YoungBoy Never Broke Again

Rapper turned podcaster Joe Budden has made his career on being one of rap’s most prolific antagonists, issuing inflamatory takes in a never-ending effort to get more attention for his podcast than his music ever got. But every once in a while, he seems to recognize when he oversteps his bounds, issuing apologies to both Logic and Megan Thee Stallion in recent years for making jokes that made light of their legitimate issues.

You can add YoungBoy Never Broke Again (aka NBA YoungBoy) to that list after this week, after Budden make efforts to deescalate his simmering feud with the Louisiana lyricist. On the latest episode of his inexplicably popular podcast, Budden said, “I owe NBA an apology too. Let’s start with accountability. I owe him an apology. He don’t even bother nobody.” He also noted that he “didn’t feel good about” the coverage the dispute prompted from “the biggest blogs,” which he perhaps felt painted him in a less-than-positive light as an over-the-hill grouch who finds inordinate joy in picking on pretty much any rapper younger (and more successful musically) than he was 20 years ago.

Budden had previously called YoungBoy’s music “horrible,” and credited his streaming success to record label trickery, rather than genuine popularity with an audience Joe hasn’t been in touch with since his mixtape days. YoungBoy responded on Instagram (because he’s still on house arrest), telling Joe to “shut the f*ck up” and weirdly using his last album’s first-week numbers as a defense. Fortunately, we all know neither rapper is willing to get physical with the other because neither is a woman.

Joe Budden, retired rapper and “shock jock” style podcaster, certainly has a lot of rap “beef” for somebody who only ever gets in front of a mic to spout incendiary opinions for viral traction on social media. And yet, here we are, with yet another rap artist expressing their irritation with Budden after he shared his thoughts on that rapper’s music.

This time, the artist in question is YoungBoy Never Broke Again (aka NBA YoungBoy), whose music Joe Budden called “trash” on a recent episdoe of his inexplicably popular podcast. In the podcast, Budden said, “That n**** is trash, he’s horrible, he’s horrible… he is really bad. That thing happened with him where when he was out, the label pushed the button and did some YouTube sh*t, so all the little kids had to come to the gathering and tell you about how great he is and how many views he has and all of that. Now that the label is backed up, we got three to four of those projects while he’s been in Utah on house arrest.”

In response, YoungBoy went on an expletive-laden rant on his label’s Instagram Story, refuting Budden’s claims. “The last thing I dropped was Decided 2, and my album is still in the top 10,” he argued. “You do all them interviews; come on Grave Digger Mountain and talk to me. If you can’t do that, you bitch-made. Shut your f*cking mouth.”

YoungBoy also does a lot of barking for someone who literally can’t leave the house, so this will proably amount to a few online swipes being exchanged between a pair of guys who have more in common than they do to argue about (namely, their treatment of the women in the lives). Meanwhile, there’s a lot of other artists actually making music — good music, at that — and not beating women in their spare time. Here’s Uproxx list of the Best Albums of 2023.