Ab-Soul has backed up Top Dawg Entertainment President Punch’s recent Twitter rant debunking a theory that there’s smoke between him and J. Cole.
During his latest interview with DJ Hed and Gina Views, the Carson native shared the not-so-intricate backstory of how he ended up on the track “PI” alongside J. Cole and Daylyt, which later appeared on Cole’s Might Delete Later project.
In the process of telling the laughable anecdote, Ab-Soul also explained that the track appearing on the project alongside Cole’s controversial “7 Minute Drill” diss track aimed at Kendrick Lamar had nothing to do with a beef between himself and any of the rappers presumed to be at odds over the situation. In fact, they all were apparently in cahoots about the release of the records in real time. It’s likely why Ab-Soul wasted no time praising Cole in his initial remarks on the situation during the interview.
“First of all, shout out my man, Cole,” Ab-Soul said. “Cole is really the homie. Everybody be saying we use the word ‘friend’ and ‘homie’ loosely… but Cole’s a good dude. He’s been concerned about my eyes, my diet,” he added.
The TDE rapper went on to explain that his verse on “PI” was initially recorded as a favor for battle rapper Daylyt, who he also shares a longstanding friendship with. For those just tuning in at this point, this is where Soulo directly corroborates Punch’s claim that the verses for this song were recorded long before “Like That” and or “7 Minute Drill” were released.
“Me and Lyt did the joint ‘PI’ I did it for Daylyt — It’s Daylyt’s record,” Ab-Soul explained. “It’s called ‘PI’ literally because when me and Daylyt’s song ended, it ended on 3:14. The time, the length of the song.”
But the real plot twist came when Ab-Soul woke up to a surprise verse from none other than the Dreamville MC himself.
“I wake up one morning, and Daylyt is like ‘bro, check this out,’ and he sends me the song,” he recalled. “Cole’s on there going crazy!”
Ab-Soul confessed he was both excited and a bit taken aback because he had expected Cole to contribute to another track they had discussed for his 2022 album, Herbert.
“I’m low key hot,” he laughed, recalling his initial reaction. “Cole was supposed to be on ‘F### Out My Face,’ for real. I’m on his [Daylyt] head like, ‘bro, you gotta let me know if you’re gonna send this s##t off. He ate us up, bro!’”
Despite the surprise, Ab-Soul couldn’t deny the power of Cole’s pen.
“I called Cole immediately. He was like, ‘Man, I just got in the spirit, my pen just started moving,’” he recounted, laughing it off. In the end, Ab-Soul gave credit where it was due, acknowledging Cole’s undeniable talent. “Cole, really an MC,” he concluded.
In another clip from the interview, Soulo even went on to say he called Kendrick about the track to get his opinion on it and says that K.Dot gave his blessing — further killing the rumors there’s any rift between the quartet of lyricists. And considering that Ab-Soul just announced his upcoming album, Soul Burger, it’s likely they’ll further squash any notions of there being a beef amongst them by reuniting for a collaboration of some sort. But that’s all purely speculative.
