Former rapper Joe Budden making triggering statements and hot takes is as dependable as the sun setting in the west every day.
The 43-year-old “Pump It Up” lyricist-turned-podcaster spoke on the latest episode of his eponymous show, declaring that the days of women dominating the rap game have come to an inglorious conclusion.
“Y’all ain’t gonna want to hear it from me, but the girl rapper wave is over,” Budden spat out in his customary deadpan baritone. “Just telling you what it is. I’m normally a few months ahead with this stuff, sometimes a few years ahead with this stuff. The girl rapper wave is finito.”
Budden, a former Slauterhouse MC, said there are a few female femcees who have exemplified staying power, but the rest have fallen off.
“The cream rises to the top, so Latto shall remain; Flo Milli shall remain; Rapsody will always be there, but she wasn’t really a part of [that scene]. But all of that, ‘Go find a girl, send her to Columbia, get it done, put her in the studio with f——g Mike WiLL or any one of them n—- … all that planting the girl in the scene, getting the record and it taking off — that wave is over.”
Joe Budden proclaims "the girl rapper wave is over": "Very few of y’all are selling records"
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— HipHopDX (@HipHopDX) March 2, 2024
Joe Budden elaborates why female rappers reign over hip hop is over
“I think labels are looking at it like, ‘Very few of y’all are selling records, it’s too much work to get your coin back, we got to go do brand deals all over the world with ya’ll, ya’ll are expensive, some of ya’ll are annoying,’ and none of these records are working,” Budden continued.
Despite his predictions of doom for women rappers, Budden did give some flowers to superstar Megan Thee Stallion who surprisingly topped the Billboard Hot 100 with her diss track of Nick Minaj called “Hiss.”
“A song with no hook, where you’re just firing at n—– and with that long speech in it, to go number one, that’s big,” Budden admitted. “You gotta give it to her.”
One of the co-hosts said that the label made it happen for Megan by marketing it hard, but lauded her song nevertheless.
“I think it was machine play behind it to make that happen,” Lamar “Ice” Burney said, before adding: “But I don’t want to diminish it; it’s still an accomplishment.”
Listen to the entire episode in full:
