Joe Budden Confesses Jay-Z Conflict Wasn't Something He Handled Well

BYGabriel Bras NevaresPublished on December 28, 20232.3K Views

Jay-Z and Joe Budden during The New York City Hip Hop Summit - Rally for the Repeal of the Rockefeller Drug Laws at City Hall in New York City, New York, United States. (Photo by Johnny Nunez/WireImage/Getty Images)

The podcast host believes that he wasn't fully appreciative of the opportunities granted to him at Def Jam despite other grievances.

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.

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About The Author

Gabriel Bras Nevares

Gabriel Bras Nevares is a music and pop culture news writer for HotNewHipHop. He started in 2022 as a weekend writer and, since joining the team full-time, has developed a strong knowledge in hip-hop news and releases. Whether it’s regular coverage or occasional interviews and album reviews, he continues to search for the most relevant news for his audience and find the best new releases in the genre. What excites him the most is finding pop culture stories of interest, as well as a deeper passion for the art form of hip-hop and its contemporary output. Specifically, Gabriel enjoys the fringes of rap music: the experimental, boundary-pushing, and raw alternatives to the mainstream sound. As a proud native of San Juan, Puerto Rico, he also stays up-to-date with the archipelago’s local scene and its biggest musical exponents in reggaetón, salsa, indie, and beyond. Before working at HotNewHipHop, Gabriel produced multiple short documentaries, artist interviews, venue spotlights, and audio podcasts on a variety of genres and musical figures. Hardcore punk and Go-go music defined much of his coverage during his time at the George Washington University in D.C. His favorite hip-hop artists working today are Tyler, The Creator, Boldy James, JPEGMAFIA, and Earl Sweatshirt.