Rapper J Cole says he feels “terrible” after releasing a diss track aimed at Kendrick Lamar and has vowed to delete it.
The American musician released the song titled 7 Minute Drill on Friday, in which he branded fellow US rapper Lamar’s latest album “tragic”.
The row began last year after Cole suggested he, Lamar and Drake were the “big three” of the modern rap scene in the song First Person Shooter.
The trio have dominated the genre since the 2010s, with Lamar winning 17 Grammys, Drake five and Cole two.
But Lamar rejected Cole’s suggestion they were equals when he featured on a track called Like That by rapper Future and producer Metro Boomin.
In one verse, Lamar said there was no “big three”, adding: “It’s just me.” He also criticised some of Drake and Cole’s work.
Image: Drake hasn’t directly responded to Lamar’s criticism. Pic: AP
In response, Cole included 7 Minute Drill on his new mix tape Might Delete Later, in which he said Lamar “fell off like The Simpsons”, alongside other insults about his career declining.
But Cole has already promised to delete the track from streaming platforms, telling the crowd at a festival he headlined on Sunday it was “the lamest, goofiest shit” he had ever done.
Speaking at Dreamville Festival, he said he felt pressure to respond after Lamar’s “bazooka” of a verse, but he was “conflicted” because he was “blessed to stand beside” him and Drake.
Cole said he was praying Lamar had not taken offence, adding that if he had, he would take criticism from him “on the chin” before asking for forgiveness from his fans “for the misstep”.
Drake hasn’t responded to Lamar’s insults directly, though he appeared to reference it during a concert shortly after Like That was released.
“I got my head up high, my back straight, I’m feeling 10ft f***ing high,” he told a crowd while on stage.
Sean “Diddy” Combs is expected to spend around three years in prison, federal inmate records show.
The 55-year-old music mogul was given a 50-month sentence and a $500,000 fine earlier this month for flying people around the US and abroad for sexual encounters, including his then-girlfriend and male sex workers, in violation of prostitution laws.
According to Sky News’ US partner NBC News, his expected release date is 8 May 2028, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
Prosecutors had pushed for Combs, serving his first criminal conviction, to serve 11 years in prison.
Combs, who has been detained since his arrest in September 2024, was acquitted on more serious charges of racketeering and sex trafficking.
He pleaded not guilty and maintained his innocence.
‘Disgusting, shameful and sick’
Combs, who told a federal district court in New York he admitted his past behaviour was “disgusting, shameful and sick”, is set to appeal the conviction and sentence.
During a seven-week trial, four days of testimony was heard from Cassie, now Cassie Venture Fine, who told the court she was coerced and sometimes blackmailed into sexual encounters with male workers.
Jurors were also shown video clips of Combs dragging and beating Ms Fine in a Los Angeles hotel hallway, following one of those encounters.
She submitted a letter to the judge, ahead of the sentencing, calling Combs a “manipulator” and would fear for her safety if he was immediately released.
Donald Trump has announced he will be raising tariffs on imports of Canadian goods by an extra 10% because of an anti-tariff advert aired in Ontario.
The advert used the words of former US president Ronald Reagan to criticise US tariffs.
A furious Mr Trump on Friday cancelled “all trade negotiations” with Canada.
Doug Ford, Ontario’s premier, said he would pull the advert from Monday, but it continued to run over the weekend, including during the first World Series game between the Toronto Blue Jays and Los Angeles Dodgers.
Mr Trump wrote in a post on his Truth Social platform: “Their Advertisement was to be taken down, IMMEDIATELY, but they let it run last night during the World Series, knowing that it was a FRAUD.
“Because of their serious misrepresentation of the facts, and hostile act, I am increasing the Tariff on Canada by 10% over and above what they are paying now.”
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
1:26
TV advert deepens trade rift between Trump and Canada
Mr Trump claimed the advert misrepresented the position of Mr Reagan, a two-term president and a beloved figure in the Republican Party.
Mr Reagan had used much of his 1987 address, featured in Ontario’s ad, spelling out the case against tariffs.
Mr Trump said the advert was intended to influence the US Supreme Court ahead of arguments scheduled for next month which could decide whether the president has the power to impose his sweeping tariffs.
It was not immediately clear when the 10% hike would come into effect, or whether it would apply to all Canadian goods.
Canada – which is America’s closest ally, and one of their biggest trading partners – has been hit hard by US tariffs, and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has been trying to work with Mr Trump to lower them.
