Joe Budden Apologizes to NBA YoungBoy For Labeling Music 'Trash 10x"

Joe Budden is backtracking on his recent NBA YoungBoy slander, apologizing with his chest ... and admitting that hearing playback of his rant made him cringe!!!

The opinionated rapper and host took accountability, saying his comments about NBA were out of pocket in the new episode of "The Joe Budden Podcast," which is titled, "Vanity King."

Joe had nonchalantly dismissed YB's music as grade-A garbage on the previous episode ... but now cops to just rambling at that point in the convo, and says he should've composed a better argument.

The way Joe sees it, criticism from a rap OG should be geared toward encouragement as opposed to embarrassment. He also felt uneasy about the coverage his loose lips caused.

There's no telling if YoungBoy was embarrassed, but he dared JB to repeat any of the disrespect to his face ... and even theorized Joe was in desperate need of Viagra.

Low blow, for sure, but that's where we're at these days!

The threat was echoed by his big homie Birdman, who responded with a barrage of cryptic messaging -- but Joe is clearly waving the 🏳️here.