‘God will humble you’: Joe Budden explains why he’s no fan of J. Cole’s Honda Civic journey to promote ‘The Fall Off’

The Dreamville rapper’s new album, ‘The Fall Off,’ debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart, his seventh consecutive No. 1 project on the chart.

Count Joe Budden among the few who aren’t truly buying J. Cole’s spirit of taking it back to his roots.

During a recent episode of “The Joe Budden Podcast,” Budden and his co-hosts discussed Cole traveling across the country in a beat-up Honda Civic similar to the one he drove when he first started rapping. After the car broke down in Phoenix, Arizona, Budden loudly made it known that he was happy it happened.

“Nobody in the world that could not be happier that J. Cole Civic broke down, it’s me,” Budden said. “I jumped for joy when the news came across my feed that J. Cole and this stupid performative ass Civic broke down.”

🚨Joe Budden says he was HAPPY J. Cole’s Civic broke down

Says Kendrick putting the GNX in his story was “gangster”

But calls Cole’s Civic era fake humble and performative pic.twitter.com/3ADRAgVEmB— CY Chels (@SeewhyChels) February 25, 2026

Cole had been traveling from North Carolina to the West Coast in the old school Civic in promotion of “The Fall Off.” The album, which Cole had promised was his final, debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart, selling more than 280,000 album-equivalent units. Despite Cole wanting to let fans in on his early days as a rapper as he sold copies of “The Fall Off” hand-to-hand, Budden was extremely skeptical of how genuine he was about it.

“God will humble you,” Budden said of the car breaking down. “That was fake humble. Stop with this ‘I’m rich, but I relate to you’ … You selling a lot of records and lying to my face in the process with this Civic sh-t. I’m glad that God was on my side with this.”

The North Carolina rapper made the rounds at Clark Atlanta University, Texas Southern University, and other local spots. The lore behind the vehicle took on a life of its own, with an X account dedicated to Cole crisscrossing the country. Eventually, the vehicle arrived in Los Angeles, where Cole was spotted at Marathon Burger, working the kitchen and serving customers.