the JOE BUDDEN theory, part 1
A word before you begin
Buy a fuckin clue...or a Clue mixtape.
 About
three years ago, a young aspiring MC, known to his Jersey
City comrades as "Mouse," burst onto what now
seems like an oversaturated Hip-Hop mixtape scene. With
quick hitting and equally gratifying punch lines, many of
which poked fun at popular basketball players like Paul
Pierce, who had just got his ass stabbed up, and the entire
Dallas Mavericks fluffy front line, he seemed to rapidly
separate himself from the pack of dudes who just hung out
at the studio and got a chance to rhyme because they had
the good weed.
DJ
Clue, who had formed a label he dubbed Desert Storm, featuring
Ma$e Jr. aka Fabolous Sport, needed one more rapper to complete
what he thought could be his "Triangle Offense of Rap"
(another basketball term referring to the offense the Chicago
Bulls ran during the Cheese Eyes era).
Its Summer 2002 and the Clipse own every sound system moving
on the street, with their Neptunes laced hustling anthem,
Grindin'. Every rapper in the Western Hemisphere
spit their writtens -- ahem "freestyles" -- over
it, but only one stands out. One guy with a squeaky voice
who proclaims himself, Mike Bibby, aka "the newest
King of the league." It absolutely owns every
rented drop and SUV in South Beach Miami on Labor Day weekend.
This
is the story of Joe Budden (NOT BUDDENS!) and how his career
has been fucked over by an entity within the Def Jam family
thus far in his career. From the attempted sabotage of his
first single to his manufactured beef with G-Unit, on through
the countless roadblocks set up to tank his sophomore album,
The Growth. Can Joe recover? Or is Jumpoff doomed
a life of Memphis Bleek-like proportions? That remains to
be seen, but just Walk With Me through the past
few years, for now.
Harlem born, Queens and Jersey City raised Joseph Budden,
Jr. took to poetry early in his life. Along with the support
of his mother, it would eventually become therapy for him
to battle being a dust head. It also helped him link up
with New York City's DJ Clue, who helped him secure a development
deal on a sub label of Def Jam Records, which he soon parlayed
into a feature deal with the parent company, by way of the
success from his first real single, Focus. The
beat used for Focus was supposed to be a remix
for someone else, but the song blew up like Chris Farley's
heart and ran neck 'n neck with Grindin' all along
the Eastern seaboard for the title of club anthem that '02
summer. You could not go to a club, especially in New York,
that summer and not hear it. Trust me, I tried.
Def
Jam shoots no video for the buzzing Focus, but
instead waits a year to throw its intro on the end of
Joe's first video Pump It Up, shot at the project
playground where G-Money made all those jump shots in
New Jack City. Joe had a feeling he was being
played, but he had no idea...
Pump
It Up, produced by Just Blaze was a commercial success.
It was featured on video games and played at NBA arenas
and nightclubs, alike, but it seemed to not get the push
it deserved from the label, because, secretly, there was
someone trying to deflect all that shine Joey was poised
to receive.
In
2000, the World Famous DJ Clue releases the official Soundtrack
to Backstage, a Hip-Hop documentary of sorts,
through Roc-A-Fella records. The Best of Me remix,
featuring sexy R&B ferret, Mya and Jay-Z becomes an
instant hit and seems to earn Clue his Roc-A-Stripes.
However, at one point in the movie, asshole extraordinaire
Dame Dash shows his lack of approval for DJ Chin by basically
calling him a lazy piece of human waste. Clearly the Honeymoon
is over between Roc-A-Fella and Clue, and is further strained,
as Clue retains close relationships with rappers Jay isn't
too fond of for his mixtapes. These artists include Mobb
Deep and Nas. Clue tries to explain to Jay that since
he's from Queens either Jay should move his entire family
out of the borough or shut the fuck up. Jay plays it cool
and tells Clue, "Fine, do you" (which
means "Fuck you, Clue" in Hip-Hop). When later
asked about Clue in an interview, Jay is quoted as nonchalantly
saying, "I guess he's still down with us"
(this also means "Fuck You, Clue").
Coincidentally,
Roc-A-Fella seems to soon be searching for new in-house
producers. Just Blaze and Kanye West are added to the
squad and Clue goes from top midget to not mentioned
at all. Unaware of the rift between Clue and The ROC,
Just Blaze receives a call from the Queens DJ, who extends
an invitation to him to play some Atari 7800 and
watch an advanced screening of the new Sci-Fi thriller, Equilibrium.
As an avid video game and Science Fiction fanboy, Blaze
doesn't even think twice. He grabs his backpack, mounts
his Segway and quickly hovers over to Clue's
crib. There, while Just is simulating a light saber
fight scene with a life-size Boba Fett, Clue raids
Blaze's Jansport
backpack and confiscates a beat tape containing, among
other masterpieces, an energetic rework of A Tribe Called
Quest's classic Scenario remix. Clue hands it
off to Skane Dolla, Budden's right hand man, and drops
it off to Joe in his Toyota Tercel. Joe rips a hole in
the beat and Pump
It Up is born.
.
stay
tuned for part 2 of the JOE BUDDEN theory, where big homie,
himself confronts just blaze about uncertain betrayal and
a desperate dj clue uses joe's baby mother and a carton
of newport's to save the momentum of his protégé's
debut album.
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