TORONTO - Toronto rapper Drake has apologized and promised to erase a controversial reference to autism from his song "Jodeci (Freestyle)."
The controversial line in question was uttered by North Carolina rapper J. Cole.
In Drake's song, Cole raps that he's "artistic" while his rivals are "autistic, retarded."
The lyric spawned an online petition in protest of the song and received the support of the Anti-Bullying Alliance.
Cole apologized for the lyric on Sunday, writing in his blog that he wanted to educate himself about the condition and adding that there's "nothing cool about mean-spirited comments about someone with autism."
Drake followed with a blog post of his own on Monday.
