"Its still got a protocol" — Kendrick Lamar gave Ray Vaughn feedback during his beef with Joey BADA$$
Rapper Ray Vaughn appeared on an episode of the Bootleg Kev podcast on Saturday, June 7, 2025, and discussed his ongoing feud with Joey BADA$$. At one point, Vaughn told Kev about sending an unreleased song to his labelmate, Kendrick Lamar.
"I'm on the phone with him when I'm going at Joey... I'm like, 'Hey, do you f**k with this?'," the rapper said.
The Bootleg Kev podcast host asked him if he was getting feedback from the GNX rapper, to which Vaughn said that he "always" got feedback.
"Yeah. I always get feedback, you know, sh*t still don't come out just... its still got a protocol," Ray said.
When Kev asked Ray Vaughn if Kendrick Lamar gave him any notes about his song, the Blasphemy rapper explained how they "run at TDE."
"If anything, he's like, 'Take something out'... like ad libs... It's still the way we run at TDE. You've got to go down the line. When they post it, it's going on TDE page. So, it's like, 'n***a, you speaking and it's coming from our side'," Vaughn told Kev.
Joey BADA$$ and Ray Vaughn have been engaged in a feud since January 2025, with both rappers standing by their respective coasts in their diss tracks.
Ray Vaughn claims he didn't like everyone else "jumping in" on his beef with Joey BADA$$
Ray Vaughn's podcast episode with Bootleg Kev came weeks after the West Coast rapper was interviewed by the XXL Mag, published on May 23, 2025. When asked if he felt like he was getting the upper hand in his beef with Joey, Vaughn said he felt so until "everybody started jumping in."
He added that "the narrative on how it's going to be painted out to people," changes when everyone jumps in.
"So, it don't matter, my punches aren't as effective. I might say something that somebody just dropped and said. So now, my shock value doesn't hit the same because somebody else probably has said that," the rapper said.
Elsewhere in the interview, Ray responded to the subject of the beef becoming West Coast vs. Joey BADA$$. He claimed that it was "just me and Joey head-on" before other rappers piled up on it.
He then mentioned that while he believed he could "handle Joey on my own," the beef was now going to be perceived differently, as people would champion Joey for standing up against all 10 of them.
BADA$$ kicked off the beef by releasing The Ruler's Back on January 1, 2025. In the track, he criticized the West Coast rappers for their overconfidence in the wake of Kendrick Lamar's victory in the 2024 rap battle against Drake.
Ray Vaughn responded to Joey's diss a week later, dropping Crashout Heritage, in which he called out Joey for his shots.
"What’s with the sneak dissin’? Takin’ shots at us, then hide the Uzi/ ‘Cause the only badass the world was recognizin’ is Boosie/ Please don’t get confused with shootin’ the movies, we really shootin'," he rapped.
The other diss tracks that Vaughn has since released aimed at BADA$$ include Impossible Patty, Justin Credible Freestyle, Hoe Era, and Golden Eye.
