Dee-1 has taken some time to ponder on his course of action regarding Joe Budden’s remarks about him, choosing not to release a song he had prepared in response and instead leaving a line of communication open for them to hash things out.
Over the past few weeks, the former Slaughterhouse MC has spoken about the 34-year-old’s criticism of Hip Hop and even called him a “clout chaser.” Although the co-hosts of his podcast all agreed with Dee-1’s evaluation of the culture, Budden said: “I love his message; I just don’t like how he did it.”
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He went on to say that namedropping rappers is unnecessary, adding: “I don’t know him, I’m not trying to slight him — I’m just sayin’ you get qualified first. Tell us who you are first before you decide to just go calling name after name after name.”
In a subsequent episode, Budden once again spoke on the matter and even took a jab at the New Orleans rapper’s recurring references to God being the inspiration behind the things he says and does.
“I’m telling you as somebody that knows the history of the people that you speaking about,” he explained. “Leave n-ggas alone — especially n-ggas that will shoot your Christian ass.”
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Soon after, Dee-1 took to Instagram and told the media personality: “You have a purpose that’s currently being unfulfilled, and that purpose comes from God […] God doesn’t call the qualified, God qualifies the called.”
He added: “I prepared a song about you. The song is done, but my wisdom told me that if I put this out, because of the way I went in, that it would distract from the overall purpose, which is to get us to all be better together […] When I wasn’t replying to you, you continued to speak about me; now that I’m saying something, let’s see what you say now.”
Through all the noise, Dee-1 has maintained that his public critique of Jim Jones, Rick Ross and Meek Mill was meant to bring about positive change as he continues to work toward that.
During an interview on B High TV that aired in early November, the Louisiana MC once again elaborated on his side of what many see as a squabble. In doing so, he insisted that he was coming from a place of love when he singled out some of Hip Hop’s biggest names, urging them to set a better example for their listeners through music.
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“Jim Jones, I love you; Meek Mill, I love you; Rick Ross, I love you,” he began. “The world wants it to become something negative and unhealthy, but let’s make sure we use this as an opportunity to educate and to communicate.
“And if that means we can be friends at the end of this — cool. If we can’t ever be friends — cool, all good. Just go be a better man of God and I’ma try to be the best man of God I can be, and it’s gucci.”
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The back-and-forth started when Dee-1 called on the aforementioned artists to consider the impact of their lyrical content.
“Jim Jones, you could do better, brother,” he said. “I love you too much to not be honest with you. Rick Ross, you could do better, brother. Meek Mill, you could do better, brother! I love you too much not to be honest with you. Oh, you the face of prison reform? Or are you sitting here on your new song with Ross talking about getting somebody murked and shot at the red light? Which one is it, bro?”
None of the stars he pointed to have taken kindly to the criticism, with each of them addressing it in their own way. Jones stopped by Sway in the Morning a month back and shared his thoughts about the situation on air.
“He could have reached out,” Jones said. “That avenue of talkin’ to me is out. You heard? I would have loved to have had a conversation with that young man to enlighten him on certain things when he was mentioning my name. I had the same conversation with [Louis] Farrakhan.”
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Jones recounted: “[Farrakhan] summoned me for sayin’ his name. ‘If you know not what you’re talking about, young man, let me school you to what you’re doin’.’ You heard? And he once told me that I said certain things about certain people that I wished I didn’t as I got older.”
Going back to Dee-1, he explained that he felt the dialogue could have been handled differently and proceeded to defend himself and his peers as artists, saying: “Our music is rough. But we grew up in rough places. So when we talkin’ about these rough places, we talkin’ about these things that we went through. You don’t have to go through it!”
