Ever since Joe Budden dropped “Making A Murderer Part 1” (his first diss track aimed at Drake) Hip Hop fans have been highly anticipating a response from the OVO head honcho.
It’s been a little over a week and a half now and Joe has released a second diss record, “Wake,” but we still have yet to hear an on-record response from Drake. Is this all part of a well thought out retaliation plan, or is the 6 God actually getting cold feet?
Drake is no slouch with the bars when he wants to get in his bag, but Budden is arguably much more of a problem for him than Meek Mill was when it comes to a lyrical war. The general consensus of younger fans seems to be an artist on Drake’s level of superstardom doesn’t even have the time to be concerned with the likes of Joe, but one might disagree. It could be some people’s unfamiliarity with Budden’s catalog of music won’t allow them to see him as a worthy competitor. Drake, on the other hand, knows exactly what he’s dealing with—he’s even saluted Joe on his talents way back when Joe was doing his Joe Budden TV vlogs on YouTube.
We all saw how Drake’s lyrical war with Meek panned out and are still waiting for the same energy to be put forth in this bout. That’s not what we’ve been seeing so far, though. It’s all been very one sided. Joe has continued to express his views on the matter through his Twitter feed and on his podcast, while Drake has been unresponsive. Rather than Drake simply being too “big” an artist now, could it be that Joe’s diss tracks have “Champagne Papi” second guessing his abilities in a war of words?
We hope for the competition of the culture Drake has a set plan in his mind for when he’ll drop a response record. We also hope he doesn’t take the “I’m too big to acknowledge you” route. If we take the fame away from this and judge based on skill alone, Joe is an extremely formidable opponent for him. Drake still has time to respond when he sees fit, and at this point he might as well say Joe’s name directly because subliminal disses aren’t going to hold the same weight and fans are going to know who the bars are being aimed at, anyway.
If Drizzy has a response completed already, he should let that fly, and soon. The fight for lyrical superiority has been a huge part of Hip Hop since the beginning and it’s time to show and prove. The Meek back and forth was in many people’s eyes a big W for Drake, but Meek isn’t exactly a top-tier lyricist. Joe on the other hand embodies the word itself, and the culture as a whole wins if this stops being so one-sided.
