In J. Cole’s highly anticipated sixth studio album, The Off-Season, the rapper addressed an alleged 2013 scuffle with Diddy at the VMAs afterparty in New York City.

“Couple wins, couple losses, some broken up too quick to call it / My last scrap was with Puff Daddy, who would've thought it? / I bought that n***a album in seventh grade and played it so much / You would've thought my favorite rapper was Puff,” he raps on the track “let.go.my.hand.”

According to Complex, the rappers engaged in an altercation eight years ago at Ph-D nightclub. The incident started when an allegedly inebriated Diddy approached Kendrick Lamar for proclaiming he was the king of New York on Big Sean’s song “Control.”

During the confrontation, Diddy allegedly tried to pour a drink on Lamar. J.Cole attempted to intervene before the "Crooked Smile" rapper put his hands on Diddy, Complex reported.

The two started arguing and got physical, leading to more problems between their two entourages.

Despite some close sources trying to dispel the rumors, until this point, neither rapper confirmed nor denied the allegations. 

“Ain't gon go into details about last night but get the facts right first before you rush to report some shit for some extra blog clicks,” one of Cole’s close friends, Ibrahim Hamad, wrote on Twitter about the 2013 exchange.

The new album follows Cole’s fifth studio release, KOD, which debuted at No.1 on the Billboard 200 in 2018, and features cameos from Lil Baby, 21 Savage and 6LACK. Timbaland, Boi-1da and more are also listed as producers. 

“There are still potent moments of reflection, particularly in the album’s second half,” according to a review by Variety. "'Interlude' and 'The.climb.back' evoke haunting impressionistic images of bloody summers and the violent circumstances that take Black lives.”

“These moments hit harder because Cole lets them exist as moments — tightly written images and scenes rather than the overwrought conceptual songs that he has historically gravitated toward,” the review continued.

In a Dec. 2020 Instagram post, Cole teased that The Off-Season is one of three new projects, followed by It’s a Boy and The Fall Off.

“I still got some goals I gotta check off for’ I scram…” he wrote.

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