Rapper-turned-media personality Joe Budden, has aired his thoughts on J. Cole’s story about the song he released with an unknown YouTube producer this January. That month, Cole released the new cut ‘Procrastination (Broke)’ on YouTube producer bvtman’s channel. The track also comes with a message Cole allegedly sent to bvtman when he discovered him.
“This song should live on your channel and serve as a thank you to you and every producer out there cooking up and sharing their work with the world,” the supposed message from J. Cole reads. “It’s a million artists out there right now just like me, hungry and searching every day for something to spark a word, a melody, a hook, a verse, a punchline, a way to vent, or a way to cut through…On a day when I couldn’t find much motivation, I was looking for anything to inspire me. Out of curiosity, I typed in ‘J. Cole type beat’ into YouTube. Yours was the first I saw. I pressed play, focused, and wrote this.”
Continuing, “This is some shit that would normally stay in the vault, but I don’t want to hold onto the music like that no more. This is for you and whoever else need to hear it. God bless bro and keep doing what you do!”‘
Budden then released the latest instalment of his podcast, The Joe Budden Podcast, and in it, he and the co-hosts discussed the topic of pandering to fans and the artists they think are guilty of it. Budden used J. Cole as an example, admitting that he doesn’t think J. Cole’s story with bvtman is 100% real.
Joe officially charged J. Cole, saying he doesn’t think the story behind the track Cole released with a YouTube producer is 100 per cent authentic. “J. Cole’s pandering,” Joe Budden says at the 1:40:20 mark of the episode. “He got a bag for that YouTube trick he pulled on y’all, too. I found out that the guy who just so happened to do the ‘J Cole type beat’… He’s like the most popular producer on YouTube.”
“So, it’s not like he dug through and found the most obscure kid who had eight followers,” co-host Melyssa Ford added.
“This guy was him,” Budden continued. “And it’s pandering. Nothing wrong. Y’all swear I hate people. I don’t. And I love J. Cole, so don’t start that. But the story that they put out versus what’s really happening. Like, stop. I’m just not stupid. I’m sorry if so many of y’all hate me because I’m not stupid. I can see through what your publicist in pumping into you. I can see what your lawyer is pumping into you. What your label, A&R is pumping in you. I can see through that stuff.”
“It was a great move and great on both sides,” the host explained. “But what went out was, ‘Yo, I had writer’s block. I couldn’t come up with anything. So I just went on YouTube and grabbed the first beat I could find under J Cole type beats. Anybody else out there that has writer’s block, I just wanna let you know, you can do it too.’ This whole wave of victim pandering, victim powering. I don’t know. There’s some soft-n***a s**t going on out here.”
