Joe Budden Defends Ice Spice Amid Cleotrapa Drama And Says Fans Are Clueless On How Touring Works

Joe Budden says the accusations Cleotrapa made against Ice Spice are fairly common in the music industry and the internet doesn’t know how touring works. Cleo claimed Ice Spice and her team mistreated her on the Y2K! World Tour. She shared stories of having to use bathrooms as dressing rooms, not being afforded food, and more.

Budden began by arguing that Ice Spice isn’t calling any of the shots on her tour. “She don’t have no say over nothing,” he said. “She has not sold enough records to be in this position and on tour, every single dollar is accounted for months before we went on tour. I know exactly how much each of these rooms are gonna cost. I know exactly how much the gas is gonna cost. We can’t afford another bus but we got another bus. Okay let’s bring some other people, but those people are for free. There’s no budget. Every single dollar is accounted for.”

Budden’s comments echoed those of Spice’s manager, James Rosemond Jr., who argued that Cleo’s team should’ve set more realistic expectations for what the tour would be like. “If another bigger artist hit my client & say come on tour w/ her or him w/one day to prepared. As the manager I would advise my client this is risky, I would then connect w/ the other artist’s mgmt & agent immediately to advance logistics to see if it makes sense. To avoid hiccups,” he wrote in one of many posts on X (formerly Twitter) on Tuesday.

Budden isn’t the only celebrity to comment on the situation. Azealia Banks, Cardi B, and more artists have also spoken out in the days since Cleo came forward with her claims. Check out Budden’s full comments on the drama below. Be on the lookout for further updates on Joe Budden as well as Ice Spice and Cleotrapa on HotNewHipHop.