Jay-Z and Joe Budden were recently partial subjects of a social media debate over Hov's role in Beanie Sigel's 2000s attempted murder case. For those unaware, some folks claim that Jay refused to take responsibility for Beanie when he went to court, but the Roc Nation mogul allegedly denied that. Either way, it set the stage for some more recollections of their relationship, and the media personality recently spoke briefly on it during an appearance on the Flip Da Script podcast. Specifically, it centered around Joe's hit "Pump It Up" and the rumor that Jay-Z requested $250K when asked for a feature, one that Budden seemed to confirm.
"I don't think it was a big number," Joe Budden answered a question on why he thinks Jay-Z set that high asking price, which was allegedly over half Joe's budget. "I think that was his number. 'That's my number to rap on this new artist's remix.' It was just big in my world, but it wasn't a big number. 100%, [I look at it differently in retrospect]. $20 million's a big number. And listen, again, I'm super young in that moment. I wasn't in the studio when they had the conversation.
Joe Budden Speaks On Jay-Z's "Pump It Up" Feature Price
"I knew that they had some type of relationship," Joe Budden continued about the Jay-Z feature. "It was a Just Blaze beat, and I was green behind the ears. I mean, I just thought that it would get done. I didn't know anything about the business and how things like that are supposed to go. That was par the course, it was, like, normal. 'Oh, this what you want? Yo, because you my man, I'm having this conversation. Otherwise, I wouldn't even have this talk about no new artist with nobody. But since it's you... 250.'"
"None of us took that well," Joe Budden had previously said about Jay-Z becoming Def Jam's president and the fallout that ensued. "And I really didn’t take it well. 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."