Joe Budden and Skillz have gotten into a heated argument over J. Cole apologizing to Kendrick Lamar for dissing him.
The issue started when Budden posted on X (formerly Twitter) that the “streets need a body,” expressing his disapproval over Cole extending an olive branch to his rap rival.
Taking a swipe at the former Slaughterhouse MC, who retired from music in 2018, Skillz replied with: “Wild take coming from a rapper who never caught one.”
Things escalated from there with Budden hitting back: “Now Skillz…… there is NO LIVING BREATHING person that has you as a better MC than me. & YOU can’t career shame a mosquito with a mixtape. And the one time a year ppl wanted to hear from you got stolen from you. Go be with your family.”
Skillz, also known for his Hip Hop Confessions podcast, retorted: “Now Joseph? I have never been punched in the face for any sub par bars either. You have taken more RAP/LIFE L’s than any rapper from Jersey. Go be Wendy Williams bro.”
The Virginia native also mocked Budden over his pivot from rapping to podcasting: “And if YOU WERE SUCH AN AMAZING RAPPER in your PRIME? Why you become a podcaster?!? You cant ever talk bars with me.”
Skillz also exchanged barbs with Joe Budden’s podcast co-host Officially Ice, who labeled him a hypocrite for also having a podcast.
The From Where??? MC fired back: “ICE? Find me one ep where Im talkin about current gossip… i talk hip hop on my pod…thats it. You think I care about what sexxy redd wore last week??”
Ice responded: “Bro I’m just saying. You said son became a podcaster…as a podcaster. And if we keeping it a buck, ya description says u have folks come on to confess their secrets…know who does that? Gossip shows lol.”
Skillz then defended his podcast, saying: “I feel u ice respectfully but ….you keep bypassing the word HIP HOP tho [crying face emojis] ..thats what my ish is about. Not what yall do.”
The Joe Budden Podcast personality then pointed out: “I’m really not. Go back and look at what I initially replied to. The words ‘hip-hop’ were nowhere in that tweet. You moved the goalpost afterwards.”
Things settled down when Skillz said: “Touche I did,” to which Ice responded with salute and handshake emojis.
Skillz also found time to take a shot at Uncle Murda after an X user claimed the former G-Unit rapper had upstaged him regarding his annual “Rap Up” song series.
He said: “And yall can miss wit that rap up talk when I was just on BET last year doing it for the culture. And I aint heard from lil buddy since this happened,” linking to his Uncle Murda diss song “Murda Gram.”
He added: “You out yo mind if you thought he could out bar me.”
Joe Budden and Skillz are from the only figures to have weighed in on J. Cole’s controversial apology to Kendrick Lamar, which came after they traded shots on “Like That” and “7 Minute Drill.”
50 Cent, who is no stranger to rap beef himself, appeared to be unimpressed by Cole backing down and publicly reached out to the Dreamville rapper.
Alongside a screenshot of the North Carolina native’s comments, 50 wrote on Instagram: “WTF how I miss this, @realcoleworld call my phone [phone emoji] right now!”
J Cole is just soft as shit that’s all . Acting like bars and rappin is gonna end up in gun fire embarrassing 😆
Skillz right about that one and I would have skillz over Joey buttons on my rank. Coming from Cali
Joe is right! The streets damn sure need a body! Looks like it is Cole’s body on the streets without K Dot even lifting a finger. The thought of Kendrick’s response stoked fear in J Cole lol.
Spoken like a true ignorant dumb nicca. We need blood? What are we cave men? 2 grown men having PUBLIC beef over the age of 30 is pathetic and wanting to witness for your own amusement is even MORE pathetic. Go cash your check from mcdonald’s and do something with your life.
I guess I’m that one person then. Because Skillz is better than Budden, lol.
Skillz wayyyyyyy above Joe as a rapper
Btw, Budden is the problem with this shit. Talking about the streets when you haven’t been in the streets if ever in 25 years, and none of the mentioned young rappers have ever been in them, which is okay. That’s kind of what we wanted for them in the 90s, for them not to have to come up like that. Same ignorant shit of shaming people for speaking correctly or getting good grades in school. It’s corny. Like I said yesterday, you have a couple of dudes with real beef with each other, Benny and Freddie Gibbs. Not one of these people commenting has talked about them getting on wax to settle it when that would deescalate real street shit going down between those two, but you want these two who have no problem with each other to do it for entertainment. What part of the game is that?
Skillz would wash Buddens on his worst day.
Joe’s music and podcasts are the same. Never gets the point and pretends like hes saying something important when thats never the case.
You can say a lot about Joe, but he went after everybody lyrically.