Can Joe Budden live? It seems like every time you hit up a rap website there's news of another rapper going at Jersey's crowned rap prince. We're only three weeks into the new year and he's already recorded two diss tracks aimed at Saigon. They say success breeds envy, but Joey hasn't tasted success since '03 when his first (and only hit) "Pump It Up" was still on the 106th & Park countdown.
Whatever the motivation behind it, rappers sure do love going at Joey. Tonight, Slaughterhouse'the rap triumvirate including Joey, Royce and Joell Ortiz' have a show at NYC's S.O.B.'s, and with the Saigon's penchant for disturbing the peace, we're keeping an eye out to see if anything jumps off. So before you log on tomorrow and see another diss video, peep a quick history of all his beefs...
JOE BUDDEN VS JAY-Z (2003)
• Cause: When Joe was signed to Def Jam in 2002, he was considered to be the next beast from the east. Then his debut album bricked and he got thrown on the shelf for about four years. It wasn't long before he started to blame label pres Jay-Z for his lack of success. Things only got worse when Jay hopped on the "Pump It Up" beat, throwing subliminal jabs, only to have Joey reclaim the beat. The beef simmered until Joey came back with his "Talk 2 'Em" track where he went at Jay-Z for still rapping at 38: "When the new generation think about Jordan/All they remember is when Iverson crossed him/Take off the blazer, loosen' up the tie/Nigga fell in love and Superman died."
Jay-Z "Pump It Up (Freestyle)"
Joe Budden "Talk To 'Em"
• Effect: Joe was dropped from Def Jam and signed to Amalgam Digital where his sophomore effort, Padded Room was pushed back for over a year. It's finally dropping this February. We hope.
JOE BUDDEN VS THE GAME (2005)
• Cause: On a DJ Clue tape, Joey spit an ambiguous punchline: "He should be in the G-Unit vid with all the gangster actors." DJ Clue pasted an unrelated Game verse onto the same song, so Game's new boss 50 Cent took note. After 50 asked Game about it, the rookie Compton MC decided to craft his response "Buddens."
The Game "Buddens"
Joe Budden "Game Over"
• Effect: After Game was ousted from G-Unit, the two made up and started making music together. Friends!
JOE BUDDEN VS. GLORIA VELEZ (2005)
• Cause: Back in '03 when both Joey and Glo were on the come up, the two became cut buddies. When things turned sour, Glo became what Joey calls a "female who was upset" and began airing him out in videos and leaking a voicemail Budden left on her phone singing her a love song of sorts: "I want to make mo...love. Baby, what the fuck? Call me." Joe struck back with a couple small jabs on tracks.
Gloria Velez "Interview with All Access"
[Click Here To Watch]
Joe Budden "Interview with VladTV.com"
[Click Here To Watch]
• Effect: In addition to refusing Velez's claims about the voice message, Joe Budden (in an interview with VladTV.com) claims, "I've never been that guy to be so heartbroken over a girl." He also adds, "She apologized. She didn't do it on camera! But she did apologize and I don't have any feelings for her. She's cool."
JOE BUDDEN VS. ROYCE DA 5'9" (2007)
• Cause: According to an interview with Loud.com, Budden claims the beef started after an early version of "Thou Shall Not Fall", a track from Mood Muzik 3, leaked. On the track, Joey makes some references to the fact that Royce caught an L when he battled Mistah FAB at an Allhiphop emcee battle event that Joey didn't even attend. Although Budden amended the track to reflect the fact that Royce actually held his own against Fab, it was too late. Royce dropped his response.
Joe Budden "Thou Shall Not Fall"
Royce Da 5"9' "I'm Nice"
JOE BUDDEN VS. RANSOM (2007-2008)
• Cause: The beef started when Joe had a song called "Family Reunion" and put verses from both Ransom and his former A-Team member, and old bosom buddy, Hitchcock. They've been going back and forth with each other ever since.
Ransom "Kid Brother"
Joe Budden "Heart of the City"
• Effect: The feud reached its high-point when Ransom went to the home of a member of Budden's entourage and got physical. After the doorstep visit, Joe said he was done with the back-and-froth and Ransom could have the win, taking the "bigger man" approach.
