Rory and Mal have reacted to their former co-host Joe Budden being ranked as Complex’s No.1 Hip Hop Media Personality, referring to their former boss as a “cat burglar.”
In the latest episode of their New Rory & Mal podcast, the duo sifted through Complex’s list, which went live on April 3, and referred to their former host as a “thief” and “cat burglar” due to their financial issues with Budden that ultimately ruined their time on his podcast.
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“The thief!” Mal exclaimed. “The cat burglar. Big integrity … look at the cat burglar staring off into the next house he wants to run in. That’s big cat! Quiet as a mouse.”
“I’m keeping my non-bias the way I have this entire time,” Rory interjected. “I didn’t wanna defend Adam22, nor do I wanna defend this gentleman, but he should be in the Top 5, and that’s based off what Hip Hop media is now. So I’m not sure if I’m giving a compliment right now by saying I think these people should be in the Top 5.”
Previously serving as co-hosts of Budden’s The Joe Budden Podcast, Rory was unexpectedly fired from the podcast after weeks of disputes, and Mal stepped away from the pod shortly after in May 2021. Last February, Mal joined The Personal Party podcast where he said there’s no chance of reconciliation.
“I don’t respect him at all,” Mal stated. “Shake his hand? I’ll shake the room before I shake his hand. That’s just what it is. It’s not even about the business or the money. It’s a lot of money, it’s a lot of money, bro, that me and Rory walked away from. It’s a lot of money that was taken out of our pockets. It’s a lot of money that still to this day, we don’t have no lawyers going after it. Keep it. We got our own bag.”
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He continued: “But, with that money that we walked away from, with that, what was owed to us that we walked away from, that was also me walking away from a relationship and a chapter of life that, once I walk away, you know, that door never opens again.”
Elsewhere, Budden has continued to claim that he did the right thing in allowing his co-hosts to leave and said his podcast is the best it’s ever been.
“I think this is the best that this podcast has ever been,” Budden recently professed to Akademiks on his Off The Record podcast. “By far to me, though. I’m not saying that people out there would feel like another era was the greatest era. I’m saying that this is the best that this podcast has ever been.
“And I’m saying that in the ability to what we can speak about, how we can speak about it, how many opinions and different perspectives, how many people are researched and well-versed in these different topics. There’s topics that come up and I gotta shut the fuck up and throw the ball to my older co-hosts.”
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Shortly after Joe Budden was deemed the top dog on Complex’s list, the brash media personality sat down for an interview with the publication, where he said Hip Hop media personnel are bigger than rappers now.
“I learned that when I started working here,” he said. “Because I was coming in every morning with Ak [Akademics] and all the young people in my life were familiar with him. I wasn’t. So it was like, ‘Oh shit, this guy’s got some following somewhere.’ Like, let me get hip.”
