All that to say, that was my, kind of one of my, that my initial interaction with Cole. The second one was not as chaotic, so thank God for that. All that to say, my interaction with him, I felt like, man, this is a regular good dude, like, you know what I'm saying? I really like, I didn't walk away, like, with this idea of him as some kind of superstar. I saw him as, he engaged me in conversation, even though I wasn't really able to have the great conversation I should have been having. So anyway, I saw him as a regular human being. He probably saw me as, wow, this Christian dude, whatever, you know what I'm saying? So probably wasn't the best witness, but man, thank God for his grace. thing too, I gotta mention this, the thing too about the fact that it was just kinda like me, J. Cole, Rihanna, and 2 Chainz is that I was privy to like access that other people wouldn't get access to. And that's something that I want for y'all. So make sure you subscribe to the B-side. Download the B-side app so that you can have access that other people don't have. You can get content that other people don't get. You can hear stories that other people won't hear, and that's only gonna happen by you subscribing. Downloading the B-side app and joining the family. We wanna see you there. So I see Kendrick and Cole as human beings, and I know people in both camps. I know these are guys that were very similar to me. I go out, I do my show, I record my songs, and I go back to civilian life. I go back to being a father and a husband, much like them. They're not at every party, hanging out, trying to be seen, on the scene. That's just not them. Drake, on the other hand, the quintessential pop star. Like he's iconic, he's everywhere, where there's somewhere to be. If Leonardo DiCaprio's having a party in the hills, Drake is showing up, right? Like he's the epitome of like, you know, pop icon and just living a rock star life. So when you see this war of worlds happening, from my vantage point, what I see is more a battle of values. Right? Like you have Drake who's probably saying, this is a battle for who's the best and best meaning biggest, most popular, most money, most celebrated, right? And Kendrick is saying, no, this is a battle for who's the better lyricist, who's more transformative in the culture, who's more, you know, influential in terms of like a Tupac or a Nas was in terms of the culture and hip-hop. And I think J. Cole leans more toward the same side as Kendrick does, but he's caught in between these two friendships and worlds and he bows out. Now, if you come from the era I come from y'all, where I saw all these great battles happen and I'm a student of hip-hop. I studied the battles before my time with KRS-1 and you know Roxanne Chante, The Bridge is Over and you know MC Shan all the way to Tupac and Big E's and you know Dr. Dre and Easy E, like I've seen so many iterations and errors. I mean, little things like Bone Thugs in Harmony and Triple Six Mafia, like I was around for so many of these like hip hop battles that there's a texture that you become to, that becomes the norm. And so in hip hop you don't apologize and bow out of a battle. That is culturally a no-no. It's like if you're a street dude, you're not supposed to snitch. So for J. Cole to bow out is like, dang bro, you let Nas down again, right? So I think that's the general perspective of those people who love hip hophop and and then it's also like J. Cole raps about how he's the best lyricist and how he's dope and no one wants to test them So how can I ever really take you seriously? If you bowed out of this battle as a hip-hop fan and a hip-hop aficionado? That does not make sense however as a healed man as a man who's seeking to be an apprentice and follower of Jesus, I actually think that was very wise. It's actually very respectable for him to say, you know what, this isn't right. And not because I'm afraid of the smoke, right? Because I think that's what the spectators and the fans are seeing like, oh, he's afraid of getting washed lyrically. He's saying, no, there's real implications behind this. There's real tension, real hatred brewing, and I don't really wanna be a part of that. I don't know outside of like maybe some of the old school New York hip hop battles where it wasn't real beef. This is not like two boxers or UFC fighters getting in the ring and they respect each other. This is not like two big athletes getting on the court or the field and they respect each other and they're gonna go to war and then it's all over with, is said and done. This is more along the lines of real hatred. Like I mean, Kendrick said it, I hate the way that you walk, the way that you talk. Like, and so I believe J. Cole's saying, I don't want to be a part of real hatred. I don't want to be a part of