Joe Budden has called Frank Ocean a “scammer” for his performance at Coachella and committing other alleged acts of musical treason over the years.
During a recent episode of The Joe Budden Podcast, the host went on a tirade against the Grammy-winning singer while questioning his character and motives throughout his career.
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According to Budden, Frank’s scamming ways began in 2016 when he dropped the visual album Endless to satisfy his contract with his Def Jam — only to release his official sophomore LP Blonde independently (and by surprise) the following day.
“Frank Ocean is a scammer,” Budden began. “He’s a scammer for the way he got out of his [Def Jam] Universal contract. I think most of the scams are genius. He’ll always wear the scammer tag for me. That fucked up a lot of artists, he didn’t care. Lost a lot of artist revenue streams, took Apple out the game, he didn’t care.”
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He continued: “But I’m not so mad at that. Apple exclusive deals where Apple comes and pays a shit-ton of money to come have the project exclusive to Apple for a week, two weeks, something like that. Frank Ocean was in his Def Jam contract so he could not do that. He had one album left to deliver to Def Jam and they had a hard time negotiating around that.
“It’s rumored that Apple gave Frank Ocean the money to give Def Jam to even everything out and handed them an album, and then he was out of that deal. But then the very next day, he put out the other album on Apple.”
Joe Budden later acknowledged Frank Ocean’s “genius” and influential catalog, but said Coachella should have told him to “suck my dick” and “get the fuck out of here” over his weekend 1 set, which Frank himself admitted was “chaotic.” “Y’all could have got DaBaby for a quarter of the price,” Budden joked.
The former Slaughterhouse MC went on to criticize Frank for performing “Rock & Roll” versions of his songs and said Frank’s team putting out the story about him injuring his ankle prior to his headlining set was a “slap in the face.”
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The singer reportedly scrapped a whole ice rink and ice skating routine at the last minute due to his ankle injury.
Budden also didn’t appreciate Frank teasing (but didn’t quite confirming) a new album during his performance.
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“I’d smack the shit out of you!” he said. “What the fuck are you talking about, you fucking idiot?! Everybody is here for your stupid ass who ain’t put out music in ages, and you can’t even confirm if there’s new music coming?! The arrogance of these n-ggas, yo.”
Despite being arguably Coachella’s most anticipated headliner, Frank Ocean’s performance on the first weekend of the festival was met with mixed reviews from fans and attendees. According to Rolling Stone, aside from his ankle injury, several other issues in the background led to the last-minute changes.
Ocean’s rep later told the publication that he suffered two fractures in his left leg during a biking accident a few days before the concert, which disrupted the production and caused his weekend 2 performance to be cancelled.
During his first performance, Frank spoke about the passing of his brother and the prospect of him releasing a new album.
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“It’s been so long. Everybody talks about how long it’s been. ‘It’s been so long, it’s been so long.’ But I have missed you,” he said to a rapturous response from the crowd.
“I want to talk about why I’m here, because it’s not because of a new album. It’s because — not that there’s not a new album… but there’s not right now. Chill, chill, chill. No, it’s not right now.”
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He continued: “These last couple years, my life changed so much… My brother and I, we came to this festival a lot, and I feel like I was dragged out here half the time because I hated the dust out here. I always left with a respiratory infection or whatever, so I would avoid coming, but I would always end up here.
“One of my fondest memories was watching Rae Sremmurd on — I don’t know what that stage is called — watching Rae Sremmurd with my brother and Travis [Bennett]. We were just dancing in that tent to their music… I know he would’ve been so excited to be here with all of us, and I want to say thank you for the support and the ears and the love over all this time.”
