Joe Budden apparently wants Eminem to let bygones be bygones.
After Em delivered his surprise album Music to Be Murdered By last week, fans immediately began pointing out all the perceived disses. Among the jabs was Shady's line in "I Will" in which he raps, "Yeah, your group was off the chain, but you were the weakest link." Some suspected that lyrics were directed at Budden, as he was the only member of Slaughterhouse who didn't appear on the track. Budden is convinced, however, that the "weakest link" line was actually intended for Brand Nubian member Lord Jamar.
"The Em line in that song, when he was tearing Lord Jamar's ass up on old group flips, and then that led into, 'Your group is off the chain, but you’re the weakest link,'" he said during the latest episode of The Joe Budden Podcast. "In a song featuring [three-fourths of] Slaughterhouse, I could see how that looked like it was about Joe. Joe says it was not. Joe thinks that's about Lord Jamar, obviously, if you listen to the eight bars coming before it. You guys get your panties out the bunch."
But Budden admits he didn't come out completely unscathed. He then points to the Anderson .Paak-assisted cut "Lock It Up," which included the lyrics, "Tryna save at Kroger/So why would I give a fuck about backstabbin' Trader Joe for?"
"That’s offensive, man. Trader Joe? I’m Joe. You’re telling me Joe is a traitor?" Budden asked with a laugh. He then began talking about their previous disputes over everything from Budden's criticism of Revival to his diss on Kamikaze to their business disagreements while Slaughterhouse was signed to Shady Records.
"... The same way I feel like he should stop dissing Lord Jamar, he should stop dissing me," Budden said. "Hey, whatever we had, that exchange, when you did all of the videos (Em's 2018 sit-down with Sway) ... and when I said whatever I said on the pod, it was a moment in time, we had our exchange, and it's over."
He continued: "In 2020, I can’t harbor negativity toward, not only one of the best rappers, but somebody I’m not angry at. That’s what I gotta stop doing. I don’t be mad at the people I come in and kill ... There’s no hostility after that."
Budden went on to address Eminem's trader/traitor word play, arguing that the term was not applicable to him.
"Everybody has to do what’s best for them. Everybody has to move the way that they see fit ... The word ‘traitor’ is just a little misleading," he explained. "I have no beef with Em, I have no problem with Em ... I’ve been very consistent in my message. The only problem or issue that I had was how our business was set up. The end. Does that make me a bad guy? For having a different perspective on how the business should go or how we should be treated, or how we should be handled, especially when it’s our shit? Like, I know now, ownership is cool and all, but some of us were fighting for it then. I don’t think that should make me, like, a traitor."
You can hear Budden's comments on the "Lock It Up" diss above.
