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J. Cole says the story about his physical altercation with Sean "Diddy" Combs is real, but he won't be talking about what really went down anytime soon.
The North Carolina native finally opened up about the long-rumored tale during his anticipated interview with Cam'ron, which dropped on YouTube Wednesday afternoon, March 25. Midway through the conversation, Cam asked Cole if he ever got into a scuffle with the Bad Boy Records founder. The Grammy Award winner admitted the altercation happened but declined to get into it to avoid "kicking a man when he’s down."
“Yeah, that actually happened,” Cole said. “Nah, you know what? I damn near wish I could, because it’s such an ill story. But, matter of fact, we did a podcast, me and [Ibrahim ‘Ib’ Hamad], like a year and a half ago. We kind of ran through the first part of my career up until Forest Hills Drive, and we had a bonus episode… about that night and that altercation.”
Cole explained that he and Diddy resolved their issues long before the rumor about their fight began to spread. When they recorded the episode, they thought Combs wouldn't feel any type of way because they had already moved on. Once Combs started going through his legal issues, Cole and Ib decided not to fan the flames by releasing the episode.
“We was gonna put it out, thinking like, ‘Yo, it’s cool, enough time has passed, he ain’t going to feel no way,’” he continued. “And then all the shit happened with him. I was just like, ‘Nah.’ It felt like damn near kicking a man when he’s down. It would have gave the news more ammo and the world more ammo to just destroy this dude. It wasn’t a good time. I want to tell [the story] because it’s ill, but it happened."
The narratives Cole referred to might have come from Terrance "Punch" Henderson's version of the story. The TDE executive confirmed the incident happened over ten years after it was originally reported during his appearance on R&B Money in 2024. Punch didn't name any names, but he appeared to reiterate the claim that a drunken Combs tried to confront Kendrick Lamar at a nightclub about his verse on Big Sean's 2013 track "Control." When Combs allegedly attempted to pour his drink on Lamar, Cole defended him, and the two got into a fight. Cole said the fight did happen but not the way Punch told it.
"It did happen, but the stories be wrong," Cole explained. "The narratives around it be wrong.”
Watch the entire interview below.