JOE BUDDEN VS. PRODIGY (2008)
• Cause: One of our favorite diatribes by Prodigy on WSHH was the cause of this alleged "beef" (neither Joe Budden nor Prodigy has addressed the issue on wax). In the clip, Prodigy speaks on many New York rappers he thinks, "Should get another job," or "Paint a house." And out of them all Prodigy claims, "Who's the worst rapper on the planet? I think Joe Budden is on that line." Questioning, "What the fuck is a Mood Muzik?" Joe Budden responds back in an interview with WSHH saying, "Prodigy's like...He's like the Hip-Hop version of Bobby Brown or some shit. But I'm not mad at that. Isn't he going to jail?"
Prodigy "Interview on WSHH"
[Click Here To Watch]
Joe Budden "Interview on WSHH"
[Click Her To Watch]
• Effect: Joe Budden refused to respond to Prodigy's statements on wax because he believes Prodigy has spoken his opinion, and he isn't "a girl" to fight him back. He also stated, "Name me somebody who Prodigy has beefed with and came away a winner? Jay? Nas? Pac?" The man has a point.
JOE BUDDEN VS. SAIGON (2008-2009)
• Cause: Saigon turned sensitive thug when he misconstrued the following punchline as a diss: "Soon as the wife's gone they jump on the python/But she don't know I'm out to hit and run like Saigon." Since then, the beef has been stop-n-go, with each releasing a diss track and a subsequent video saying they weren't going to keep going back and forth, only to drop another diss track. The latest barb came courtesy of Saigon with his staggering "Pushin Buddens" track over Wu-Tang's "Protect Ya Neck" instrumental just a day after Just Blaze twittered that he and Joe squashed the beef over the phone. Saigon immediately denied it and made a statement to XXLmag.com that he will continue dropping diss tracks if he needs to.
Joe Budden "Letter To Saigon"
Saigon "Under Achiever"
• Effect: Both MCs still can't get a record out. Stay tuned.
vikflo January 22nd, 2009 at 07:20 PM
jim jones and joe budden are wack as hell.
kakarot ssj4 October 9th, 2010 at 03:10 PM
Hey Vikflo fuck you,you stupid bitch.You are the reason 4 most of these weak ass rappers getting payed.Stating that they are hot & buying into the garbage & bullshit that the majority of them wack-ass rappers put out.Fuck you,you stupid ass bitch.
J. Caesar January 23rd, 2009 at 10:03 AM
^^jones is not lyrical, but i can deal with him, he knows how to make a catchy song whether they were written by somebody else or not...and buddens wack^^dude step your music game up
J. Caesar January 23rd, 2009 at 10:09 AM
ps. complex joe budden did go at prodigy on wax, he dropped a snippet of a song called "blood on the wall" which is supposed to be on Padded Room but that may have changed
K-Theory January 23rd, 2009 at 10:26 AM
Triumvirate? Aren't there are 4 people in the group. Is Crooked I not an official member?
bob February 3rd, 2009 at 06:03 PM
Is the person who wrote this serious? I hate to break it to you but Jay-Z jumped up Pump it up when the song dropped.
brooklynstandup February 4th, 2009 at 12:06 AM
Game over track is hot.. nice article
Jerz201 February 4th, 2009 at 01:43 AM
Okay I stopped reading after the first beef. His album didn't brick. Over half a million copies sold is not a brick. Joey is definitely the most talented Hip Hop artist all around right now. Hes the best lyrically and has the best catalog of songs. And he is successful just nowhere near the magnitude financially that a handful of big name rappers are. As long as his buzz keeps growing there will only be more rappers going at him. Their starving and his name keeps growing independently so people will hate. I predict Jim Jones will be next to fire a shot at him.
Ryan February 4th, 2009 at 03:14 AM
You're missing so much info. That was a terrible breakdown. I'll give you an example. Jay-Z jumped on "Pump It Up" in 03 after "Pump It Up" was getting spins. Joe then jumped on the "Pump It Up" again and responded, and said on the track that he wasn't going at Jay. Then after 4 years on Def Jam, without a Jay doing anything good as President of the Label, Joe responds to Jay-Z as the executive of Def Jam on MM3. See you realize there's an actual timeline.
Mark Mero February 23rd, 2009 at 09:43 AM
Horrible break down. It sounds like you got 50 percent of the story on all of this, and tried to make a blog on something you have no idea about.
Jerzzz December 18th, 2009 at 11:29 AM
Joe Budden is definitley 0n 0f the m0st lyrikal m.c's out right now. be serious. i think somebody need 2wo0 g0 listen 2wo0 that padded ro0m & escape r0ute. iht speak 4 ihtself.