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In a headline-grabbing move, Joe Budden's team has intercepted Drake's latest merch rollout by purchasing the domain name featured on his newly launched merch.
On April 3, 2025, a video from The Joe Budden Podcast network circulated online. In it, Ian Schwartzman, Budden's manager, revealed to the American broadcaster that their internal team had bought the unused URL of Drizzy's merchandise and had redirected it to Budden's Patreon page.
The statement came after, on April 1, 2025, the Canadian rapper dropped merchandise following the release of his collaborative album, $ome $exy $ongs 4 U. Drizzy released merchandise featuring Melyssa Ford, a Canadian media personality and actress, on one of the items.
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Joe Budden diverts Drake's Melyssa Ford merch link to Budden's Patreon:
On Thursday, April 3, 2025, a short clip from the Joe Budden network made waves on the internet. Budden's manager, Ian Schwartzman, revealed the real reason behind Drake's merch redirecting to Joe Budden's Patreon page.
In the video clip, Budden can be seen sitting in a studio, clearly clueless about his manager's revelation. Ian Schwartzman, who was standing near Budden, suggested that a person from the team named Tyler saw the merchandise the minute it dropped.
Schwartzman revealed that Tyler bought the URL featured on the merch and redirected it to Budden's page. Ian Schwartzman revealed that he thought the feature of Melyssa Ford was a subtle jab at Budden —
"It's not what I thought, I know why. I know why. I thought maybe it's a jab to Joe, still sending people over to you. 'It's on me. I'm the big guy on campus.' Couldn't be further from the truth. Our guy Tyler saw the merch drop the minute it dropped, went and bought videovixens.ca, and routed it right to your patreon page. I'm not f*cking kidding," Ian Schwartzman said.
Joe Budden responded in disbelief and asked Ian Schwartzman to "shut up," to which Schwartzman provided further details about the link rerouting.
The manager mentioned that Tyler, an individual he spoke with, shared that he had been up late when he came across the merchandise featuring a link. Curious about the domain's ownership, Tyler checked the link and discovered that the domain was unclaimed, prompting him to purchase it —
"He called me and said 'I did something and you would be very proud of me.' I asked 'what you do...' and I went to domain.com to make sure the ownership, and no one owned it. I bought it and reroute it your Patreon page link,'" Ian Schwartzman added.
After hearing the real story behind the link rerouting, Joe Budden reacted incredulously and suggested that the whole scenario was "funny." Joe Budden did not say anything further regarding the link redirection.
The entire drama stems from April 1, 2025, when Drake dropped merchandise of his song Nokia from the album $ome $exy $ongs 4 U, released February 14, 2025.
The merch featured a lot of clothing, but the highlight was the grey hoodie titled $$$4U Hot Moms Vixen Hoodie. It features Melyssa Ford at the back with a URL videovixen.ca, which the Canadian rapper still needs to address. The hoodie retails at $220 and has five sizes, from small (S) to 2XL.
It remains unclear why Drake has chosen to feature Melyssa Ford on the merchandise or whether the unclaimed URL was intended as a subtle jab at Joe Budden.
Additionally, the Canadian rapper has not commented on Budden's viral clip.
