Saturday (March 2) morning, Joe Budden made bold claims regarding the state of women’s Hip Hop and, more specifically, Cardi B, while reacting to the “Bodak Yellow” star’s new single, “Like What (Freestyle).”

After playing a clip of the Missy Elliott-sampled bop, he said, “Y’all ain’t gonna want to hear it from me, but the girl rapper wave is over. Just telling you what it is.” Before going further in-depth, he mentioned that artists like Flo Milli, Latto and Rapsody are excluded from his statement.

Budden also made a bold claim, stating, “All of that ‘Go find a girl, send her to Columbia, get it done, put her in the studio with f**king [Mike WiLL Made-It] or any one of them n**gas.’ All that planting the girl in the scene, getting the record and taking off, that wave is over.”

Closing out his statement, Budden spoke explicitly about the Bronx-bred emcee, stating, “Now, let me get to Cardi B. Cardi B is afraid, and I’m tired of just nobody saying it. Cardi B is scared to come out, it don’t take this long to come out.”

The esteemed podcast host even insinuated that Nicki Minaj was attempting to release her project at the same time as her rap foe before Cardi B backed out of the moment. He claimed that was why Minaj changed the date for Pink Friday 2 so many times. He clarified that this was information he could not confirm as accurate but did hear from a trusted source.

Since her debut album, Invasion of Privacy, nearly six years ago, Cardi has maintained her chart-topping presence with hits like “Up” and the Megan Thee Stallion-assisted “WAP.” The pair’s reunion for “Bongos” and their performance at the 2023 MTV VMAs also kept fans eagerly awaiting more.

Press play on the new Offset-directed music video for “Like What (Freestyle)” from Cardi B below.