A month or so back, I listened to a clip from “The Joe Budden Podcast” in which the crew played a snippet of Candace Owens — the worst Black woman in existence since Mary J. Blige’s character on “Power Book II: Ghost” — giving Ariana Grande a verbal drubbing for being a “ho.”

Everyone on the pod — even the sole woman, Melyssa Ford — gave Owens props for her takedown. It was a bizarre moment even for a podcast that prides itself on being contrarian for contrarianism’s sake. Especially since Owens has made a career off of taking Black people to task to appease her white listeners.

Budden didn’t just side with Owens. He was intrigued.

So color me (un)surprised when Budden and Owens linked up for an episode of his podcast, which was released on his Patreon on March 15.

For the uninitiated, a brief primer on Owens: She’s a different brand of foul right-wing f**kery. She’s built a career downplaying racism, hoisting up Donald Trump and promoting homophobia, sexism, ableism and any other -ism you can muster — all in the name of getting Black folks away from the Democratic Party, and all while being a dark-skinned Black woman.

Among her headline-making absurdities: She testified to the House Judiciary Committee about how white supremacy is not nearly as big a deal as a culture that doesn’t promote “masculinity,” and walked down a dark path with Kanye West, using the hip-hop culture she often condemns to her own benefit.

Unsurprisingly, Budden let Owens speak with little pushback as she went through a medley of rancid talking points, including the idea that Black people will be “free” of structural or institutionalized racism if only we “think” our way out of it. She reminded him that Black rappers once loved Trump, who is only being “misinterpreted” because of the media (and not because of what’s come out of his own goddamn mouth in the last eight........

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