Joe Budden Criticized Drake’s ‘For All the Dogs’ Album—But He Also Praised It

Budden wanted “Virginia Beach” to be a Pusha T diss record

“See, when you say For All the Dogs, I think that you should start with Pusha T smoke,” he said around the 22-minute point of the episode. Despite his belief that Drizzy should’ve gone all out on dissing Pusha he still praised the song. “That beat is incredible to me. It does start like a Drake album is supposed to start,” he continued. “He could’ve took this beat and went absolutely bonkers, where nobody stood a chance. But I like what he was talking.”

He doesn’t get why Drake seemingly took shots at Rihanna

One of the most talked about songs on For All the Dogs is “Fear of Heights,” which many have perceived as a diss directed at Rihanna and possibly even ASAP Rocky, the father of her children. Budden also thought the song was about Rihanna, but he’s not sure why he’s going after her or ASAP.

“Why’s he shooting at them like this?” he asked around the 28-minute point. “What is Rihanna and ASAP doing to him where he got to do this? … This is petty. I like my Drake petty. I like petty Aubrey, but this is fucked up… She ain’t put an album out in seven years and he shooting at her…” Despite the confusion at Drake’s decision to go after Rihanna, he called the beat switch in the song’s second half “insane.”

Budden said that “First Person Shooter” with J. Cole exemplified his “overall issue with Drake”

“This song is a big part of what my overall issue with Drake is, I think,” Budden said around the 33:40 point. “Mistake number one for Aubrey: Not only did you let his voice be the first voice we hear on this song, but you see what he did, he left about a half-bar beat before he got right to it. Mistake number two: No it’s not just two guys.”

Budden suggested that the song shows Drake acting like Cole is “his man” but on the record, he thinks they’re anything but. “That’s not your man,” he continued. “I hate to tell you rappers, [but] these are not your mans. That is a trained assassin! A murderer! A killer of all kinds. He has been on a spree, a murdering spree. Killing all of our favorites, like one by one, lining them up. He was waiting for you.”

Overall he thinks the song does nothing to highlight Drake’s qualities because in comparison to J. Cole he thinks he fails to rise to the occasion. “Mistake number three, you still thinking about them,” he said. “Aye Drake, you thinking about the wrong n***as right now. … You fucking motherfucker! You can’t hook your way out of this! … It was dope, but not in this arena, not next to him and not on this beat. … You still got the nerve to shout this n***a out, you ain’t heard the fuck he just did?!”

Budden liked the beat switch-up at the end, but concluded, “Drake did go crazy, but just not the type of crazy it needed to be for this.”

He never wants to hear Drake rap in Spanish ever again and thinks the second half of the album is “a mess”

Drake raps in Spanish on the Bad Bunny collaboration “Gently,” which Budden thinks wasn’t executed all that well. “I never want to hear this n***a rap in Spanish ever again,” he said around the 46-minute point. “This like when he started singing Happy Birthday. … This the worst run ever. ‘Gently’ into ‘Rich Baby Daddy’ into ‘Another Late Night’ into ‘Away From Home.’ This is, like, the whole Yachty portion of the project for me, and I’m like, ‘If this is what you doing every time you get a SZA feature, stay away from SZA too.'”

He suggested that not even Sexyy Red‘s presence on “Rich Baby Daddy” was enough to save that song for him, even though he’s a big fan of her. He described the second half of the album as something of a “mess,” but wrapped the discussion by saying he still considers himself a Drake fan.

Budden called the album Drake’s best since Scorpion but also said that might not be saying much

Near the 50-minute point of the episode, Budden said For All the Dogs was Drake’s best project since 2018’s Scorpion. His co-hosts suggested that it’s not saying much to say that, which prompted Budden to say that he’ll likely stop reviewing hip-hop albums going forward.

“This might be my last rap album review,” he said. “I think I’m done… All of you rappers sound, at least 98 percent of y’all sound uninspired. Y’all do sound low effort. There’s no new, exciting creative energy on the way. All of y’all sound like y’all trying to sound like the artist that you like a lot. None of y’all seem to be trying to innovate. Y’all are letting the tech outpace you.”

He questioned where those verses Lil Yachty praised are

“I knew that this Drake wasn’t going to be a Joe Budden Drake when [Lil] Yachty said all that shit that he said, and now that we have this project where is that verse?” he said at the 54:50 point, referring to comments Yachty made about For All the Dogs having one of Drake’s best verses yet. “Where is the verse that Yachty said is arguably one of the best verses Drake has ever written? It’s nowhere on this project.”

He said after listening to For All the Dogs, he realized he had to “let go of” his idea of Drake. “The Drake that I love was the best hook creator, maker, loner-outer in the world,” he continued. “What is the last memorable hook you’ve heard from Drake? I’m not trying to shit on him, that’s my man, but I want to open up the discussion. Even when he used to do features it was his dominant hook. I haven’t heard a dominant hook from Drake in a long time.”

Budden said the project sounds like Drake “rapping for the children”

As the conversation was winding down, Budden said that he thought the project sounded like Drake “rapping for the children” rather than his longtime fans. “Yo dog, I had to look up how old this n***a was when I finished listening to the album,” Budden said. “You are 36, your birthday is in 20 days. I Googled that, too, you will be 37 years old. Get the fuck away from some of these younger n***as and stop fucking these 25-year-olds.”

By comparison, he said that he saw J. Cole mature from rapping about losing his virginity to topics that really impact adults. “I want to hear adult Drake rapping for adult people,” he said. “That’s my issue with him today. He rapping for the kids, the streams, the Instagram comments, and the algorithm.” Budden suggested that Drake has already accomplished so much, so even if he never made another song, his fans will remain “well fed.”

“He did it already,” he continued. “It really shouldn’t be on Drake. It shouldn’t be on him. In 2024, we should not be looking to Drake to continue again to set the standard and the sound and the premium and the bar moving forward.”

Budden thinks Drake could do with some time off

“I for one, I’m really happy that he’s going away. I’m really happy that he’s taking a break,” Budden said, referring to Drizzy’s recent admission that he’s going to “lock the door to the studio” for at least a year while he focuses on his health. One of his co-hosts chimed in to say they think Drake could stand to take a year or two off between albums, but Budden added, “I was about to go even further than that, but we’ll discuss it later.”