Joe Budden Denies TDE Paid Him To Support Kendrick Lamar Against Drake

BY Gabriel Bras Nevares
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Joe Budden Denies TDE Paying Him Support Kendrick Lamar Drake
Feb 15, 2016; Los Angeles, CA, USA; Kendrick Lamar accepts Best Rap Album during the 58th Grammy Awards at the Staples Center. Mandatory Credit: Robert Hanashiro-USA TODAY NETWORK
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Although Joe Budden has had beef with Drake in the past, he said neither TDE, Kendrick Lamar, nor any other artist has paid him.

Joe Budden recently took to his podcast to address his thoughts on ICEMAN, the upcoming album by Drake, and its rollout. However, during a recent episode of the show, he also had to address recent social media rumors that he received payment from Top Dawg Entertainment (TDE) to support Kendrick Lamar in the 2024 battle with Drizzy.

Daylyt suggested the 6ix God has DJ Akademiks as a "main promo guy," whereas Kendrick has Budden. As caught by Caleb on Twitter, the rapper and podcast host had a lot of denials to put forth.

"I am not being paid by TDE," he said. "I have never been paid by TDE. I've never been paid by any artist. I can't be bought. That's what makes me so different from y'all who shake a** for the f***ing... I get calls every week from record labels offering to pay me a lot of money to talk about s**t that I don't care about or probably just want to talk about for free, but in my own way that I want to talk about it. Don't pay me to big some s**t up that I'm not gon' big up. Paying me is a mistake. For money, [he hasn't gotten a call to not talk about something].

Joe Budden's Thoughts On Drake's ICEMAN

"I didn't think that Daylyt was saying I had been paid," Joe Budden continued concerning Drake and Kendrick Lamar. "But I understand what he was trying to say. He's saying that my reporting is favorable to TDE. And it has been while [Kendrick] was f***ing kicking a**.

"Truth of the matter, I wanted to see all three of the 'Big Three' fail a little bit," he concluded. "Kendrick just didn't at the end. He went up. I'd like to see them all pegged down a notch. Get some humble pie. It didn't work it at all. And I called it before the battle. I said after this battle, somebody's gon' make us look at somebody different. I didn't know he was gon' hit the two-for-one special on it and make both these n***as different. But that's water under the bridge for me. If this Drake s**t [ICEMAN] comes out and it's sounding like what we know it has the potential to sound like, I'ma be the first one to come in here and big that n***a up on his process and overcoming hardship with one of the tougher years to have in hip-hop."

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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