EMCEE OF THE WEEK - JOE BUDDEN

This week's "EMCEE OF THE WEEK" is Joe Budden. Many of you have HEARD OF Joe Budden and have even HEARD his music, like his debut single produced by Just Blaze titled "Pump It Up." My issue is that many of you have never really LISTENED to Joe Budden and fully absorbed the creativity, knowledge, and therapy that he offers us through his music. To do so takes a serious willingness to concentrate on what this man is spittin' into the microphone. You CAN'T just listen to this emcee casually. You CAN'T  listen to a track like "Pump It Up" and write this man off as a commercial "has-been."

It's true, he HAS BEEN a commercial success in 2003 (and a good one at that), but his true identity is that of an artistic phenom in 2010. For lack of a better term and to use an industry cliche, Joe Budden is a lyrical BEAST. He is one of a short list of emcees who can incorporate an exceptional flow and delivery onto a beat while simultaneously rhyming about serious, personal issues that we all go through in everyday life. His ability to delve deep into his own psyche and communicate introspective content while riding a beat seamlessly and entertainingly, is a gift that Hallmark doesn't even know how to package. Unfortunately for Def Jam, they didn't know how to package Budden's gift either. Or Jay-Z just didn't want to be consistently out-shined by an artist working on his label.

Joe Budden has been able to make songs that are 10, even 15, minutes in length without a chorus and keep his listeners on the edge of their seats waiting to hear how the story/song ends. His Mood Muzik mixtape series shouldn't even be categorized as mixtapes. They were probably the best albums to be released this decade. Look at a track like "Three Sides To A Story" from Mood Muzik 2. Usually, rappers get on a Scott Storch beat and milk it commercially as best they can. Joe Budden made a 7 minute and 30 second track explaining the difficulties of growing up as a teenage girl in a broken family in the hood with the craziest twist ending I've heard in a song ever. This man's music is special.

I had a difficult time last week picking my "Emcee of the Year." Ironically, I chose Raekwon, a rapper that Budden had a little beef with this past summer during the Rock The Bells tour. Joe Budden arguably was deserving of the "Emcee of the Year" award more than any rapper in the game last year. He released two solo albums "Padded Room" and "Escape Route" which landed numbers 2 and 3 respectively on my "Best Albums of 2009" list last week. He also released a group album as a member of Slaughterhouse in August. If you go back to the end of October 2008, he released another album called "Halfway House." That's four albums in a little over 14 months. WHO THE FUCK DOES THAT SHIT??? Somebody call Dr. Dre and tell him that people with "T.O.D." (a Touch Of Downs) can record music quicker than him!!! In addition to all the high quality album releases from Joey, he also engaged in a rap beef with Saigon earlier in 2009. Let's just say I respected Saigon prior to hearing him get verbally dissected by Joe Budden.

Then to top it all off in 2009, I got to witness Budden perform live at S.O.B.'s on Monday, December 28th last week. Not only is he a beast in the booth, but he is a beast on stage. He started the show at 9:10 PM and didn't finish until midnight. He didn't just spit one verse from every song and move to the next one. He spit entire tracks without missing one word (and this mutha fucka has dozens of 7 minute songs with no hooks)!!! He truly proved to me that he is an "emcee's emcee." He has to be the hardest working rapper alive right now.

Budden is sort of an enigma in the game. He engages in high profile relationships with the industry's top urban models. He is hardly soft spoken, calling out legends like Method Man claiming that he is currently better lyrically than him. (Despite my Wu-Tang bias and strong feeling that Method Man is one of the best ever, I might even agree with Joe's claim that he should have been higher on the list than Method Man.) He puts all of his personal life details into all of his music and publicizes a lot of shit on his Joe Budden TV that should probably stay private. LET'S JUST SAY, JOE BUDDEN IS AN EASY RAPPER TO HATE. The issue is that when you hear him spill his heart and soul out into the mic, you simply can't hate his artistic ability. He is willing to lose his private, personal moments/beliefs/shortcomings to the public in order to create art for the same hating public to enjoy. He effectively loses pieces of himself to us for our benefit (whether it be to teach a lesson, to offer an escape when we're depressed, or just to simply entertain the fuck out of us).

I think his music is a great escape for himself as well. It's one hell of a form of personal therapy. Fittingly, Joe will be releasing his next solo LP in the near future titled "The Great Escape." I believe it will probably be the album of the year this year. Let's just hope that Joe does what he does best, SPIT HIS BALLS OFF.

BE SURE TO FOLLOW JOE BUDDEN ON TWITTER: www.Twitter.com/MouseBudden 

ALSO CHECK HIS OFFICIAL SITE: www.JoeBuddenTV.com 


HE KILLED THIS RIHANNA BEAT!!! >>>***FREE DOWNLOAD*** "Russian Roulette"

PEEP THE VIDEO FOR "EXXXES" BELOW. THIS IS ONE OF THE ILLEST SONGS & IS WAY MORE THAN MEETS THE EYE. SEE IF YOU CAN READ BETWEEN THE LINES OF THIS TRACK. IT'S AMAZING...