As an artist who began his career battling, New Jersey rapper Joe Budden recently spoke with Rap Grid about Battle Rap and the artists currently making noise in today’s Battle Rap scene. Before rattling off a list of his favorite battles, Budden addressed the possibility of artists who are considered mainstream returning to Battle Rap.
According to the rapper, there is a possibility that an artist with mainstream exposure might be willing to take part in a battle, but due to their exposure as a popular artist, they’d likely be coming into the battle with a slight disadvantage.
“It’s not fear,” he says. “Fear is the wrong word, but I mean people have a lot to lose. In Hip Hop your credibility is everything. And it puts the artist with more exposure at a slight disadvantage because of said exposure. You know? You getting here and you facing somebody who knows everything about you. They’ve seen everything about you. They have so much to say. They could speak on your failures, your—they can speak on anything. And you just battling an up-and-coming guy. But I think we will see it eventually. Meek has come from that. Cassidy he comes from that. So, you have guys that are well-versed in battling. So, I can’t wait to see it.”
As far as the Slaughterhouse emcee making his own return to the battle rap arena is concerned, he says it is a possibility.
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“I might do it…But that’s a possibility,” he said when asked about participating in a battle of his own.
Budden later revealed that there isn’t a particular Battle Rap artist that is his personal favorite and instead informed those watching that he looks out for artists who have the best bars, delivery, and other qualities.
“Whoever has the best bars,” Budden said. “I have no horse in the race. Whoever performs the best and gives the best delivery, the best bars, the best cadence, that’s what I’m looking out for.”
After stating that the battle between Loaded Lux and Hollow Da Don is one of his Top 5 battles of all time, the Jersey emcee went on to list a handful of his favorite battles.
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“Some of my favorite battles are Lux and Calicoe, JC versus Chilla, Verb versus Hitman, Big T versus Surf,” he said. “If I stand here for long enough I can give you a million battles that I really, really, really enjoyed, but that one—I don’t know if it was because I was in the building or what, but they both just delivered the way that we expected them both to deliver. So, I mean it was Top 5 for me.”
Late last month in a post made on his Instagram page, Budden addressed a possible battle between himself and Hollow Da Don. Budden’s post included a picture of both the Slaughterhouse rapper and Hollow along with the following caption: “Niggas always think they want a problem til they get it.”
No updates in regards to a battle between the two artists have been made following Budden’s social media posts.
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