Joe Budden Explains Silence On Diddy-Cassie Drama: 'I Did It For A Myriad Of Reasons'
by Joe Walker
Published on: Nov 23, 2023, 7:00 AM PST
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Joe Budden has explained why he’s remained tight-lipped about Cassie accusing Diddy of rape, sex trafficking and physical abuse.
During the latest episode of The Joe Budden Podcast, the former Slaughterhouse rapper laid out the “myriad of reasons” he has yet to speak on the matter — a decision he’s faced backlash for considering his usually opiniated takes on hot-button topics.
“I did it for legal reasons,” he began. “I did it for a myriad of reasons. But first and foremost, the legal portion … y’all ain’t ’bout to clip me up or clip us up or clip this set up and just attach it to whatever story and narrative you wanna attach it to.
“I been on this here internet a long time before some of y’all was born out there. I know how it goes, and I know how the blog sites work on a slow weekend. I know what they do from experience because they mostly use me to do it. I don’t be trying to give them nothing.”
He added: “I be in my little hut somewhere and they go dig something up. They say that you responding to something that you not responding to. They take one piece and if they think you talking about it, they put some text to it that’s gon’ make you look and sound a certain way.”
Joe Budden went on to say that he doesn’t want any smoke with Diddy in case some of the rumors about him — such as allegedly orchestrating a plot to blow up Kid Cudi‘s car — are true.
“Two: what if that n-gga did all the shit that he’s accused of?” he said. “Why would I wanna inherit that? What if he did some of that shit, like the violent stuff? […] Sound like a headache. Don’t sound like the risk is worth the reward to me.”
Budden also said he didn’t feel it was the right time to speak on the lawsuit — which has since been “amicably” settled — as it would be “insensitive” towards Cassie.
“Three: in the event that some people did not believe all of the things that Cassie had to say in that civil suit, I don’t think the last week was a good time to say that,” he said. “That seems foul and flagrant and insensitive. That don’t seem like something a responsible broadcaster would do.”
Finally, Budden said that Diddy is a listener of his podcast, which places even more “responsibility” on his shoulders.
“Fourth: that n-gga listens to this podcast,” he said. “It means that if you have never been on the other side of accusations and stories being put out about you, and now having to hear the news cycle of people that you know and how they report on that, there’s a responsibility that comes with that.
“The internet has the luxury of forming an opinion […] but right this second — I’ll speak for me — I don’t have proof that he raped somebody. I do not have proof that he sex trafficked somebody. Those are the facts.”
Joe Budden went on Instagram Live shortly before the release of an earlier podcast episode and said some last-minute “editing” needed to be done, alluding to removing a segment about the legal drama between Diddy and Cassie.
“I had to do a little bit of editing ’cause y’all almost got me,” he said. “Y’all almost got me to be the only voice out there saying some shit. Nah, them blogs would’ve had a field day with that podcast this morning. Nope.
“Sometimes you got to protect your peace and your co-hosts’ peace. I ain’t playing with y’all.”
He did address the lawsuit in the episode, but skirted around saying anything direct about the former couple, instead commenting: “I don’t feel like I need to come in here and have word vomit about my discernment when it comes to evil shit in the industry.”
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Joe Budden’s former co-hosts, Rory and Mal, seemingly took shots at him on their own podcast earlier this week in an episode titled “We’re Not Afraid to Talk About Diddy.”
“Stop acting like y’all don’t know what’s going on, y’all don’t see what’s happening,” Mal said. “Everybody got these fucking platforms and wanna sit down and talk about everything else under the moon.
“Talk about the real shit. People are scared to talk about the real shit because their shit gotta come out too. A lot of people got a lot of shit in their closet.”
He added: “You can talk freely when you ain’t got no skeletons hanging up and you ain’t got no sick shit going on. But when you got some shit, you be like, ‘Oh, I don’t know if I wanna be the one to address that because they might find out about my little rendezvous.’