Joe Budden Says “Karen” Drake Is Ruining Hip-Hop With UMG Lawsuit

Joe Budden blasted Drake for his lawsuit against Universal Music Group.

The “Pump It Up” rapper spoke at length about his on-again-off-again nemesis in a new episode of his eponymously named podcast. Joe and his co-hosts discussed Drizzy’s impact on the music industry and how business is done in the streaming era. After various ramblings and speculative offerings, Joe then labeled the Canadian artist a “hypocrite” for suing UMG and accusing them of inciting a 2024 shooting at his Toronto residence by promoting Kendrick Lamar‘s “Not Like Us.”

The 44-year-old recalled his beef with the Her Loss artist and how Drake egged on his supporters to antagonize him in the streets, saying, “When [Drake] and I got into whatever we got into and them fans showed up to my house, he incentivized that, he cheered them on, he put them on a public platform, he applauded that behavior, and that’s my other beef with the Karen move.”

The former Slaughterhouse emcee asserted that Drizzy was “code-switching” as he seamlessly shifted from “Karen” to “Mob Ties Drake.” Budden opins that that is his issue with Aubrey’s lawsuit, as it showcases him using his “Karen” privilege when he doesn’t get his way, but claims to be this tough guy on records.

“You at the game running around with this ni**a that has been threatening Kendrick saying, ‘I’ma kill you, I’ma do X, Y, Z’”…You know who you running around with and you know what you doing and you know what you threatening. So if you that, then be that. But don’t be that and also Karen out […] I don’t like it. It’s nasty and disgusting.”

“That’s my beef with ‘Mob Ties’ Drake. I miss Drake. There are too many artists that are suffering from an identity crisis or begin to lose themselves when they get in this sh*t. I miss original Drake…The ni**a with the Blackberry and the corny T-shirts that couldn’t dress with no beard that everybody just wanted to get next to and get some of that corny sauce. Y’all knew that ni**a wasn’t like us, but he had the magic touch.”

Joe Budden then claimed that the UMG lawsuit was ruining the game, and that this “wasn’t his Hip-Hop.” He then pointed at a bigger problem “in the culture,” stating that there is a lack of “unity” in the genre and his suit against UMG exposed that issue.

“There’s no unity in Hip-Hop, none of y’all know what culture means—actually, they’ve been telling y’all what culture means ’cause they own the sh*t. This sh*t is a f**king mess. It’s disgusting. And if you love this sh*t, it hurts!

“I’m saddened as a diss track king, as a ni**a who loves to get on the mic and tell lies about my opponent. Horrible things get said [in rap beefs], man. I just don’t like that Karen is [playing]-both-sides, the aggressor and the victim…Y’all can have it. It ain’t my Hip-Hop. Maybe I aged out of this sh*t faster than I thought I would. But all this sh*t y’all doing… nah, not for me. I love [Hip-Hop] too much. Look…He’s well within his right to [sue] so, yes. But no other artist would think about doing it because it’s the end of your career. The same way this is going to be the end of his career.”

Watch the full video above.

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