He said it was probably the first time he’d heard Drake refer to himself as a “black artist.”
He’s known as a social commentator the culture, so MSNBC invited Joe Budden to their studio for a candid interview about music, diversity, politics, therapy, and much, much more. The podcast host chatted with Ari Melber for nearly a half an hour, and while there was a myriad topics discussed, right out the gate they spent quite some time analyzing Drake.
Recently, Budden and his The Joe Budden Podcast co-hosts spoke at length about Drake’s filmed Rap Radar interview, a rare appearance for OVO’s head honcho. Ari wanted to chat about Drake lamenting that he doesn’t get recognition as an accomplished black artist and he played the clip back for Budden.
“Sometimes I don’t feel celebrated when I know somebody else would be celebrated for those accomplishments,” Drake said in his interview. “I don’t feel like people say when Drake is the artist the decade, I don’t think anybody says ‘Wow, a black artist is the artist the decade.” After the clip ended, Budden said, “That might been one the first times I heard him refer to himself that way. Like, as a black artist, but he’s right.”
“He’ll never be on the outside looking in, so who are we to say how he feels, how he should feel, but I think that many entertainers and athletes and just people in our industry move around with that chip on their shoulder,” Budden continued. “And they carry it. And they protect it. And I think we got a rare chance to see that in Drake. Somebody who’s piled up so many wins that I guess we feel like that shouldn’t be there.”
Budden thought it was good to see the superstar rapper “humanize himself” in such a manner on that platform. Check out what else Budden had to say about the Toronto rapper below.