Joe Budden has explained why he is hesitant to listen to his former label boss Eminem‘s latest album The Death of Slim Shady (Coup de Grâce).
Speaking on his self-titled podcast, Budden revealed that he had not yet listened to the project that currently sits atop the Billboard 200 chart.
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In his thoughtful comments, the former Slaughterhouse rapper detailed his history with Eminem’s music and his feelings towards his most recent work.
“I will eventually listen to this, but I haven’t yet. I ain’t even thought about it yet,” he said. “Maybe my life is litter than you guys’ is. In my younger years, I couldn’t imagine a day where I didn’t run to an Eminem project — excluding him dissing me [on] Kamikaze.
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“An Eminem project, you rush to it. I know where he stands as an MC. I know what he does. [But] I didn’t feel that urgency with this. It has nothing to do with him or with music.”
He added: “I don’t care about none of the Slim Shady shit. I don’t care about fucking Jennifer Aniston or whoever he’s dissing, fucking Nick Storm, Nick Fury, or whoever he’s dissing.”
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Budden then stated his own personal relationship with Em’s past work: “For me, Slim Shady helped me to live and stay alive and deal with depression. Back then, that’s what he did for me.
“I was never into the funny shit, but he caught one with that, ‘Guess who’s back, back again.’ I liked that one. But other than that […] I’ma check out the Em album, but I felt good that I have outgrown the urgency of having to rush to it.”
Eminem and Joe Budden have had a complicated history. Budden was signed to Shady Records as one-quarter of Slaughterhouse but departed the label acrimoniously over creative differences
After Budden trashed Em’s 2017 album Revival, the Detroit legend targeted his former signee on the Kamikaze track “Fall” where he referenced the allegations of domestic violence against him.
“Somebody tell Budden before I snap, he better fasten it / Or have his body bag get zipped / The closest thing he’s had to hits is smackin’ bitches (Pump it up!),” he rapped.
Before things went south, Budden penned something of a tribute to his former label boss on his song “SlaughterMouse.”
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“Still when I hear your voice, my head goes wrong / Takes me back to that little boy with my headphones on / And the way you saved my life back then is how I’m savin’ them / Plaques and charted tracks won’t take me away from them / So I hope you understand / Fuck this record deal, you inspired me as a man / I’ll cut it short, before I start feelin’ like a Stan,” he spit.
The two appear on somewhat more favorable terms of late, with Budden recently taking Eminem’s side in his rekindled beef with Benzino.
