7 Minute Drill

Album

Might Delete Later

Label

Dreamville Records

Genre

Hip hop

Composer(s)

Jermaine Cole

Entered Chart

Apr 20, 2024

Peak Date

Apr 20, 2024

Released

April 5, 2024

Recorded

2024

When J. Cole jumped on Drake's October 2023 For All The Dogs track "First Person Shooter," he pushed the idea that he, Drake, and Kendrick Lamar run the rap game. Six months later, Lamar fired back at "First Person Shooter" on Future and Metro Boomin's joint "Like That," off their album We Don't Trust You. Lamar shut down Cole's "Big Three" claim, declaring himself the sole ruler of rap. Lamar's dissing was mainly aimed at Drake, but he threw a few shots Cole's way. Cole isn't one to back down. "7 Minute Drill" is his clap back to Lamar's diss verse. The last track on his mixtape Might Delete Later, it finds him setting the record straight. Over T-Minus' cold beat, Cole gets straight to the point with the chorus. He calls out Lamar's attack and the clap-back it stirred up. Cole comes in strong on the first verse, likening Lamar to a washed-up cartoon show: I'm reppin' the 'Ville, I'm cool under pressure He still on stage, but faded like The Simpsons Then Cole takes aim at K. Dot's albums, dissing Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers as "tragic" and claiming To Pimp A Butterfly put people to sleep. Grammy talk doesn't faze him - he's got his own take. Lamar's got trophies, but Cole isn't impressed. In the next lines, Cole does the math and figures out that Lamar delivers one hard verse roughly every 2.5 years. He's dropping one Heart verse every 30 months or something If he wasn't dissing, we wouldn't be talking That checks out, as the average distance between K-Dot releases - Section.80, Good Kid, M.A.A.D City, To Pimp A Butterfly, Untitled Unmastered, DAMN, and Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers - is about 30 months. When we get to the second part, Conductor Williams takes over the beat from T-Minus and Cole repeats how he didn't want this beef. Lamar poked, so Cole's setting the record straight - Lamar's only got four albums in 12 years, and Cole's not backing down. Cole ends with a bold claim: He could drop two classics right now, hinting at his next move in the outro. Hah, let me chill out, man, Conductor The Fall Off on the way The title of the track references Cole's "7 Minute Drills." The rapper's manager Ibrahim Hamad explained in 2023 during an appearance on the Say Less podcast that Cole will rap for seven minutes straight over a few different beats as an exercise to break writer's block. "He does these seven-minute drills that he got Cozz be doing... He'll just be like, 'You got seven minutes.' It's basically his way of breaking out of overthinking," the Dreamville co-founder said. "Like don't even think about it. Start a verse - what we gon' talk about? He'll be like, 'Cozz, write a verse about pizza.' They got seven minutes and they put the timer on." According to T-Minus, "7 Minute Drill" was created during one of his writing exercises. After "Like That" was released, Cole and T-Minus met at a recording studio to work on a writing drill. The challenge began with T-Minus quickly creating an instrumentation within the seven-minute timeframe. "So after I did my seven-minute beat, I was like, 'It's your turn.' He's like, 'Yo, give me a word.' So I looked at my FL Studio system and I saw the word 'light,' so I was like, 'light.' He took it from there and started with 'light,'" T-Minus told Complex. "I left the room, gave him seven minutes, and came back. He's like, 'Yo, just give me another seven minutes. I think I've got something going.' And, you know, the rest is history." J. Cole publicly acknowledged his regret for throwing shade at Kendrick Lamar on "7 Minute Drill." This act of contrition came during his performance at the Dreamville Festival in North Carolina on April 7, 2024. "I'm so proud of (Might Delete Later), except for one part," said Cole. "It's one part of that s--t that makes me feel like, man that's the lamest s--t I did in my f--kin' life, right? And I know this is not what a lot of people want to hear... But I gotta keep it 100 with y'all, I damn near had a relapse, right?" The rapper explained that he felt pressured by others to respond to Lamar's guest verse on "Like That." "I tried to jab my n--ga back and I tried to keep it friendly but at the end of the day, when I listen to it and it comes out and I see the talk, that s--t don't sit right with my spirit," Cole confessed. "That s--t disrupts my f--kin' peace." Cole removed the track from all streaming services on April 12, 2024, seven days after its release.

Yeah
Turn it up
Yeah, turn the vocal up
Uh

Light work like it's PWC
It's a cold world, keep the heat under your seat
I got a phone call, they say that somebody dissin'
You want some attention, it come with extensions
My dog like, "Say the word," he on bullshit, he itchin'
Done put in so much work in these streets, he got pension
I told him chill out, how I look havin' henchman?
If shots get to poppin', I'm the one doin' the clenchin'

I came up in the 'Ville, so I'm good when it's tension
He still doin' shows, but fell off like the Simpsons
Your first shit was classic, your last shit was tragic
Your second shit put niggas to sleep, but they gassed it
Your third shit was massive and that was your prime
I was trailin' right behind and I just now hit mine
Now I'm front of the line with a comfortable lead
How ironic, soon as I got it, now he want somethin' with me
Well, he caught me at the perfect time, jump up and see
Boy, I got here off of bars, not no controversy
Funny thing about it, bitch, I don't even want the prestige
Fuck the Grammys 'cause them crackers ain't never done nothin' for me, ho
Slugs took my nigga's soul, drugs took another one
The rap beef ain't realer than the shit I seen in Cumberland
He averagin' one hard verse like every thirty months or somethin'
If he wasn't dissin', then we wouldn't be discussin' him
Lord, don't make me have to smoke this nigga 'cause I fuck with him
But push come to shove, on this mic, I will humble him
I'm Nino with this thing, this that New Jack City meme
Yeah, I'm aimin' at G-Money, cryin' tears before I bust at him

Light work like it's PWC
It's a cold world, keep the heat under your seat
I got a phone call, they say that somebody dissin'
You want some attention, it come with extensions
My dog like, "Say the word," he on bullshit, he itchin'
Done put in so much work in these streets, he got pension
I told him chill out, how I look havin' henchman?
If shots get to poppin', I'm the one doin' the— (Conductor, conductor, conductor)

I got mixed feelings 'bout these fuckin' rap niggas
It's over for that cap, we official cap peelers
Two-six, we don't at niggas, we get at niggas
Shoot a nigga lights out, yeah, my dogs stat fillers
Stat stuffers, triple-double, get your ass black duffled
Body bag, body bag, body bag
Cole World your instructor for pilates class
Get a nigga stretched if I feel the disrespect, uh
Your arms might be too short to box with the god
Who live his life without the pressures of a constant facade
I pray for peace, but if a nigga cease these positive vibes
A Falcon 9 inside my pocket, bitch, this rocket gon' fly
Now it's poppin' outside like the top of July
My text flooded with the hunger for a toxic reply
I'm hesitant, I love my brother, but I'm not gonna lie
I'm powered up for real, that shit would feel like swattin' a fly
Four albums in twelve years, nigga, I can divide
Shit, if this is what you want, I'm indulgin' in violence
Put pictures in my home, aim the chrome at your eyelids
Fly pebbles at your dome, we the Stone Temple Pilots
This is merely a warning shot to back niggas down
Back in the town where they whippin' work and traffickin' pounds
My jack jumpin' 'bout a rapper makin' blasphemous sounds
Switchin' sides like the tassel on the cap and the gown
I'm fully loaded, nigga, I can drop two classics right now

Hah, let me chill out, man (Conductor)
The Fall Off on the way, nigga