Rappers Joe Budden and The Game have a bit of a lyrical feud going on. After an appearance on a DJ Clue song, in which they recorded separately, Game took one of Joe’s lyrics as a personal dis to G-Unit and eventually released the scathing diss song dubbed “Budden.” Set to Ice-T’s “Colors,” the Compton-reared Game says, “you fake like Janet's titty/one call 300 Bloods in Atlantic City/you bad boy then dance like Diddy/I give celebrity beatdowns/I'll bring the camera with me.”
Wasting little time, Joe promptly replied using the D.O.C.’s “Funky Enough” to back “Game Over.” On his verse, rhymes, “"Heard your diss track and I aint even play all that/cause I just seen dude and he aint say all that/ Was in the same hotel if dude wanted to do me/I’da been Cassidy and gave him the room key/ Got the guns and the vest out that I planted/and then woulda had his chest out like Janet."
AllHipHop.com talked to Joe and got his take on the conflict and his take on why things are going down this lumpy road.
AllHipHop.com: First and foremost, a lot of people think that this is headed towards violence. Obviously, both of you are talented with a lot of potential. How do you feel about that thought?
Joe Budden: I think we can see where beef can lead us to. And people know that I ain’t never with none of the drama. I want to do my music and take care of my family. But if a ni**a comes at me sideways or stupid, as a man you have to retaliate. Its like in high school, when you go to school for the first time. You know somebody is going to try you and if you don’t defend yourself – even if you lose – you are going to get f**ked up every single day for the rest of the time you are in there. I hope it don’t go there. Nobody wants it to go there. This has the potential to go there. If it goes there, it’s going to be some problems.
AllHipHop.com: Can you explain how this started, because most people don’t know?
Joe Budden: I will tell you what he is going to say. He’s going to tell you I got on a freestyle on a Clue tape. I called Clue up before the tape was about to drop and said I wanted to rhyme to the Westside Connection beat. Clue said there is already a freestyle done to it already. I said, “Who’s on it?” He said, “Game and Stack.” I said Stack is my ni**a and never had a problem with Game. So even if I beef with every other ni**a in G-Unit, I never had a problem with Game. I said “cool.” I hopped on the end of it. I did the shit real quick and I didn’t think anything of it. I knew there might be some speculation over the G-Unit line (To generic person: ‘…he should be in a G-Unit vid [video] with all the gangsta actors’). It was a line that I had been wanting to say but didn’t because 1) I didn’t want people to take is the wrong way and 2) I had already spoken to 50 at Hot 97 and told him, “Look, I don’t have no problem with you dudes.” It wasn’t no beef after that so I thought, “This is a hot line,” Game is on this s**t with me so I can’t be dissin’ the ni**a [with him on the same song]. Even after the freestyle, I gave the ni**a a shout out to confirm its not really nothing.
I’m not with the ignorant listeners. I speak my mind. I speak real shit. I whole bunch of people take shit and twist it around. I did that, freestyle went out. Game and a couple of people started calling my people trying to inquire whether I was blowing up Game or 50 or whatever. And everybody on my side was like, “Nah, nobody is doing all that.” So then I go to All-Star weekend and I see the ni**a. He was already asking around, “Is he going at me?” I see him and it was all peace, it was all love. I daps the ni**a up and we’re standing face to face like mutha fu**in’ men do and it wasn’t nothing. I asked, “What’s good?” He said, “Nothing, man.” It was all peace. I went in the club, he went his way, I went my way. I came back, the ni**a was still there, I gave him a dap again.
It was on some man-to-man s\**t. [I was] waiting for him to say something. He never said nothing. I was like, “Alright, cool. Ni**as must have handled the s**t.” I come back. A week goes by. Another week goes by. And then there is a diss record out. I was like, “You can’t be serious. You can’t be for real, because I just seen you.”
