Joe Budden Explains Why J. Cole Has Surpassed Drake & Kendrick Lamar

In the 80s, Rakim, KRS-One and Big Daddy Kane could be called Hip-Hop's top three. In the 90s, the same could be said about Jay-Z, Biggie, and Nas, and today it's Kendrick Lamar, Drake, and J. Cole.

Most would say that K Dot and Drake are more significant than Cole. Even Cole addressed the topic once and acknowledged just how big Drake and Kendrick are.

But if you ask Joe Budden -- who just heard Cole's latest snippet -- Cole is now the top rapper out of the three.

"I got Cole as my one," said Joe on his podcast. "I’m hoping that Kendrick’s next album could try to fix that for me. Drake is doing his Chuck E. Cheese sh*t. Good for him. That's it now."

He then praised Cole for the rollout of his upcoming album The Fall Off.

"Remember when Kendrick dropped the title of the last sh*t and we were trying to figure out what that meant?" asked Joe. "When I heard The Fall Off and with him hinting at maybe retirement, I thought that would be the marriage between concept and title."

"But after watching some of these vlog clips where he’s just in the restaurant talking to the older lady that doesn’t know who he is. Classic J. Cole. Perfect rollout sh*t again. This n*gga’s the best at this," he added.

Who would you call the top rapper out of Cole, Drake and Kendrick?