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Joe Budden - New Jersey Net-Working Pt.1
Interview by: Mike Ivey Jr.
 A whole is only as impacting as the sum of its parts. GMs and team owners, who each year help bring us NBA entertainment from fall to summer, work together to deliver fans the best product. Now LA, Boston and Atlanta sport new, star studded line ups and world championship stakes are raised that much higher. But what happened to the Mecca market, New York? The Knicks, New Jersey titan Joe Budden’s favorite hoop squad, “suck” and so does his favorite rapper, according to him. Budden’s Def Jam journey, that began with Kevin Liles and Lyor Cohen then slowly halted with LA Reid and Jay-Z, is over; therapeutic songs in ‘M.M.3: The Album,’ distributed by Amalgam Digital, air all the heated tension once pent inside this potent writer.
Similar to stat sheet crammer Jason Kidd (former point guard for the Jay-Z co-owned New Jersey Nets) Budden is eyeing a future with a new team. This cerebral player hasn’t lain with his “feet up cozy at the end of [his] bed” though. Unseen lyrical assists have lead to scores by all kinds of artists Budden won’t mention. Unlike California bred Kidd, however, the world outside Budden’s native Northeast corridor and the “underground” isn’t privy to his entire repertoire. He’s confident about the lane ‘Mood Muzik’ has paved yet knows “how [he] do in retail shows [him] if [he] prevails.”
Def Jam may have muzzled Budden’s sophomore prospects, but the ‘M.M.’ mixtape series keeps hungry fans full until Amalgam releases ‘Padded Room’ this Spring. For now NBS, with Budden, puts a hip hop spin on Big Brother’s sports/steroid crusade, uncovers details about some little known pen work by the man and finds out what the next Budden, his young son, has in store for the music world a few decades from now. Forget the “Gangsta Party” he came from; this is where Joe Budden is going.
 Nobodysmiling.com : Joe, we’re at the mid point in the NBA season. Who’s your MVP and NBA champ?
Joe Budden : MVP.
Nobodysmiling.com : MVP.
Joe Budden : Kevin Garnett. I’m gonna go with Kevin Garnett. I don’t wanna go with Kevin Garnett, but I’m gonna with em. NBA champion. I’m gonna go out on a limb here and go with the Lakers.
Nobodysmiling.com : Hmm. Big trade put them over the hump?
Joe Budden : Definitely. I think they’re probably the deepest team in the NBA. I’m not impressed with Phoenix or Dallas or San Antonio. And I’m not going with Boston either. The Lakers can beat Boston in a seven game series. That’s the series I wanna see-I wanna see Los Angeles against the Celtics.
Nobodysmiling.com : That’s classic -that’s throwback right?
Joe Budden : Yeah, that’s what I wanna see.
Nobodysmiling.com : Joe, what’s the status of the major label search as of now?
Joe Budden : Well that’s the thing Mike, I’m not searching at all. I’m doing the same thing that I’ve been doing for the past four years: I’m recording music. I’m not searching at all. I’m being courted by a few people and I’ve been in talks with a few people, but it’s not your typical situation where the artist is at all these major labels and playing music and so forth and so on; I’m not doing those things.
Nobodysmiling.com : I was under the impression that you wanted to drop ‘Padded Room’ through a major.
Joe Budden : ‘Padded Room’ is dropping on Amalgam Digital.
Nobodysmiling.com : OK.
Joe Budden : And then hopefully after that-no, not even hopefully after that; when ‘Padded Room’ is out, two months after that I will have a full length album ready to be distributed. Whether that’s with a major, whether that’s with an indie, I’m not sure. ‘Padded Room’ hopefully will be out in May. And then August…somewhere around the October mark-October/November mark, before the year is out-I wanna put that third album out.
Nobodysmiling.com : How’s the relationship with Amalgam progressing so far?
Joe Budden : So far so good. So far so good. They have a vision, I understand it, and vice versa. We both seem to be on the same page. I don’t have any complaints as of yet.
Nobodysmiling.com : I know you won’t let the whole cat out of the bag, but do you have any special promo ideas for ‘Padded Room?’ That’s a loaded title.
Joe Budden : Yeah I got tons of ideas. Like you said, lol, I’m not gonna tell you any of em.
Nobodysmiling.com : Lol.
Joe Budden : But um, we got some things in the works-me and Amalgam-…very…
Nobodysmiling.com : You’re being courted by a couple majors-
Joe Budden : Being courted, feels great.
Nobodysmiling.com : Yeah?
Joe Budden : Definitely.
Nobodysmiling.com : Who’s sounding good with the offers?
Joe Budden : Well, shit, if somebody sounded that good-
Nobodysmiling.com : It’d be a done deal, huh?
