Joe Budden is backtracking on comments he made about Latto after the Atlanta rapper publicly rejected claims that she may have been influenced by Drake’s style or received help writing her music.
The conversation started when Budden reviewed Latto’s latest album, Big Mama, on an episode of The Joe Budden Podcast. While discussing the track “Hostage,” he noted similarities to Drake’s flow and cadence, leading some listeners to believe he was questioning Latto’s songwriting abilities.
Latto swiftly responded on social media, posting what appeared to be handwritten lyrics for “Hostage” and tagging Budden directly, seemingly to show that she penned the song herself.
The back-and-forth gained enough attention that Budden revisited the issue during a recent Patreon episode of his podcast, where he clarified his remarks and offered an apology.
“I ain’t tryna be funny. Somebody not writing they shit is a heavy accusation,” Budden said. “So I wasn’t really trying to say that about her.”
The former rapper also acknowledged Latto’s established reputation as a songwriter, noting that she has consistently maintained that she writes her own material.
“She’s been on the show, she won the Netflix show, she says she writes all her shit,” he added.
Budden clarified that his comments were never meant to suggest Latto used ghostwriters, but rather to highlight how artists can be influenced by the music they consume.
“There’s also such a thing as listening to somebody so much that they influence you,” he explained. “They kinda rub off on you when you write.”
According to Budden, if Latto is a frequent listener of Drake, it wouldn’t be surprising for elements of his flow or cadence to naturally show up in her music, even if she is writing every lyric herself.
“She could really listen to Drake 24/7 and love that flow so much that now when she writes that’s what’s happening,” he said.
The podcast host eventually acknowledged that his remarks may have come across differently than he intended and offered a direct apology to the rapper.
“Latto, I’m sorry,” Budden said. “I wasn’t tryna play with your pen like that. I get how it sounded like that, so my bad.”
The apology arrives at a busy time for Latto, who recently dropped her fourth studio album, Big Mama. The project has sparked plenty of online discussion, especially around tracks like “Gimme Dat,” whose lyrics have been widely interpreted by fans—and even Cardi B herself—as references to the pair’s long-running feud.
