Two of ‘The Big Three’ rappers, Kendrick Lamar and Drake, got into a war of words this summer, while the hip-hop giant’s third counterpart, J. Cole, quickly waved the white flag and stepped out of the feud. However, one infamous clash from his past took a surprisingly sinister turn when he and infamy mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs got into a heartbreaking argument over K. Dot.
Countless issues from the past with Diddy have been revisited and retold ever since he rose to infamy in the music industry, with multiple lawsuits accusing him of sexual assault, sex trafficking and what not. Punch, the president of American independent record label Top Dawg Entertainment, whose real name is Terrence Louis Henderson Jr., revealed a decade-old feud that took place at a NYC MTV Video Music Awards after-party in 2013.
During his recent appearance on Tank and J. Valentine’s “R&B Money” podcast, Terrence “Punch” Henderson recalled incidents of the hostile showdown. Without initially naming names, he alleged that Diddy threatened to slit J. Cole’s throat during the fight when the latter came to defend Kendrick Lamar.
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As numerous media outlets have reported over the past few years, Puffy was reportedly upset with the Pulitzer-winning musician’s heavy flexing on his recently released “Control” verses Lamar who named dozens of his rap contemporaries, proverbially declared he wanted to “murder” them and proclaimed himself the ‘King of New York.’
In a widely disputed response, Diddy allegedly tried to pour a drink on Kendrick, to which J. Cole intervened. Cole’s right-hand man Ibrahim Hamad, on X, formerly of Twitter, eventually countered many of the claims surrounding that night. Punch also denied these allegations.
Punch, president of Top Dawg Entertainment, recalls an altercation at a nightclub, possibly the infamous Diddy-J. Cole fight
The TDE president recalled an old, widely disputed incident that occurred at an exclusive party attended by several top stars.
“That dude just did this song, right? It pissed people off, everybody went crazy over it,” Punch said, presumably addressing Lamar’s “Control.” “When the song came out, it was overseas, then it came to America.”
“The first place we stopped was New York City and the first thing we did was, ‘Let’s go to the club’ because we wanted to check the temperature, see what everybody was doing — the L.A. stuff.” The “Not Like Us” hitmaker was previously affiliated with TDE.
Coming on to the club scene, Punch added: “One of our friends came up to us and [was] Talking about this particular record. So we’ve been going back and forth: ‘Oh, it’s not personal. It’s just this, this and that. This is great, whatever, whatever.’
“Another friend came, he seemed drunk [and] He said, ‘Yeah, all y’all n-ggs should go back and forth and put it on wax or whatever.'” Pointing to Diddy and J. Cole, Punch claimed the two soon got into an argument. “We didn’t know they got into an argument before we got there.”
Explaining how things got out of control, the TDE executive said he and his crew later moved to the VIP section. The small corner was filled with unforgettable celebrities, describing it as “literally the front row of the Grammys.”
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Diddy allegedly threatened to slit J. Cole’s throat
Again referring to Diddy and J. Cole, Punch claimed he soon saw them having a heated argument again. “He was like, ‘If you ever say what you said to me before, nun, I’ll –.’ And he picked up a bottle off the table, and he said, ‘What are you gonna do? Smash the bottle over my head?'” Referring to Diddy’s actions this time, Punch said: “He was like, ‘No, I’m gonna smash it on the table and slit your throat.'”
The fight quickly turned into a big deal. He said someone else jumped into the incident. “He grabbed the bastard and pulled him over and saw who it was, and this guy was his friend’s friend. But he couldn’t see, he wasn’t wearing his glasses. He felt really bad after the whole incident… he thought they were attacking his men.”
Punch’s last memory, which was probably the same incident
In the two-year-old conversation, Panch had talked about the same incident. This time he had mentioned the names of the people involved in the fight.
Punch, in his previous conversation on Matt Hoffa’s “My Expert Opinion,” detailed how Jay-Z and Combs were at one of their usual dinners. The latter jumped into a conversation about Lamar’s verse with Cole, and the banter between them turned into a fight. “When we came in, Cole and Kendrick were talking about the verse,” he added.
“Then Puff came back and their argument started again. So, from there, they got into a full-blown melee at the club.”
While he didn’t name any of these celebrities in his latest interview, he likely named a third man in the old discussion, Jay-Z’s close friend Emory Jones.
“Emory thought someone was jumping on Jay, so he ran over there and got in the way. He grabbed Cole like, ‘Oh, it’s Cole!’
What J. Cole’s manager said at the time
Cole’s manager and longtime friend Ibrahim Hamad also gave some insight into the club fight in 2021, refuting allegations that the artist was standing up for Lamar. “It definitely wasn’t like he was defending Kendrick or anybody else,” he said on the “Say Less” podcast.
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“It wasn’t like, ‘Don’t talk to Kendrick like that!’ Kendrick was there, Top was there, [JAY-Z] There was, Beyoncé was there. Me and Cole. You know, the older men got a little heated. That’s all I remember, me and [JAY-Z] They look at each other like, ‘Oh, these bastards are going to fight.’ And then they’re like, ‘Oh no, this is going to happen.’ I’ll leave it at that.”
The IB also rejected claims that the issue was blown out of proportion and said Cole and Combs resolved the issue quickly so that the disagreement would not be unnecessarily prolonged.
At the end of the day, none of these statements have been confirmed. Despite the similarities between Punch’s description of the incident and the infamous Diddy-J.Cole feud, the incident leaves much to speculation, as neither party has confirmed anything.
On the other hand, in 2019, YouTube content creator Trapplor Ross released the documentary “Why Diddy Slapped J. Cole,” which allegedly depicts the series of actions that led to the feud.