I already know what it is, because there is a whole bunch of behind the scenes shit going on that the public never, ever knows. 50 got in Game’s ear. So bam – 50 got in the ni**a ear and he’s like how you gonna be on a nigga freestyle and he’s dissin’ the Unit. Now he goes back, does a little math. If you analyze it like that, its going to seem like I am going after you.” Any rap that’s on a mixtape, if you think a ni**a is coming at you, then that’s how its going to sound. Its all “you, you, you, you.” The whole Westside Connection song on the Clue tape is about fake gangsters. The original song is about fake gangsters. That’s the subject that all three of us stuck to. The hood I’m from – “If it don’t apply, let if fly.” Now the ni**a gets a rowdied up talking about Joe Budden dissed him. But this goes way back. You already know. 50 said what he said in the XXL. I sent my shot back. Everybody in the world knew what I was talking about. I spoke to 50 on the phone and everything was dead and now we got this diss track (“Joe Budden”)
No rapper, not 50, Game or anybody and not expect me to tear their head off. It’s not going to happen. You want to take it to the street, we can take it to the street - whatever.
AllHipHop.com: Do you know for a fact that 50 Cent told him to diss you or is that just speculation?
Joe Budden: No. No. No. No. I know for a fact. I’m not speculating. I’m not guessing. This is pure knowledge. Factual shit. Two and two makes for. I wish I was a fan so I could sit back and do the math. If you ask Game about it and why he didn’t say something sooner, he’s going to say, “I didn’t hear it until after I seen the ni**a.” He’s a liar. He’s a bold faced liar. When Clue tape goes out, people go and get it to see what the f**k is crackin’ on it. He heard me and we got the phone calls to way before I seen him asking if I was coming at him. We already know you heard it. Everybody got this big image to uphold. Stop fronting, be yourself and stop lying. You heard it, I saw you and it wasn’t nothing. I know for a fact, that 50 said that to him.
AllHipHop.com: Do you think this might be promotion for Game?
Joe Budden: I don’t think that. I don’t think he put out a diss track saying, “Let me get some promo.” I really don’t think that. Not many people heard the shit over this way. A lot of people heard it on the West Coast. Over hear, people ain’t paying that too much mind. I think that 50 is a very smart man, very strategic and he knew what the f**k he was doing.
AllHipHop.com: Why do you call G-Unit and Game The Five Heartbeats?
Joe Budden: 50 took a shot at everybody. From Lil’ Kim to Bang ‘Em Smurf, from the biggest to the smallest people. Its like 98% of people are so scared to respond because he is on top right now. He is with the squad. Everybody is so scared of dude so they let him say or do whatever the f**k he wants. F**k him. I don’t give a f**k. Even before I was involved, I was telling ni**as, “You are riding this bandwagon.” It’s a fad for one. For two, dude is doing the same thing that he was playing Ja [Rule] out for. He’s singing on every f**king hook. The only [difference] is, he came up through the mixtapes and he got shot. So, he’s so much more of a street credible rapper – f**k him. So you remind me of the mother f**kin’ Five Heartbeats. Banks is the only one that is kinda nice, but when its time to sell records, it ain’t about being nice. It ain’t about real Hip-Hop. I ain’t about rap. It ain’t about none of that. Its about the fad, the mainstream, going commercial, BDS, and all that bullshit. I don’t give a f**k about none of that. I make music because I love music. Everybody was saying, “Are you crazy going at those guys? They are going to end your career like Ja!”
Let me tell you the difference between me and Ja. Ja was singing on everything so 50 was able to attack him. Ja sold millions and millions and millions of records. 50 ain’t destroying my little gold fan base. Ni**as that went out an bought Joe Budden’s album are die-hard Joe Budden fans. For the most part, people that ain’t that ignorant. He can’t talk about me. Everything I go through, I say it. There is nothing that I ni**a can say about me. If a ni**a want to take it else where, we can take it elsewhere and that’s it. It just pisses me off. There are so many dickriders. Don’t even get me started on that.
AllHipHop.com: Did 50 ever explain why he gave you the “Step Your Rap Game Up” in XXL? A lot of people, myself included, didn’t think that line was weak at all. ["We pump diesel/I aint talking about jeans or sneakers" from “Focus”]
Joe Budden: That’s another one of those things that I don’t understand. I’m not a sore loser. If I say something wack, I’m open do that. I read the lines in “Step Your Rap Game Up” and them s**ts be horrible. So, when you put a Joe Budden in there, get a wack line. If you a fan, you can do the math a little bit, because that line ain’t too wack. People respected that line. Its some other s**t. Some vendetta that this ni**a got with me. I’m the most hated dude in the Hip-Hop nation that did not go platinum. I do not know why. I don’t know if they see me as some type of threat. We don’s start no s**t. We may end it.
