Top Dawg Entertainment’s Terrence “Punch” Henderson Jr. has fielded questions about bots in a new interview with Joe Budden, who recently came in at No. 2 on the 2026 edition of Complex’s hip-hop media power ranking.
“What do you have to say about the bot allegations?” Budden asked Punch in a Patreon-exclusive podcast episode released Friday (May 8).
The alleged use of bots, in general, has become a hot topic in the music industry in recent years, including amid Drake’s previous charts-dominating feud with TDE alum Kendrick Lamar. Multiple artists and labels have been targeted with such allegations.
“I ain't got nothing to say about it,” Punch told Budden when asked about bots. “We don't bot.”
Budden’s questions continued from there, with Punch asked if he currently purchases bots (“Absolutely not”) or ever has (“I’ve never”). Punch, however, offered an “of course” when asked whether he’s heard of others in in the industry employing the practice. He went on to say that he isn’t knowledgeable as to how one might purchase bots, nor is he aware of what they might cost.
As Punch sees it, versions of the practice, despite receiving more attention in recent years, actually date back to the MySpace era.
“But our whole thing was like, if we do that, how are we going to know who the actual fan is?” he said, as seen in this clip. “Like, we do a show, [and] don't nobody show up because it was all fake. So we purposely chose not to do that back then.”
Punch later added that he and TDE have “never been based on actual numbers.” Instead, their focus has been on ensuring attendance at live performances is reflective of their artists’ actual audience.
“Our true metric is seeing people in them seats at the show,” he said.
The most recent addition to the TDE catalog is Isaiah Rashad’s It’s Been Awful, the release of which was celebrated with a special pop-up experience presented by Complex.
