Though Diddy isn't a singer, nor a rapper, there's no debating his contributions to both R&B and hip-hop. In the past week, he's led a conversation surrounding the state of R&B. He said that the genre is dead, largely because the new singers are caught up in a post-Future world of toxic anthems.
During the latest episode of The Joe Budden Podcast, Joe, Ish, Parks, and Ice discussed Diddy's statements. There was discussion surrounding the intent behind the conversation, and whether Diddy expressed his thoughts as a means to lead up to the release of his new album. "If I'm getting ready to launch my label, launch my R&B album -- change everything -- what better way to do it than to get this talk like this going?" Ice asked.
Joe didn't necessarily disagree with the take but he explained why he didn't think Diddy was the first person to honestly speak on the state of R&B. He explained that he's had numerous calls with R&B legends who've felt similarly to Diddy. However, Joe admitted that a person like Diddy is a necessary catalyst to create a larger discourse surrounding the topic.
"That is my only beef with this," Joe began in response to Ice's question. "[Diddy's] late. Every week, I'm seeing Shawn Stockman [of Boyz II Men] say this... Tank has been doing this since February... The R&B n***as have been behind the scenes and trying to push this conversation. That's my issue with this," he said. "Why that's not an issue for me is, you need a Puff. You need the person on the next level to echo your sentiment and make it a national conversation."
Parks later chimed in, saying that there's plenty of good R&B that ultimately goes under the radar. Joe refuted and claimed good R&B music isn't being released in bulk.
Check the full clip below.
