Joe Budden has opened up about what led to the dissolution of his former rap group, Slaughterhouse, and has seemingly copped to it being his fault.
On Tuesday (March 21), Drink Champs posted a clip from its upcoming interview with Budden, which is scheduled for release on Thursday (March 23). In the clip, the rapper turned podcaster addressed the rumors surrounding Slaughterhouse’s breakup.
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Speaking to hosts N.O.R.E. and DJ EFN, the New Jersey native says in the preview clip: “Come on give me the blame, I’ll take it. I ruined everything. Everything that you loved, I ruined that shit.”
He added: “After 10 years long of just stories and talk, yeah, I did it.'”
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When DJ EFN asked him to clarify the statement, he doubled down and said “yea, it was me.” It’s unclear if Budden is sincere in his admission, but his statements could certainly cause a stir, if true.
Check out the preview of the upcoming episode below:
Slaughterhouse — which comprised of Joe Budden, Joell Ortiz, KXNG Crooked and Royce Da 5’9″ — formed in 2008 and released two studio albums. The group’s self-titled debut came out in 2009 and Welcome To: Our House followed three years later.
In April 2018, KXNG Crooked announced via Instagram he was leaving Slaughterhouse but insisted there were no hard feelings about his departure, rather it was “all love.” In 2022, he and Ortiz set out on their own and dropped a collaborative EP called The Rise and Fall of Slaughterhouse, a follow-up to their H.A.R.D. EP from 2020.
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It wasn’t long before Royce and Budden publicly disapproved of the project. In an Instagram post last February, The Allegory lyricist posted a photo illustration of the cover art for Crooked and Ortiz’s project, as well as sharing an anecdotal, hypothetical story about the former four-man group.
“You have 25% ownership/equity in a building,” Royce Da 5’9″ wrote. “Let’s say an apartment building… You built this building with your 3 partners, brick by brick.. It’s worth millions.. Suddenly, the value drops because it needs renovations etc .. You and your partners have been talking about when and how this work is gonna get done.. Y’all just need to agree on plan of attack.”
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Budden quickly jumped into the comments of the post, stamping his approval of Royce’s shot at Ortiz and KXNG Crooked by writing: “SMH.” Shortly thereafter, Crooked sat down with The Bootleg Kev Podcast, and argued Royce wasn’t being honest about what went down.
He also suggested Budden was to blame for the delay in releasing new music from the group. According to the rapper, after landing their first deal with Shady, they had an opportunity to be featured on one of Eminem’s projects, for their track, “Session One,” but Joe wasn’t available because of another deal.
“Joe was signed to another label and caught up in some paperwork,” he said. “They called over to Shady like, ‘Hey we have him under contract, you have to get a clearance from us to have him appear on the song.’ All of us supposedly free agents to sign this deal with Shady, and come to find out Joe was on the paperwork, he said that they forged his signature and that wasn’t him.”
He added: “The group was put on the shelf for a minute while he was fighting amalgam digital label in court, and we were waiting on Joe because we couldn’t move forward, and that took months.”
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Since the dismantling of Slaughterhouse (outside of Crooked and Ortiz banding together), Royce Da 5’9″ has continued his solo career and is set to release The Heaven Experience: Lost Sessions on March 31 — the follow up to 2022’s The Heaven Experience Vol.1. Meanwhile, Joe Budden has moved away from rap and is now focusing primarily on his popular podcast.
