A diss track, a backtrack and no sign of Drake

The ongoing beef between rappers J. Cole and Kendrick Lamar (and to a lesser degree, Drake) took an unexpected turn on Sunday night, when Cole publicly apologized for a (poorly received) diss track he released last week.

“I ain’t gonna lie to y’all the past two days felt terrible,” Cole told fans in between songs at the Dreamville Festival in North Carolina, referring to “7 Minute Drill,” a diss track that targets Lamar and closes out “Might Delete Later,” a surprise release Cole shared Friday.

“I’m so proud of that project, except for one part,” he continued.

In a further attempt to de-escalate the conflict, Cole referred to Lamar as one of the “greatest motherf-kers” to ever touch a microphone.

How did the beef start?

For more than a decade, Lamar, the 17-time Grammy-winner and the recipient of the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Music, has ruffled feathers for his brazen self-declaration as “the greatest rapper alive.”

Though Lamar has collaborated with both Cole and Drake in the past, he’s also taken shots at them — see, for example, Lamar’s guest verse on the 2013 Big Sean track “Control.”

Since then, the beef had remained mostly dormant.

What sparked the latest conflict?

Honestly, it doesn’t take much to push Lamar into fighting mode.

Last fall, Drake released his eighth album “For All The Dogs,” which featured a collaboration with J. Cole called “First Person Shooter.” The track included a line by Cole suggesting he, Drake and Lamar were the holy trinity of contemporary hip hop.

It was hardly a diss track, but apparently Lamar took offence to being lumped in with two rappers he perceives as lesser.

Kendrick Lamar responds

On March 22, after months in the shadows, Lamar returned with a sizzling surprise guest verse on “Like That,” a single from the collaborative album between Future and Metro Boomin’.

“Motherf--k the big three,” Lamar raps, after a series of devastating lines that mostly take aim at Drake. “It’s just big me.”

“Like That” was a smash and lit the internet ablaze, as fans waited for Drake and/or Cole to respond.

Cole’s lukewarm response

After weeks of pressure, Cole finally responded on the surprise track “7 Minute Drill,” on which Cole served up a lukewarm response, taking aim, for some reason, at Lamar’s acclaimed opus “To Pimp a Butterfly.”

“Your first s--t was classic, your last s--t was tragic.”

The song was critically panned and roasted on social media.

Cole backpedals

In a surprising twist, Cole backpedalled on Sunday, calling “7 Minute Drill” a misstep, vowing to pull the song from streaming services.

As some on social media pointed out, Cole is not the first rapper to apologize to Kendrick for dissing him — turns out both Jay Electronica and Lupe Fiasco have done so in the past.

Where’s Drake?

Of course, that leaves Drake.

Given the Toronto rapper’s long history of rap beefs and confrontational classics, his silence is conspicuous.

But now he’s on his own.