Drake Just Murdered "The Skip Bayless Of Hip Hop Podcasting," Joe Budden, In Cold Blood. And He Didn't Even Need A Diss Track To Do It
Who the fuck would have thought that Aubrey's most vicious, lethal "diss" of all time came not on a diss track, but on fucking Instagram?
This blows how he murdered Meek Mill on "Back to Back" out of the water. Had he gone at Pusha T like this in the comment section and not on a beat, he would have won that easily too.
I really don't need to elaborate on what Drake meant here because it's right there in black-and-white text. And I love not only the delivery, (professional, coherent, well-spoken and written, grammatically precise, etc.) but I love the message also. And I'm not even a Joe Budden hater. I used to fucking love Joe Budden. I thought he was one of the most underrated rappers of this era. But Drake's message is on point. Don't listen to the people in the cheap seats. Ever. But especially when they could never walk in your shoes, or worse, quit trying to, and judge and criticize you from the sidelines. Fuck that. Straight up T. Roosevelt's "Man In The Arena" type stuff.
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A clip from Joe Budden's upcoming podcast dropped today showing Budden tearing into Drake in his "review" of Drake's new For All The Dogs album which came out yesterday morning. (And quickly climbed the charts. Dominating Spotify in particular.)
I almost titled this blog "The Travis Kelce of Podcasting, Joe Budden" because that seems to get all the clicks these days around here. (Sad.) And because it puts it into simple context for all the old geezers out there and other people asking, "Who the fuck is Joe Budden?"
But instead, I referenced Joe Budden being the Skip Bayless of Hip Hop Podcasting because that's who he's the most relatable to.
A man so incredibly talented in not just his primary field , but in his prior field, which he walked away from, seemingly defeated. (Skip was an incredible writer before he became TV's biggest troll. No joke. He was far better to read than he is to listen to on even his most entertaining days in my opinion.)
The veteran podcaster took issue with Drizzy name-dropping young people like popular Twitch streamer Kai Cenat (on "First Person Shooter" with J. Cole). Joe suggested that Drizzy hang out with people his own age.
"He rappin' for the children. Yo dog, I had to look up how old this na was when I finished listening to the album," he said. "You are 36 [years old]. Your birthday is in 20 days. I Googled that, too. You're going to be 37 years old. Get the f**k away from some of these younger nas."
"I want to hear adult Drake rapping for adult people," he continued. "He's rapping for the kids, the streams, the accolades. He ain't trying to rap for me. I can accept that."
I get what Budden is saying but that's not the point here. The point is he sounds like a crotchety old man, jaded that he didn't enjoy the same success, jealous that, as Drake himself pointed out, Drake is enjoying one of the longest and most successful careers the rap game has ever seen.
I agree with Budden that, yah, people our age don't want to hear Drake give shout-outs to fucking Tik Tok'ers and youtube people.
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(Or be on lame Bobbi Althoff's show)
But here's the thing, it's a recipe for success that has worked beyond anybody's wildest dreams. Not only has he managed to stay relevant for as long as he has, but he's stayed ahead of the curve and thrived in doing so. Stooping low to kowtow to the social media crowd, and pick the low-hanging fruit that is shouting out individuals with massive appeal online, knowing they'll turn into free promoters for you seems like a pretty good business plan. And one Drake has executed flawlessly.
Do I enjoy it? Obviously not.
Would I rather Drake rap about shit that he does on HYFR?
Hell yeah, fucking right I would.
But do I get what he's doing? Absolutely.
If you want to critique his sound, or style, or say he's fallen off, that's one thing. But since you can't really, you go after him for material and characters he's referencing in songs?
Pretty much spot on with Skip Bayless attacking the biggest stars in the world not for their level of talent and success in their sport, (because you can't), but over little nit-picky shit like their "heart", "clutchness", or how much he feels they're "loyal to their team". All shit that's disputable and will stir up the peanut gallery. Because that's what gets clicks.
The irony is Budden's essentially doing the same shit he's criticizing Drake for in the name of "calling him out for it".
You're never ever ever going to believe this, but guess who had a nearly identical take on Drake's new album? Verbatim almost.
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Shocker.
p.s. - the really crazy thing is that most people don't realize Joe Budden was seriously a fucking awesome rapper 10-15 years ago. He just got did incredibly dirty by Def Jam, who gave him next to zero promotion, or budget to work with. He also came on the scene in that weird time period where the internet rendered physical music (CDs, tapes, vinyl) useless, but it still hadn't developed into the booming streaming monster it is today.
p.p.s. - I loved the mood muzik mix tapes, Drake and you know you did too.