Joe Budden has declared an early winner in the escalating beef between Kendrick Lamar and Drake.
In the hours that followed the release of Kendrick’s “Euphoria” — a response to Drizzy’s own diss tracks “Push Ups” and “Taylor Made Freestyle” — Budden appeared on Akademiks‘ livestream and offered his thoughts on the latest developments in the feud.
The rapper turned podcaster claimed that Kendrick is the victor after this first round of diss records, but said he was looking forward to seeing how Drake would respond.
“Oh, your calculator’s broke,” Budden began after Akademiks said he had “Drake up 1-0.”
When Ak claimed that “Push Ups” is “absolutely” better than “Euphoria,” Budden — along with his podcast co-hosts who were in the room with him — began laughing. “There’s a reason y’all thought that shit was AI,” he remarked.
The former Slaughterhouse MC then claimed that he is “the only remaining media that is objective,” but Akademiks reminded him of his own past issues with Drake.
“No, I wanna see Drake bleed,” Budden countered. “But I also want to see my favorites bleed — pause. I want to know how my favorites respond to getting punched in the face. And Drake has had a smooth ride his whole career — well, except for that Pusha T fight.
“I want to see what happens when someone that’s on your level is in front of your face. Not Pusha T who you can plaque shame, SoundScan shame, catalog shame. There’s a n-gga in front of you now that you have to respect, even if you don’t like him.”
He continued: “I love Drake and I’ma love him more if he do what he needs to do. Finish your food! I come from the ‘finish your food’ era, my n-gga. We don’t play with the food!
“This ain’t Meek Mill no more. All that ‘Charged Up,’ ‘Is it a world tour or your girl’s tour?’ — all of that was flop. You had a decade long run of killing n-ggas; now, the Boogeyman is here!”
Joe Budden gets called in by Akademiks during stream, he says Kendrick won this round but he cant wait for Drake’s response
“I want to see Drake bleed… I want to know how my favorites respond to getting punched in the face… I love Drake and imma love him even more if he do… pic.twitter.com/TdSsoHa3Ny
— SOUND (@itsavibe) April 30, 2024
Joe Budden had earlier criticized Kanye West for inserting himself into the feud between Kendrick Lamar and Drake.
During a recent episode his self-titled podcast, the “Pump It Up” rapper slammed Ye’s decision to take shots of his own at the 6 God on a remix of Future, Metro Boomin and Kendrick’s “Like That,” which reignited the long simmering tension between the Compton and Toronto natives.
“Kanye, sit your fucking ass down somewhere,” Budden said. “Mind your fucking business. This is not about you. This is some attention-seeking shit that you’re doing. Kanye has been trying to insert himself in this since the beginning.
“You had your shot. You didn’t take it. That n-gga was gunning for you. Y’all all ran except for Pusha … It’s not smooth when it’s not your beef.”
However, Budden did praise West’s production on the track: “I’ll tell you one thing — what he did to that beat? Woo! Any time Kanye get around a choir, magic is coming.”
On his remix of the chart-topping hit, Kanye aimed numerous jabs at Drake in defense of Kendrick, opening the song by saying: “Yo Dot, I got you.”
He later rapped: “Y’all so out of sight, out of mind/ I can’t even think of a Drake line/ Play J. Cole, get the pussy dry.”
Though Joe Budden isn’t a fan, Metro Boomin appeared to co-sign Kanye West’s diss after it dropped by posting a photo of the two of them together in the studio.