"If I Was Joe Budden" by The Beast

What up Hiphopruckus.com faithful. I’ve been trying to put this piece together for the past couple of weeks. It’s my opinionated take on what I would do if I was in shoes of Joe Budden. Not to pick on Budden, I think he’s one of the true talents in the game and before my arrival to Hiphopruckus.com; Joey had already received mad write-ups.

I had the opportunity to meet Joe for like two seconds during his album release party for Mood Muzik 3 sponsored by his new label Amalgam Digital a few weeks ago. As he stepped on the stage and let loose a proper taste of what he had in the tank and what DefJam didn’t think was enough. Dude did his thing on the mic and his fans in the audience enjoyed it thoroughly. The love for this was enough so, he had New Jersey cats crossing the Hudson River to see his show. Even New Jersey Nets guard, Marcus Williams came out after his game that night.

With all the noise about his latest mixtape surfacing in mad magazines and online sites, this guys is still a coveted MC but you gotta ask what took his sure shot to a “rappers delight” to a turn for a man back on grind to build what should or could have been, a guy with major success.

DefJam shelved him for a couple of years because of speculated low sales numbers from his first album. The low sales are puzzling considering how much hype was built up on him before the album dropped. He was on mad mixtapes ran close to the world famous DJ Clue and had a one smash hit after another. So after years on hiatus, he kept busy with radio on HOT97 for their morning show all the while much disclosed hype was still being built up about him working on another album, but apparently the label felt differently about this.

After years in limbo, he and DefJam finally decided to go separate ways and terminated his contract. So now he’s with Amalgam Digital. This label is in forefront with adapting to the digital age taking over the music industry. I think it’s a good look for Budden to be apart of the Boston company. It’s good people over there. Shot out to Steve in Sales and DJ Next.

So here’s my proposal if I was Joe Budden and had this new start to lay things down. I would go hard and make DefJam and Jay-Z the reason and motivation that I shut down 2008/2009 in complete darkness. I would fuck trying to be a pretty boy and would stay in the studio. Let my boy and Jersey native Just Blaze co-executive produce my album, get as many disgruntled present and former DefJam and Jay-Z haters/artist to be on my album. That includes LL Cool J, Method Man, Cam’Ron and many more.

I would call my album “House Special,” because you can’t get this shit anywhere else. I’m Joe Budden and I’m going to sell infinite units, do more shows than a repeated guest on The Maury Povich Show “doing a paternity test…” this is what I would tell myself if I was Joe Budden.

So if Joey reads this or you bump into him, tell him that The Beast is a fan, but I’m just saying what I would do if I was him. No pun!