Line for line. Track for track, I will run circles around any one of them dudes. With my mouth closed. You can take my mouth off my face and I will rhyme circles around them in sign language. Any dude that calls out Joe Budden on a track has a major problem on their hands.
Wasting little time, Joe promptly replied using the D.O.C.’s “Funky Enough” to back “Game Over.” On his verse, rhymes, “"Heard your diss track and I aint even play all that/cause I just seen dude and he aint say all that/ Was in the same hotel if dude wanted to do me/I’da been Cassidy and gave him the room key/ Got the guns and the vest out that I planted/and then woulda had his chest out like Janet."
AllHipHop.com talked to Joe and got his take on the conflict and his take on why things are going down this lumpy road.
AllHipHop.com: First and foremost, a lot of people think that this is headed towards violence. Obviously, both of you are talented with a lot of potential. How do you feel about that thought?
Joe Budden: I think we can see where beef can lead us to. And people know that I ain’t never with none of the drama. I want to do my music and take care of my family. But if a ni**a comes at me sideways or stupid, as a man you have to retaliate. Its like in high school, when you go to school for the first time. You know somebody is going to try you and if you don’t defend yourself – even if you lose – you are going to get f**ked up every single day for the rest of the time you are in there. I hope it don’t go there. Nobody wants it to go there. This has the potential to go there. If it goes there, it’s going to be some problems.
AllHipHop.com: Can you explain how this started, because most people don’t know?
Joe Budden: I will tell you what he is going to say. He’s going to tell you I got on a freestyle on a Clue tape. I called Clue up before the tape was about to drop and said I wanted to rhyme to the Westside Connection beat. Clue said there is already a freestyle done to it already. I said, “Who’s on it?” He said, “Game and Stack.” I said Stack is my ni**a and never had a problem with Game. So even if I beef with every other ni**a in G-Unit, I never had a problem with Game. I said “cool.” I hopped on the end of it. I did the shit real quick and I didn’t think anything of it. I knew there might be some speculation over the G-Unit line (To generic person: ‘…he should be in a G-Unit vid [video] with all the gangsta actors’). It was a line that I had been wanting to say but didn’t because 1) I didn’t want people to take is the wrong way and 2) I had already spoken to 50 at Hot 97 and told him, “Look, I don’t have no problem with you dudes.” It wasn’t no beef after that so I thought, “This is a hot line,” Game is on this s**t with me so I can’t be dissin’ the ni**a [with him on the same song]. Even after the freestyle, I gave the ni**a a shout out to confirm its not really nothing.
I’m not with the ignorant listeners. I speak my mind. I speak real shit. I whole bunch of people take shit and twist it around. I did that, freestyle went out. Game and a couple of people started calling my people trying to inquire whether I was blowing up Game or 50 or whatever. And everybody on my side was like, “Nah, nobody is doing all that.” So then I go to All-Star weekend and I see the ni**a. He was already asking around, “Is he going at me?” I see him and it was all peace, it was all love. I daps the ni**a up and we’re standing face to face like mutha fu**in’ men do and it wasn’t nothing. I asked, “What’s good?” He said, “Nothing, man.” It was all peace. I went in the club, he went his way, I went my way. I came back, the ni**a was still there, I gave him a dap again.
It was on some man-to-man s\**t. [I was] waiting for him to say something. He never said nothing. I was like, “Alright, cool. Ni**as must have handled the s**t.” I come back. A week goes by. Another week goes by. And then there is a diss record out. I was like, “You can’t be serious. You can’t be for real, because I just seen you.”
I already know what it is, because there is a whole bunch of behind the scenes shit going on that the public never, ever knows. 50 got in Game’s ear. So bam – 50 got in the ni**a ear and he’s like how you gonna be on a nigga freestyle and he’s dissin’ the Unit. Now he goes back, does a little math. If you analyze it like that, its going to seem like I am going after you.” Any rap that’s on a mixtape, if you think a ni**a is coming at you, then that’s how its going to sound. Its all “you, you, you, you.” The whole Westside Connection song on the Clue tape is about fake gangsters. The original song is about fake gangsters. That’s the subject that all three of us stuck to. The hood I’m from – “If it don’t apply, let if fly.” Now the ni**a gets a rowdied up talking about Joe Budden dissed him. But this goes way back. You already know. 50 said what he said in the XXL. I sent my shot back. Everybody in the world knew what I was talking about. I spoke to 50 on the phone and everything was dead and now we got this diss track (“Joe Budden”)
No rapper, not 50, Game or anybody and not expect me to tear their head off. It’s not going to happen. You want to take it to the street, we can take it to the street - whatever.
