Joe Budden Calls Cap On J. Cole’s YouTube Beat Story: ‘[He’s] Pandering’

Joe Budden has accused J.Cole of pandering while expressing some doubts about the story behind a song he released earlier this year using a random YouTube beat.

During the latest episode of The Joe Budden Podcast, the host discussed his opinion on public figures who cater to the masses. Budden said that he doesn’t think Cole is being 100 percent genuine about his track “Procrastination (Broke).”

“J. Cole’s pandering,” he said. “He got a bag for that YouTube trick he pulled on y’all, too. I found out that the guy who just so happened to do the ‘J Cole type beat’ … He’s like the most popular producer on YouTube.”

“This guy was him,” Budden continued. “And it’s pandering. Nothing wrong. Y’all swear I hate people. I don’t. And I love J. Cole, so don’t start that. But the story that they put out versus what’s really happening. Like, stop. I’m just not stupid.

He added: “I’m sorry if so many of y’all hate me because I’m not stupid. I can see through what your publicist in pumping into you. I can see what your lawyer is pumping into you. What your label, A&R is pumping in you. I can see through that stuff.”

Check out Budden’s comments below:

“Procrastination (Broke)” was uploaded to YouTube in January by a largely unknown producer from Brooklyn, New York, named Bvtman.

As explained in the song’s cover art — a screenshot of a message J. Cole sent to Bvtman — the Roc Nation rap star was struggling for inspiration one day when he searched “J. Cole type beat” on YouTube and came across the producer’s instrumental.

“This song should live on your channel and serve as a thank you to you and every producer out there cooking up and sharing their work with the world,” Cole wrote in the message. “It’s a million artists out there right now just like me, hungry and searching every day for something to spark a word, a melody, a hook, a verse, a punchline, a way to vent, or a way to CUT THROUGH.”

“On a day when I couldn’t find much motivation, I was looking for anything to inspire me. Out of curiosity, I typed in ‘J. Cole type beat’ into YouTube. Yours was the first I saw. I pressed play, focused, and wrote this. This is some shit that would normally stay in the vault, but I don’t want to hold onto the music like that no more.”

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In other J.Cole news, the Dreamville rapper recently collaborated with BTS star J-Hope on a new track titled “On the Street.” In the song, Cole hints that he might be headed toward an early retirement.

“Some days, I wonder if I need to pick a different hobby/I’m deep in with this rappin’, it’s all a n-gga know/ I never didn’t nothin’ better, it’s hard to let it go/ But like a father watching his daughter/ Walk down the altar with tears in his eyes/ You gotta let her grow,” he raps on the track.

J. Cole then goes into how he continues to get better but still feels the nagging sensation of calling it quits in music.

“And so I shall, but first, I been honing my style/ Coldest around, with more quotables than what the quota allows/ You see a Top 10 list, I see a Golden Corral, n-gga/ As the moon jumps over the cow/ I contemplate if I should wait to hand over the crown/ And stick around for a bit longer, I got a strange type of hunger/ The more I eat, the more it gets stronger.”