Did Diddy and Kendrick Lamar have beef? Former reportedly threatened to slit J.Cole's throat over interference in 2013

Sean "Diddy" Combs has had a long career in the rap industry, with his debut track, Can't Nobody Hold Me Down, released as early as 1996. In his close to three-decades-long career, the rapper has had his fair share of feuds, one of which included the 2013 beef with Kendrick Lamar.

The beef between Kendrick Lamar and Diddy started in 2013, soon after the release of Big Sean's Control, in which Lamar and Jay Electronica featured their rap verses.

In his rap verse of the track, K-Dot referred to himself as the "King of New York," which upset many NYC-based rappers, including Puff Daddy.

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Diddy's beef with Kendrick Lamar reportedly started over the latter's verse in Control

A month after Kendrick Lamar's Control was released, Terence "Punch" Henderson was invited to the R&B Money podcast on September 14. In the I Ain't Taking No Names segment of the episode, the president of Top Dawg Entertainment was asked to recount a past incident that he found to be "funny," and he shed light on his recollection of the altercation.

“The homie just did this song, right? Pissed a gang of people off. Everybody was mad at it. When the song came out, he was overseas, then he came back to the States. The first place we stopped in was New York City and the first thing we do is say, ‘Let's go to the club’ because we want to check the temperature, see what everybody was on—L.A. stuff,” he said.

While no names were taken, parallels were drawn between the story and an alleged altercation between Diddy, J. Cole, and Kendrick Lamar at the VMAs afterparty in New York. Punch continued to narrate the story, in which it appeared that the Victory rapper confronted Lamar about his recently released track and expressed his disappointment.

While K-Dot responded, the conversation went back and forth for a while, with J. Cole reportedly jumping into it in defense of Lamar. The interference upended Diddy even further, reportedly causing a scuffle in the club.

Punch continued:

"He was like, ‘If you ever say what you said to me earlier, ni**a, I’ll...’ And he grabbed a bottle from the table and he said, ‘What you gon’ do? Hit me on my head with a bottle?’ He was like, ‘Nah, I’m gonna break it on the table and I’m gonna cut your throat.’"

Following the threat, their exchange became even more heated, recalled Punch, resulting in a physical fight between the two, which Cole reportedly initiated.

Ibrahim Hamad on J Cole's beef with Diddy

In 2021, Ibrahim Hamad, J Cole's manager, weighed in on the allegations about the events of the scuffle during the VMA afterparty in New York. Hamad claimed that J Cole was not defending K-Dot when the incident happened, saying,

“It wasn’t like, ‘Don’t talk to Kendrick like that!’ Kendrick was there... You know, grown men got a little heated.”

He added,

“All I remember is, me and [JAY-Z] looking at each other like, ‘Oh, these n*ggas ‘bout to fight.’ And then just being like, ‘Oh no, this is about to happen.’ I’ll leave it at that.”

He further rubbished Twitter claims about the club fight but did not confirm whether Diddy and J Cole settled scores later.

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J. Cole's Let Go Of My Hand allegedly talked about his 2013 scuffle with Diddy

In May 2021, J. Cole released his sixth studio album, The Off-Season, which included the track Let Go Of My Hand. In the song, Cole allegedly addressed the altercation between him and Puff Daddy eight years ago. His rap, seemingly recounting the incident, went:

"I kept a tough demeanour on the surface but was mostly just pretendin’/ Luckily my bluff was workin’ way more often than not/ But sometimes a n***a pulled my card, tryna expose me for fraud/ And with my reputation at stake/ I was scufflin’ just to save face/ Couple wins, couple losses, some broken up too quick to call it."

Cole's album topped the Billboard 200 chart that year, receiving positive responses from critics and fans. However, three years later, when the Satisfy You rapper's past came under scrutiny in light of the s*xual assault allegations pressed against him, the 2013 scuffle was revisited on social media.