The Joe Budden Podcast Praises And Scrutinizes Drake’s New Freestyle

The Joe Budden Podcast has now reacted to Drake‘s new freestyle, supposedly titled “Fighting Irish.” The cohosts discussed this without the program’s titular commentator, as he’s dealing with some legal issues right now that probably have him busy and distracted. Melyssa Ford, Ish, Ice, and company discussed the 6ix God’s new sets of bars, and they had overall praiseful opinions about his lyrical ability. However, what they discussed the most was how this is just one example of how they’ve always liked his music, despite Ish positing that their coverage of the Kendrick Lamar battle was not objective in favor of the West Coast lyricist.

Furthermore, this prompted a discussion around how “Family Matters,” “meet the grahams,” and “Not Like Us” were covered in the media and how the surprise factor of the latter two stepped on any possibility of the Drake track being a hit. Regardless of where you stand on that, The Joe Budden Podcast presented too many narratives for us to really call their coverage unfair or not. After all, much like with a lot of other hip-hop media, their thoughts on the battle were a natural result of the discourse and not anything that they had to force.

Of course, that goes both ways, and it doesn’t take away from the fact that both Drake and Kendrick Lamar fans – or rather, a small percentage of them – became absolutely delusional as a result of this beef and can no longer offer an earnest assessment of anything without going full hater or glazer mode. Hopefully for The Joe Budden Podcast‘s next episode, they can go into more detail about the lyrical gems to appreciate about this new Drizzy freestyle.

Much of that discussion revolves around all the people that Drake shaded through his bars, but not every bit of praise for a record has to depend on its shots these days, as much as 2024’s rap beef warped that perception. From a rhyme scheme and sheer writing standpoint, you don’t need to hand him the W to appreciate the solidly creative and impressive moments throughout. Let’s hope 2025 brings more honest narratives to the forefront and that Kendrick Lamar’s dominant win doesn’t prompt more fans to take away from either his or Aubrey’s artistic merits.