Joe Budden has confessed that he didn’t “handle himself well” during his rift with JAY-Z after the latter took over at Def Jam.
Appearing on The Pivot Podcast, hosted by former NFL stars Ryan Clark, Fred Taylor and Channing Crowder, Budden admitted that he wished he had handled things differently with his former label boss.
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“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. And at that time, a lot of the artists on Def Jam had an issue with JAY-Z being the president, he said.
“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, and none of us took that well. And I really didn’t take it well.”
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He added: “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.”
The rapper-turned-podcaster also addressed his fallout with Eminem and Shady Records when he was a member of Slaughterhouse.
“In some instances, I maybe went about it the wrong way or expressed myself the wrong way,” the New Jersey native admitted. “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.”
Slaughterhouse disbanded in 2018 following issues regarding the recording and release of their third album, with the four members struggling to get on the same page.
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Eminem later spoke about how the situation fell apart, telling Sway Calloway: “There was definitely enough songs to put an album out, but for the most part, it wasn’t a complete picture, because everybody wasn’t on the same page of what their favorite songs were. So I thought they were gonna go back, regroup, and try to make few more songs.”
He added: “Joe said ‘Slaughterhouse ain’t hot right now, we don’t have a buzz, we need to put out a mixtape.’ From that point, everybody started branching out, Royce went and did his album, PRhyme, everybody started doing their own solo shit.”
