Canadian hitmaker Drake recently shared a track called 'Jodeci Freestyle', but it featured a lyrical reference to autism that left the public reeling.

The offending lyric in question is "I'm artistic, you ni**as is autistic, retarded" and it prompted a series of complaints that in turn forced his collaborator J. Cole, who rapped that particular line, to issue an apology.

Drake followed suit and said sorry for releasing a song with such 'ignorant' and 'hurtful' content, but he has now explained that he decided to apologise as well because he didn't want J. Cole to bear the brunt of the negativity:

"I think we're just both genuinely good guys. I don't want anybody to be offended, and Cole is the nicest guy in the world, so I'm sure it was the worst day ever for him, as far as being attacked by people."

"It's a shame that he got attacked like that because he's such a great guy and that's why I chose to step in and say sorry as well because I felt like - I'm not gonna let him sink by himself, like, 'Oh that wasn't me'. It was my song and at the end of the day, I think everybody knows me and Cole are both young guys that stand for something positive."

He added: "It was just important to reinforce that. A lot of people see it as a cop-out - 'oh, you're apologising' - but sometimes it doesn't pay to be that rebellious. If an apology is what it takes, then [fine]."