Cam'run Miles
01-28-08, 08:26 AM
http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1580337/20080125/fiasco__lupe.jhtml
Artist: Joe Budden
Representing: Jerz
Mixtape: Mood Muzik 3: The Album
411: Lyrically, Joe Budden is the "Cloverfield" monster. He hasn't put out an album in four years, and every fan of abundantly heady bars should feel cheated. He is one of the best artists not getting a proper shot. He's one of the best, period. While in limbo with Def Jam, his Mood Muzik mixtape series has kept him afloat, and the third installment gets our overwhelming cosign as the first great street CD of 2008. (Hey, Malice and Pusha, what happened with the release of y'all's joint? We're waiting.)
Although a version of the MM3 that DJ On Point helped put together is out on the streets now, the real underground album is coming in February.
"It's being released digitally on Amalgam," Budden said a couple of weeks ago in Harlem. "I think eventually ... you'll only be able to get music digitally. I'd like to jump on that bandwagon. Since my hiatus, I've been big online, so this album is going online."
But Joe hasn't ruled out going back to a major label. Shady Records wouldn't be a bad spot, he said, but in the meantime, while he's finalizing his free agency, Budden is preparing to drop an official album called Padded Room later this year.
"The mood will be lighter," he said. "I progressively go back to that mainstream. We're about six songs in. The record right now that sticks out is 'I Couldn't Help It.' It talks about some situations I had with some rappers' wives. It's pretty self-explanatory."
Joints To Check For:
"Talk 2 Em." "The song started out in one place and ended someplace totally different," Budden said of the record, where he expounds on his frustration with Jay-Z. "That happens a lot on Mood Muzik. Like, the timing just changes from bar to bar. I'm not mad at Jay putting albums out, I'm mad at how other albums get treated. Me being on Def Jam and not releasing an album [in four years], I watched how other albums were treated. You didn't need to be an expert in music to see some things didn't make sense. To put an album in stores when a record only has 300 spins — it doesn't make sense. Start pitting your artists against each other on the same release date — it doesn't make sense. Somebody has to take the blame. Somebody does.
"I don't even attack Jay-Z," he continued. "I attack Shawn Carter, the man in the suit, the man behind the desk. When I come in to have a conversation with you in search of some kind of guidance or information and get a whole bunch of BS in response, there's no other way for an artist to respond. But the difficult part is that you're the greatest rapper. It's like the bully who comes to school, and because he can beat everybody up, he beats everybody up. So that was me saying, 'F you.' If it comes down to going bar for bar with you, I'll do that too. Whatever it takes to get some type of respect on this label, or off the label for that matter, I'm not afraid of you lyrically."
"Dear Diary." "It's weird," Jump Off Joey explained. "A lot of times on the record I can talk about things that I would not talk about off the record or outside the booth or even amongst family and friends. ... I have had some situations where people [who] were in my life ... were no longer in my life. I went back to talking about my child's mother and the situations me and her continuously have. I spoke to her yesterday, and she was like, 'Stop running around talking.' She didn't have a positive response to it. My baby's mom took me to court for talking about her on records. I had to change up how it was done.
"It's just me in the booth," Joe added. "Me and the mic, and I'm venting. Once I do that, I feel better."
"Warfare" (featuring Joell Ortiz). "[Ortiz] reminded me a lot of myself: young guy coming up, spitting extremely hard and just loves music," the Jersey MC said. "He reached out to me. It took us a little while to link up, but we finally did, and we had a great time making the record. ... We didn't want to do the whole thing where [you say], 'I wanna work with you. You MP3 something; I MP3 you something back.' ... We wanted to have a lyrical slugfest, and it sounds that way. ... Me and him are going to be doing a lot of things in the future."
Artist: Joe Budden
Representing: Jerz
Mixtape: Mood Muzik 3: The Album
411: Lyrically, Joe Budden is the "Cloverfield" monster. He hasn't put out an album in four years, and every fan of abundantly heady bars should feel cheated. He is one of the best artists not getting a proper shot. He's one of the best, period. While in limbo with Def Jam, his Mood Muzik mixtape series has kept him afloat, and the third installment gets our overwhelming cosign as the first great street CD of 2008. (Hey, Malice and Pusha, what happened with the release of y'all's joint? We're waiting.)
Although a version of the MM3 that DJ On Point helped put together is out on the streets now, the real underground album is coming in February.
"It's being released digitally on Amalgam," Budden said a couple of weeks ago in Harlem. "I think eventually ... you'll only be able to get music digitally. I'd like to jump on that bandwagon. Since my hiatus, I've been big online, so this album is going online."
But Joe hasn't ruled out going back to a major label. Shady Records wouldn't be a bad spot, he said, but in the meantime, while he's finalizing his free agency, Budden is preparing to drop an official album called Padded Room later this year.
"The mood will be lighter," he said. "I progressively go back to that mainstream. We're about six songs in. The record right now that sticks out is 'I Couldn't Help It.' It talks about some situations I had with some rappers' wives. It's pretty self-explanatory."
Joints To Check For:
"Talk 2 Em." "The song started out in one place and ended someplace totally different," Budden said of the record, where he expounds on his frustration with Jay-Z. "That happens a lot on Mood Muzik. Like, the timing just changes from bar to bar. I'm not mad at Jay putting albums out, I'm mad at how other albums get treated. Me being on Def Jam and not releasing an album [in four years], I watched how other albums were treated. You didn't need to be an expert in music to see some things didn't make sense. To put an album in stores when a record only has 300 spins — it doesn't make sense. Start pitting your artists against each other on the same release date — it doesn't make sense. Somebody has to take the blame. Somebody does.
"I don't even attack Jay-Z," he continued. "I attack Shawn Carter, the man in the suit, the man behind the desk. When I come in to have a conversation with you in search of some kind of guidance or information and get a whole bunch of BS in response, there's no other way for an artist to respond. But the difficult part is that you're the greatest rapper. It's like the bully who comes to school, and because he can beat everybody up, he beats everybody up. So that was me saying, 'F you.' If it comes down to going bar for bar with you, I'll do that too. Whatever it takes to get some type of respect on this label, or off the label for that matter, I'm not afraid of you lyrically."
"Dear Diary." "It's weird," Jump Off Joey explained. "A lot of times on the record I can talk about things that I would not talk about off the record or outside the booth or even amongst family and friends. ... I have had some situations where people [who] were in my life ... were no longer in my life. I went back to talking about my child's mother and the situations me and her continuously have. I spoke to her yesterday, and she was like, 'Stop running around talking.' She didn't have a positive response to it. My baby's mom took me to court for talking about her on records. I had to change up how it was done.
"It's just me in the booth," Joe added. "Me and the mic, and I'm venting. Once I do that, I feel better."
"Warfare" (featuring Joell Ortiz). "[Ortiz] reminded me a lot of myself: young guy coming up, spitting extremely hard and just loves music," the Jersey MC said. "He reached out to me. It took us a little while to link up, but we finally did, and we had a great time making the record. ... We didn't want to do the whole thing where [you say], 'I wanna work with you. You MP3 something; I MP3 you something back.' ... We wanted to have a lyrical slugfest, and it sounds that way. ... Me and him are going to be doing a lot of things in the future."