that. It's almost like, man, if God is not drawing his brother, I don't know. I just, it makes me want to pray for Cole because I'm like, man, this may be the effectual call of God on this man's heart. Like, this is the type of stuff that, the type of character that Christians want to exemplify and pull in. So I guess really what I'm just trying to say is that as a Christian, as a man who's been healed from therapy and understands my identity, my purpose, my worth, my value, and the most important things in life, I can understand J. Cole saying I'm going to bow out of this because there's real hatred in this that I don't want to involve myself in. I will say though, I don't know how he moves forward writing songs about how he's the best rapper, about how no one wants to test him, no one wants to see him. I don't know how that works. That's an interesting dynamic to me and I honestly think that, you know, that may be his reflex of like when he's just trying to rap and show bravado because it's like he's not gonna say I got guns and I'll shoot you. He's not gonna talk about how much jewelry or cars. Sometimes he does talk about his money and whatnot. But that's not his thing. So now we move to Drake and Kendrick. Which again, in knowing Kendrick, and knowing the circle he comes from, Kendrick has people who will really crash out for him. That's what I'll just, there's people locked behind walls right now that if they got free, they would go back for Kendrick. Let me just say that. Now I don't know Drake's world, I don't know his side. I'm cool with some of those people who are locked behind walls right now, you know. And I think that's a real thing. The tension for me is that the human condition is at play here, right? Like, I think in some sense, we all need friends like Kendrick who are going to tell us about ourselves. I never wanna have to run into somebody in a rap battle to tell me the truth about myself. I do think Kendrick is like, bro, you need to work on yourself as a man, Dre. Like, you are a kid from Toronto who is not cool. You were not the cool kid in school. You were a child actor. You weren't really in tune with hip hop culture or black culture for that matter. You know, you're raised by a Jewish mother. You are a spectator in this world of urban culture and then you're trying to enter in it. You know, you were on record historically saying how the way hood people talked in Toronto was ignorant. Right? So, this is not something you live and breathe. When there are issues within the black community, you're not raising your voice to say, hey, this needs to stop. You profit off of misogyny and off of, you know, bragging about how much money and jewelry and cars you have. There's no songs in your catalog that are trying to help shape the community that you take so much from in terms of the craft, in terms of who you use for features and so on and so forth. Now, it's not to say that your stardom and fame has not lended its power to these artists to help them rise. It's just to say that there's been no overt communication about the plight of disenfranchised people in minority communities that you do work with so exclusively. So it can feel like appropriation. And it's why I think Kendrick becomes the People's Champ, is because though there's inconsistencies, though Kendrick may talk about some stuff that's like, yo, we don't wanna see you have to gun a guy down. We don't wanna hear the tough talk, because we know that's not where you wanna go. By and large, he's talking about how a human being becomes healthier and healed. By and large, he's a person who's seeking wisdom and seeking to give it versus just to live a YOLO life well into his late 30s and early 40s. So that's what I love. I love that the People's Champ came with a battle that challenged someone to grow and not be stagnant and continue to perpetuate a false reality. You know what I mean? Like Drake's not a tough dude from the hood. He's not. He's a pop star from the suburbs of Toronto. And there's nothing wrong with that. It's just that he's not embracing it. Justin Bieber embraced it. Right? Or whoever. You know, it's like Kanye embraced me in a college dropout. He never tried to be a tough guy. So I think that's the associations and so on and so forth. Makes it weird. Historically rap battles have been about who's the better lyricist, who comes with the better bars. I can't sit here and say Drake didn't hold his own. I'd be lying. Like lyrically I think he did hold his own. But I think that Kendrick, I mean, the man won a Pulitzer prize for his use of words. That's a tough person to go against. I think that Kendrick is a phenomenal wordsmith. Now, the problem in this entire thing for me is that I still believe you have two people who are fighting for a sense of identity because.