As of writing this article on Monday morning (February 17) Joey Badass has seemingly removed his "The Ruler's Back" video from YouTube. For those unaware, this track kicked 2025 off with some shots at the West Coast after their gargantuan 2024 run, and people loved it. However, now fans are wondering why the New York MC decided to take this down, if it was even his call in the first place. Some listeners theorized that his recent lyrical battles have ended, so he took down their inception. On the other hand, others claim that this could be a result of sample clearance issues.
No matter what explanation you find more reasonable, none of them explain the full story. So we will have to wait and see if we actually get some more context on this and stay tuned for its potential re-upload. Nevertheless, Joey Bada$$ has more 2025 music to share and promote, such as his "Sorry Not Sorry" single. This track also took aim at his hip-hop competition, including what many fans interpreted as a diss towards J. Cole.
Who Did Joey Badass Diss?
Whether or not Joey Bada$$ meant "Sorry Not Sorry" as another inciting incident for beef, that was definitely true of "The Ruler's Back." Some fans interpreted it as a Kendrick Lamar diss, whereas plenty of MCs responded to the Brooklyn lyricist. There was Daylyt with various back-and-forth shots, Ray Vaughn, Mick Jenkins, Cliff Savage, Ras Kass, and more. Of course, it's not like anyone got direct mentions on "The Ruler's Back," but the generally competitive energy that Joey put out there definitely resonated. In fact, this is part of the reason why people think he might've taken the song down, as these battles seem to be over.
Still, we don't know either of those two things for sure, so take all this with a grain of salt. Joey Bada$$, in any case, has more important things to focus on. Fans assume that he and his girlfriend Serayah are expecting their first child together following her runway appearance for a fashion show. That seems like a more important thing to clarify than a music video's disappearance...
