Joe Budden defending Drake is something most of us thought we would never see in this era of rap.
The Joe Budden Podcast hosts were discussing Kendrick Lamar’s upcoming Stadium Tour, which includes a show in Drake’s hometown, Toronto, at the Rogers Centre. Their opinion varies on the topic of Drake doing a stadium tour, but one thing they all agreed on was that not many rappers can pull off a stadium tour.
In case you were in the dark, Kendrick Lamar announced the “Grand National” Tour with SZA as his co-headliner. The West Coast rapper is riding a high right now with his new album GNX debuting at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart. The tour is set to cover 21 dates starting on April 19, 2025, at the U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis. Kendrick will perform in Toronto on June 12, which will be an interesting performance given his heated beef with Drake earlier this year.
SZA joining Kendrick for the tour is no coincidence since she is also the biggest artist in R&B this year.
Interestingly, one of The Joe Budden Podcast co-hosts thinks that Drake is not capable of pulling off a stadium tour, a fete that only pop stars like Taylor Swift and The Weeknd have been successfully doing year in and year out. Other rappers like Travis Scott, Kanye West, and Eminem have done stadium tours, but the panel pointed out that Eminem had Rihanna’s help pulling it off.
Joe Budden disagreed with his co-host, saying that Drake could not pull off a stadium tour, pointing out that he performed back-to-back sold-out shows on his arena tours. “The ni— [Drake] did six shows straight at Madison Square Garden [in New York],” Budden said. “I don’t know what it looks like if he tries to do a stadium tour, one. And two, I don’t know if he is just trying to circumvent the fees that come along with stadium tours. I don’t know. Again that’s above my pay grade.”
Joe budden defends drake after his cohost said he can’t due a stadium tour . They were talking about Kendrick Lamar and SZA announcement pic.twitter.com/dE3J8tlrKn
— joebuddenclips/fanpage (@Chatnigga101) December 4, 2024
Nevertheless, Joe Budden admitted that it is a flex that Kendrick Lamar is doing a stadium tour on the heels of him bruising Drake in a rap battle and dropping a number-one album. “It’s a flex when Kendrick is doing a stadium tour and doing a show in Toronto on June 12,” he said. “The biggest venue in Toronto.”
Drake has not yet reacted to Kendrick Lamar’s upcoming show in Toronto. Instead, he seemed focused on his legal fight with UMG over “Not Like Us.”
