Cole’s long-awaited album The Fall-Off, due February 6. In a recent teaser, Cole described the album as a decade-long personal challenge, crafted to close a creative chapter with intention and honesty.
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