Joe Budden : Yeah, so I can’t really say. Everybody’s putting a pretty good package together. But, ya know, coming out of my last situation I’m just being very patient-very cautious as far as every move that I make right this second, so…
Nobodysmiling.com : OK. Well the people are gonna wanna know where you’re leaning. There’s pretty much three major umbrellas: Universal, Sony, Warner-
Joe Budden : Sony-yeah, Warner.
Nobodysmiling.com : So…you’re leaning towards Warner-ish or-
Joe Budden : No-no-no-no. I didn’t say that.
Nobodysmiling.com : OK. OK.
Joe Budden : Nope. And I’m not going to say.
Nobodysmiling.com : All right. I get it.
Joe Budden : I’m leaning towards-you know what you gotta be like right now? You gotta be like Jason Kidd wearing a Nets uniform, leaning towards Dallas.
Nobodysmiling.com : Oh OK.
Joe Budden : No, I’m not leaning toward any of them. I’m focused on Joe Budden, Amalgam Digital, ‘Padded Room,’ ‘Mood Muzik 3,’ February 26.
Nobodysmiling.com : OK well-
Joe Budden : Outside of that [it’s] not my concern.
Nobodysmiling.com : I understand, focused. Tell me this: are you conscious of people-artists, executives, promo people-who will steer clear of Joe Budden since you’ve thrown Jay-Z under the bus…basically.
Joe Budden : I haven’t encountered that problem.
Nobodysmiling.com : No, not at all?
Joe Budden : Not at all.
Nobodysmiling.com : OK…I mean I noticed, though it seemed like ages ago, the Green Lantern session with the Ghost and Uncle Murda and Sigel and Free-you handled it pretty well-being around all those ROC Boys. That could have been a loaded situation, huh?
Joe Budden : No it couldn’t have.
Nobodysmiling.com : No?
Joe Budden : No, not at all. I mean, when I was in that room-it didn’t even dawn on me until maybe a week later that it was all of those Roc-A-Fella people there-
Nobodysmiling.com : Aw c’mon!
Joe Budden : I’m dead ass.
Nobodysmiling.com : Yeah?
Joe Budden : I have my own relationship with Uncle Murda. I have my own relationship with Free. I have my own relationship with Beans. I have my own relationship with Styles. So I didn’t -It wasn’t like I was in there as a guy who sent some shots at Jay-Z-quote, unquote-and then stepped into a room with all of his underlings.
Nobodysmiling.com : Right.
Joe Budden : Nah. I didn’t look at it like that at all. I looked at it as: “Aight. I’m in here with rappers; rappers that I know; rappers that I already have my own relationships with. So, nah I didn’t see that as getting ugly at all.
Nobodysmiling.com : OK. I got you.
Joe Budden : I mean, unless I go in there and say “Fuck all you ni**as.”
Nobodysmiling.com : Lol, right.
Joe Budden : Or something like that.
Nobodysmiling.com : That wouldn’t be ah…that wouldn’t be you anyway.
Joe Budden : Yeah, not at all. We not here to do none of that; we here to rap-same thing I said in that session.
Nobodysmiling.com : To get busy and be out.
Joe Budden : Yeah…I’m not here to…yeah they had me fucked up in that session: I’m not in there to promote a album; I’m unsigned. I wanna rap and get me outta here; this’ll take five minutes. I don’t really give a fuck about anything else that y’all doing.
Nobodysmiling.com : I got you. We’re not gonna dwell on the Jay-Z thing.
Joe Budden : Thank you.
Nobodysmiling.com : Lets talk about “Star Inside” a little; it’s a well shot and well constructed song; how’d you come across Suzy Q for the hook?
Joe Budden : Oh me and her went to high school together. I was a junior, she was a freshmen or I was a drop out and she was a freshmen-I don’t really remember.
Nobodysmiling.com : Lol.
Joe Budden : But she was from my hood; she was from Jersey city. Tremendously talented female, voice like know other and great music. Hopefully her situation can pan out. That’s how she got on the record. That record’s a few years old.
Nobodysmiling.com : Really?
Joe Budden : Yeah, that record’s a few years old.
Nobodysmiling.com : How come we couldn’t get Suzy Q for the video?
Joe Budden : Mis-communication between myself and her. That’s the only reason. She’s an attractive female so…wouldn’t have wanted to keep her out.
Nobodysmiling.com : How was it being directed by Rik Cordero in that situation?
Joe Budden : Rik Cordero was great! He was great. It was a very pleasurable experience working with him. Hopefully-that won’t be the last time, I’m sure. But he has great ideas, great concepts, great visions, and he doesn’t hold you hostage for about twenty four hours to get a video done, so…it’s great.
Nobodysmiling.com : It’s and interesting look: you have the Mother and daughter and you’re in the room but you’re not; we don’t see you in a shot with anyone else. Was that Rik’s vision?
Joe Budden : Nah, it was a combination of us both. We both went back and forth with different ideas and different concepts and that was the end result.
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