AllHipHop.com: Do you know for a fact that 50 Cent told him to diss you or is that just speculation?
Joe Budden: No. No. No. No. I know for a fact. I’m not speculating. I’m not guessing. This is pure knowledge. Factual shit. Two and two makes for. I wish I was a fan so I could sit back and do the math. If you ask Game about it and why he didn’t say something sooner, he’s going to say, “I didn’t hear it until after I seen the ni**a.” He’s a liar. He’s a bold faced liar. When Clue tape goes out, people go and get it to see what the f**k is crackin’ on it. He heard me and we got the phone calls to way before I seen him asking if I was coming at him. We already know you heard it. Everybody got this big image to uphold. Stop fronting, be yourself and stop lying. You heard it, I saw you and it wasn’t nothing. I know for a fact, that 50 said that to him.
AllHipHop.com: Do you think this might be promotion for Game?
Joe Budden: I don’t think that. I don’t think he put out a diss track saying, “Let me get some promo.” I really don’t think that. Not many people heard the shit over this way. A lot of people heard it on the West Coast. Over hear, people ain’t paying that too much mind. I think that 50 is a very smart man, very strategic and he knew what the f**k he was doing.
AllHipHop.com: Why do you call G-Unit and Game The Five Heartbeats?
Joe Budden: 50 took a shot at everybody. From Lil’ Kim to Bang ‘Em Smurf, from the biggest to the smallest people. Its like 98% of people are so scared to respond because he is on top right now. He is with the squad. Everybody is so scared of dude so they let him say or do whatever the f**k he wants. F**k him. I don’t give a f**k. Even before I was involved, I was telling ni**as, “You are riding this bandwagon.” It’s a fad for one. For two, dude is doing the same thing that he was playing Ja [Rule] out for. He’s singing on every f**king hook. The only [difference] is, he came up through the mixtapes and he got shot. So, he’s so much more of a street credible rapper – f**k him. So you remind me of the mother f**kin’ Five Heartbeats. Banks is the only one that is kinda nice, but when its time to sell records, it ain’t about being nice. It ain’t about real Hip-Hop. I ain’t about rap. It ain’t about none of that. Its about the fad, the mainstream, going commercial, BDS, and all that bullshit. I don’t give a f**k about none of that. I make music because I love music. Everybody was saying, “Are you crazy going at those guys? They are going to end your career like Ja!”
Let me tell you the difference between me and Ja. Ja was singing on everything so 50 was able to attack him. Ja sold millions and millions and millions of records. 50 ain’t destroying my little gold fan base. Ni**as that went out an bought Joe Budden’s album are die-hard Joe Budden fans. For the most part, people that ain’t that ignorant. He can’t talk about me. Everything I go through, I say it. There is nothing that I ni**a can say about me. If a ni**a want to take it else where, we can take it elsewhere and that’s it. It just pisses me off. There are so many dickriders. Don’t even get me started on that.
AllHipHop.com: Did 50 ever explain why he gave you the “Step Your Rap Game Up” in XXL? A lot of people, myself included, didn’t think that line was weak at all. ["We pump diesel/I aint talking about jeans or sneakers" from “Focus”]
Joe Budden: That’s another one of those things that I don’t understand. I’m not a sore loser. If I say something wack, I’m open do that. I read the lines in “Step Your Rap Game Up” and them s**ts be horrible. So, when you put a Joe Budden in there, get a wack line. If you a fan, you can do the math a little bit, because that line ain’t too wack. People respected that line. Its some other s**t. Some vendetta that this ni**a got with me. I’m the most hated dude in the Hip-Hop nation that did not go platinum. I do not know why. I don’t know if they see me as some type of threat. We don’s start no s**t. We may end it.
Line for line. Track for track, I will run circles around any one of them dudes. With my mouth closed. You can take my mouth off my face and I will rhyme circles around them in sign language. Any dude that calls out Joe Budden on a track has a major problem on their hands.