Joe Budden Tears Into Future's "The Real Me": "I Almost Deleted This Bulls**t"

BY Gabriel Bras Nevares
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Joe Budden Tears Into Future The Real Me Almost Deleted
ATLANTA, GEORGIA - AUGUST 21: Future performs during The Weeknd: After Hours Til Dawn Tour at Mercedes-Benz Stadium on August 21, 2025 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Prince Williams/WireImage/Getty Images)
"The Joe Budden Podcast's" other hosts were more charitable to Future's "The Real Me," but sadly for Pluto, not by much.

Future has drawn a lot of polarized reactions to his new album The Real Me, whether for its place in his catalog or his out-of-the-box tracks on it. While most fans seem pretty mixed on the project as a whole, Joe Budden made it clear he is not a fan at all. He recently debated about the LP with his cohosts on his self-titled podcast, and they were trying to make their cases for this being a better record than Joe was giving credit to.

Of course, as caught by CY Chels on Twitter, it didn't help that Budden began the discussion by playing "2018," one of the most meme-ready songs Pluto has put out in the last few years. They laughed at the "King's Dead" flow and also clowned the pop-centric cut "Hollywood."

Parks, Ish, and Ice were among the cohosts who gave more praise to the record, or at the very least, half the tracklist. But Budden didn't agree, saying he wouldn't go as far to say there are "quite a few" good songs.

"I'm having fun. I did almost delete this bulls**t out my phone," Joe said after buying the album. "But Pluto got more equity with me than that. And there were four to six songs that I really enjoyed, especially the last track. The second half of this project for me is not the worst, but it's not the best. It sounds like Future kind of spoofing himself... Once you got to [track] 13, 14, 15... On the first half, I almost deleted that s**t."

The Joe Budden Podcast Reacts To Future's The Real Me

The JBP cohosts had different takes on which half they preferred, and they went through some of their highlights like "Tank Top Pluto" and "F**k A Interview." Still, Budden argued Fewtch "could've kept all this s**t. He could've kept every single one of these."

Future has bigger things on his plate right now, but we imagine he's watching the reception to The Real Me closely.

Overall, the main criticism from the JBP seemed to be the length of the tracklist, and Joe said he hated all the preceding material to the album. But he did admit hearing the project in a different context might change his mind.

About The Author
Gabriel Bras Nevares is a staff writer for HotNewHipHop. He joined HNHH while completing his B.A. in Journalism & Mass Communication at The George Washington University in the summer of 2022. Born and raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Gabriel treasures the crossover between his native reggaetón and hip-hop news coverage, such as his review for Bad Bunny’s hometown concert in 2024. But more specifically, he digs for the deeper side of hip-hop conversations, whether that’s the “death” of the genre in 2023, the lyrical and parasocial intricacies of the Kendrick Lamar and Drake battle, or the many moving parts of the Young Thug and YSL RICO case. Beyond engaging and breaking news coverage, Gabriel makes the most out of his concert obsessions, reviewing and recapping festivals like Rolling Loud Miami and Camp Flog Gnaw. He’s also developed a strong editorial voice through album reviews, think-pieces, and interviews with some of the genre’s brightest upstarts and most enduring obscured gems like Homeboy Sandman, Bktherula, Bas, and Devin Malik.

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