Jay-Z and Joe Budden have had a pretty complicated collaborative history across the past twenty or so years. Moreover, you might know the rumors that Hov wanted to charge Budden $250K for a guest verse, which the latter himself admitted that he couldn't confirm or deny. However, now he has a different admission about how he handled the Roc-A-Fella boss becoming the head of Joe's label Def Jam, and the rift that this relationship caused between them. Furthermore, he explained this on The Pivot podcast recently, and broke down why he probably could've been a little more nuanced and appreciative in his response to a hip-hop peer becoming his higher-up.
"When Jay-Z got his role as president of Def Jam, I was a young artist on Def Jam trying to work on my second album," Joe Budden explained. "And at that time, a lot of the artists on Def Jam had an issue with Jay-Z being the president. This was the first time that a rapper, our peer, was calling the shots, in charge of DMX’s release date and [LL COOL J’s] release date.
Joe Budden On The Pivot Podcast: Watch Full Episode
"None of us took that well. And I really didn’t take it well," Joe Budden continued. "I didn’t handle myself well at all. Every interview that they booked for me, I kicked their back in. Every chance I got in front of a microphone, I had disparaging things to say about people who, ultimately, were maybe trying to help me. Even if they weren’t trying to help me, if I would’ve helped myself, I would have been in a different predicament. But I didn’t. Gas on the fire.
"In some instances, I maybe went about it the wrong way or expressed myself the wrong way,” he went on, referencing how he fell out with Slaughterhouse and Eminem's Shady Records, too. “But the intent is always pure. The intent is always for the better of everyone. It’s never like a selfish act. When I had my back and forth with Shady Records and Eminem, I was fighting for me and [Slaughterhouse] to get a better situation." Meanwhile, for more news and the latest updates on Joe Budden and Jay-Z, keep checking in with HNHH.