Joe Budden Says Drake’s ‘Takedown’ Started With Him: ‘I Passed the Baton’

Joe Budden wants some credit for Drake’s recent fall from grace.

The 43-year-old rapper-turned-podcaster recently appeared on X Spaces on Sunday to talk about his role in the rap war of 2024, which saw Kendrick Lamar, 37, trade shots at the also-37-year-old Canadian rapper through a series of successful diss tracks.

However, Budden suggests that the takedown of the 6 God actually began with him and snowballed through Pusha T, 47, until it finally reached K.Dot.

“It may sound narcissistic, but I don't think any one man takes down Drake,” said Budden. “I think I passed the baton to Push, I think Push passed the baton to Kendrick, and the job is done now.”

“That's how I feel in my head and my heart,” he added.

Budden is referring to his rocky relationship with Drake, filled with periods of conflict and reconciliation since 2016. Budden’s criticism of Drake’s Views album led him to release “4PM in Calabasas,” which took subliminal shots at the “Pump It Up” rapper. Budden responded with “Making a Murderer Pt. 1” and “Afraid.”

In 2018, Pusha T’s tensions with Drake reached a boiling point with his "The Story of Adidon" diss track where he exposed that Drizzy had secretly fathered a son, Adonis.

Absent from Budden’s narrative is Megan Thee Stallion, 29, whose chart-topping single “Hiss” arrived in January and is widely believed by some to be about Drake as she rapped about “cosplay gangsters” with "fake-ass accents.” Megan also included a nearly premonitory bar about BBLs, rapping, “These n***as hate on BBLs and be walkin' 'round with the same scars.”

Many fans of the Houston-bred MC credit her with starting the “takedown” of Drake, although she seemingly gets excluded from this narrative.