We've been entertained for most of Summer Sixteen by a beef between two of rap's most sensitive MCs, Drake and Joe Budden. Budden, of course, had his peak before Drake had even really established his presence the game. The two seem to, at one time or another, have been fans of each other's work, but Drake's massively-hyped album VIEWS is when things started going south between the two.
Budden, seemingly as a fan, dedicated an entire podcast to the new album, and expressed his general disappointment. That's our starting point. Things quickly snowballed with diss tracks (mainly from one party), real life trolls, and DMs. If you haven't been keeping up, we're breaking it all down from start to finish present day, who knows when or how this will really finish.
Click through.
May
May 4 2016 – Joe Budden postulates on "VIEWS"
This whole somewhat messy affair started right around the time that Drake dropped his chart-topping (til present day) album VIEWS. The Slaughterhouse rapper took to his podcast series, 'I’ll Name This Podcast Later,' to opine on Drake’s then-new release. He actually teased the episode with a few Instagram video clips, speaking quite passionately about Drake’s career and the album (he did write in one of the video captions "I love Drake, I'm a fan...") — so Budden obviously knew he was gearing up for a potentially-viral, and potentially-pot-stirring episode. The comments that circulated the most contained praise for Drake’s production partner, 40, and put the blame for what Budden called an “uninspired” album squarely on Drizzy.
Budden said, "I think that that kid on that album that I heard sounds real fucking uninspired. That music sounds good and I enjoy it... 40 you sound amazing. 40 continues to progress; Drake, you do not... I miss the Drake that starts the waves, not hops on other waves. I miss the drake that pushes the fucking agenda."
May 11 2016 – French Montana snippet surfaces
Basically a week after Joe Budden laid out his feelings concerning Drake’s new album on his podcast, a snippet from what would become French Montana’s Mac & Cheese 4 “No Shopping” single made its way online. Lo and behold, users picked it apart for what sounded like a Joe Budden jab although it was only a couple of words—“pump, pump it up.” Many assumed it to be a reference to Budden’s biggest record, 2003’s “Pump It Up.” While we’re still a couple months away from hearing Drizzy’s full verse, it certainly fuelled the fire (even if Budden wasn’t sure at first whether or not to take it as a diss either).
French Montana got him the Drake stimulus package. Oh and drake might. Keyword might. Be ending Joe Budden career pic.twitter.com/vMwZNDlaAk
Let’s not jump to conclusions Sir. https://t.co/j6pXeLmajE
June
June 4 2016 – "4 PM In Calabasas" drops
In June, a month following Joe Budden's rather intense podcast dissecting VIEWS, Drizzy returned with a new record: "4 PM In Calabasas." The song contains a set of bars that have been interpreted as a Budden diss, and Budden himself evidently took it that way as he hopped on twitter to almost congratulate his frenemy on finally sounding "inspired." He wrote at the time, "He snapped just now, even if he dissed me & Puff the whole time….. He ain’t sound that inspired in a minute (to me)." Joe Budden was feeling this apparent diss track so much, he went on to break it down entirely for another one of his podcast episodes, thus giving Drake content two podcast episodes within the span of two months.
He snapped just now, even if he dissed me & Puff the whole time….. He ain’t sound that inspired in a minute (to me)
July
July 2016 – The thick of it
Although it appeared as though Budden was actually a "fan" of "4 PM In Calabasas," rap is a competitive sport above all. The new month (although ~technically speaking~ the first diss dropped on June 30th) spurred a series of diss tracks directed at Drake from Budden. July quickly filled up with Drake/Budden/Sometimes-Meek Mill beef.
Here’s what happened in the month of July, up until today, ordered chronologically. Click the date for a more thorough breakdown of each item.
- 6/30 - "Making a Murderer" drops.
- 7/2 - Meek Mill is the first to respond to Joe Budden's Drake diss (lol/lmao/rofl). To be fair, it did contain one (1) direct jab to him in the opening bars: "No alliances with Meek, it’s still fuck him, too." Meek’s response: "He’s been dead since 2003 it’s evident …. We don’t talk to dead people unless they presidents."
- 7/2 -Joe Budden throws twitter jabs at Meek Mill.
- 7/6 - "Wake" drops.
- 7/9 - Joe Budden tweets & deletes @ Drake, taunting him for not responding to his two diss records.
- 7/16 -"No Shopping" drops in full. Subtle disses to Joe Budden are dissected.
- 7/16 -Joe Budden responds on twitter with not-very-funny memes.
- 7/16 - Joe Budden responds on wax. "Afraid" drops.
- 7/19 - French Montana vouches for the fact that Drizzy wasn't referencing Joe on “No Shopping.”
- 7/22 - Drake disses Budden outright on stage during the “Summer Sixteen” tour: We got the good energy going on. I should’ve brought Joe Budden up here to let him do ‘Pump It Up’ one time. Pump, pump, pump it up. Fuck them niggas,”
- 7/22 - Joe Budden responds on twitter.
- 7/23 - Joe Budden responds on wax. "Just Because" drops.
- 7/24 - OVO enthusiast/trolls run up on Joe Budden's property, Budden proceeds to chase them down in his car and with a fistful of rocks, knock on their car door and sunroof.
- 7/25 - Memes.
- 7/26 - Drake’s troll game is on 1000. He follows that one kid who shouted out his social handle while getting chased down by Budden.
- 7/27 - Joe Budden reveals he actually tracked down said OVO trolls and visited one of them at home— he doesn’t disclose entirely what went down during the house call.
- 7/27 - Joe Budden reveals he's received a few DMs from Drake recently, and he's unsure of their tone. Drizzy apparently invited Budden to his Madison Square Garden show, and then reportedly said "'I bet you can’t release 25 diss records between now and then.'"