Lil Pump has said that J. Cole was pleasantly surprised to learn he’s “actually” intelligent during a conversation years ago.
Pump spoke about his interaction with Cole during an interview with Complex, revealing the pair initially met backstage at Rolling Loud, where they “chopped it up” for over an hour.
“I don’t have no hate against him, I respect him, I was just trolling at the time,” Pump said, referring to his brief spat with Cole in 2018 after the Dreamville leader seemingly spoke down on the “Gucci Gang” rapper.
“I met him, we had a long talk at Rolling Loud. We were talking for like a whole hour, just chopping it up,” he continued. “And he was like, ‘Damn, you’re actually smart! I thought you were gonna be fried out walking over here, falling, drugged out.’
“And I was just having a regular conversation with him, just like we are now, and he was like, ‘Yo, you’re a smart kid. You just play dumb on the internet, but you know what you’re doing.’”
@complex Lil Pump revealed what J. Cole told him when they first met 👀 #lilpump #jcole ♬ original sound – Complex
Things weren’t always so cordial between the two rappers. J. Cole appeared to call out Lil Pump and his “SoundCloud rap” peers on his KOD track “1985 (Intro to ‘The Fall Off’),” dismissing them as novelty acts whose careers won’t last.
“One day, them kids that’s listening gon’ grow up / And get too old for that shit that made you blow up / Now your show’s lookin’ light cause they don’t show up / Which unfortunately means the money slow up,” he warned.
His lyrical lecture ended with: “Just remember what I told you when your shit flop / In five years you gon’ be on ‘Love & Hip-Hop,’ n-gga.” (Lil Pump has yet to appear on the reality show.)
The song came after Lil Pump previewed a song called “Fuck J. Cole” on social media, with the phrase being chanted at some of his shows.
The pair eventually hashed things out during a lengthy sit-down at J. Cole’s Sheltuh recording studio in North Carolina, during which they discussed the origin of their feud and the generational divide in Hip Hop.
Meanwhile, Lil Pump has been up to his old trolling antics recently. To promote his new album Lil Pump 2, the Florida native decided to destroy the windshield of a brand new Ferrari.
“Fuck this whip!” Pump says in a video on Instagram as he smashes the sleek red car’s glass windshield. “Were smashing Ferraris now,” Pump added in the caption. “What’s the next whip? Lil pump 2 march 17th link bio.”
The Florida rap star’s latest album features appearances from NBA YoungBoy, Smokepurpp, Ty Dolla $ign and more.
