J. Cole has finally opened up about Drake and Kendrick Lamar‘s beef in his first series of interviews since he controversially bowed out of the high-profile rap battle.

Sitting down with Apple Music’s Nadeska Alexis for one of many in-depth conversations about his latest album The Fall-Off, the Dreamville star explained why he apologized to Kendrick for his since-deleted diss track “7 Minute Drill.”

“[The idea] hit me about an hour before [I went out on stage at Dreamville Fest],” he said. “In that moment, I felt lifted and I got light and I got excited. Because the two or three days before that, I was stressing the fuck out. I felt like I had misrepresented myself. I was giving life to division and to negative storylines about somebody that I fuck with and I got love for and care about.

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