Image: Mark Carney and Donald Trump. File pic: Reuters
More than three-quarters of Canadian exports go to the US, and nearly 3.6bn Canadian dollars (2.7bn US dollars) worth of goods and services cross the border daily.
Many Canadian products have been hit with a 35% tariff, while steel and aluminium face rates of 50%.
Energy products have a lower rate of 10%, while other goods covered by the US-Canada-Mexico Agreement are exempt. That trade agreement is slated for review.
Spotify
This content is provided by Spotify, which may be using cookies and other technologies.
To show you this content, we need your permission to use cookies.
You can use the buttons below to amend your preferences to enable Spotify cookies or to allow those cookies just once.
You can change your settings at any time via the Privacy Options.
Unfortunately we have been unable to verify if you have consented to Spotify cookies.
To view this content you can use the button below to allow Spotify cookies for this session only.
Mr Trump negotiated the deal in his first term but has since soured on it.
The US president and Mr Carney will both attend the ASEAN summit in Malaysia which started on Sunday, but Mr Trump has said he has no intention of meeting Mr Carney there.
The world’s largest aircraft carrier is steaming towards the Caribbean supported by the rest of its “carrier group” to add even more muscle to the US forces already threateningly close to Venezuela.
The question is simple – is this really all about President Trump‘s war on drugs in South America?
I doubt it. A sledgehammer to crack a nut isn’t even in it.
There are a few reasons to doubt the American government’s stated aim of wiping out these so-called “narco terrorist” gangs threatening the US from Venezuela, even after one takes out of the equation the sort of equipment the military is deploying – which isn’t what they would need for effective drug smuggling interdiction.
While the president acknowledges that the synthetic opioid fentanyl is a huge killer in the US (which it is) and is supplied by drug gangs (which it is), to blame Venezuela for fentanyl production is simply incorrect.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
1:20
Is Trump tackling cartels or trying to ‘control’ Venezuela?
Mexican cartels produce fentanyl with precursors largely supplied from China, and it is from Mexico – America’s neighbour – that the fentanyl is smuggled directly into the United States across its southern border.
Datawrapper
This content is provided by Datawrapper, which may be using cookies and other technologies.
To show you this content, we need your permission to use cookies.
You can use the buttons below to amend your preferences to enable Datawrapper cookies or to allow those cookies just once.
You can change your settings at any time via the Privacy Options.
Unfortunately we have been unable to verify if you have consented to Datawrapper cookies.
To view this content you can use the button below to allow Datawrapper cookies for this session only.
The Mexican cartels are very proud of their business, and from my experience covering this story over the years, when the drugs cartels are proud of something, and it makes them a lot of money – which fentanyl does – they don’t share the market with anyone, and certainly not with Venezuela.
President Trump is right that Venezuela is now a large supplier of other illegal drugs, especially cocaine, but they come from countries like Colombia, Peru, and Bolivia, which are the largest producers of the coca leaf in the world (the coca leaf is what cocaine is made from).
Image: The world’s largest aircraft carrier USS Gerald R Ford. Pic: Reuters
Venezuela, which borders Colombia, is largely a transit country to the Caribbean in the same way that Ecuador, which also borders Colombia, is a transit country to the Pacific.
Image: Sailors work on a Venezuelan Navy patrol boat off the Caribbean coast. Pic: Reuters
Neither Venezuela nor Ecuador are significant drug producers.
The drugs enter Venezuela overland, primarily from Colombia, and then mainly leave the country from ports on the northern coast of the country – and these are the departure points of the boats the US government has recently targeted and destroyed, along with the crews on board.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
0:32
Hegseth: US forces strike ‘narco-terrorists’
President Trump claims these boats from Venezuela are heading to the United States, but in reality they are mainly heading to the nearby islands of Trinidad and Tobago, and from there they largely go to West Africa and Europe – mostly Spain and Portugal.
Drugs heading to America either pass through Mexico over the border into the US or are transported via the Pacific Ocean route through countries like Ecuador. In this instance, Venezuela isn’t involved.
It’s widely accepted the two most exported drugs from South America are cocaine and marijuana – and the volume of production is staggering.
But the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the US says that synthetic opioids like fentanyl are responsible for most overdose deaths there – and fentanyl is not produced in South America, whatever the president says.
So one can only conclude he is either mistaken and misinformed, or he has another motive. I suspect it is the latter, and that regime change in Venezuela is top of the list.