Joe Budden's First Freestyle

Complete randomness: I'm sitting in the crib, watching the NBA finals, and for some reason, Joe Budden's line "I'm the future, I'm more like Dirk" comes to mind. And it got me thinking, when I first started hearing Joe Budden back in the say, I wasn't really feeling him. I remember Diz Dutch raving about Joe's DJ Clue freestyles, and I was like "He's aight. Some of his sports references are cool, but that's about it."

He kinda went in on the freestyle he did to "Pump It Up" after he took the beat back from Jay, but I wasn't crazy about his first album. Then he pretty much disappeared as far as I was concerned. I heard the rumblings about the delay of his sophomore album, his possible beef with Jay, and the mixtapes he was putting out, but I didn't really pay attention.

When my boy Tone E Atlas played me "Dumb Out" at some point in '06, I was floored. And then I remember the night in August '08 when I was driving up 3rd Avenue and "Who Killed It" came on one of the rap stations on XM. I wasn't really paying attention for the first few bars and then Joe said "the whole game dick rode the funny voice shit." I started listening and was in awe. I actually pulled over somewhere in the 80s and just listened. Pure fire. Actually called it arguably the best song EVAR (slight sarcasm, but still kinda true) on this blog a day or two later.

Then, like 2 months later, 6th Sense sends me and Frequency a video of Joe Budden in the studio with Red Spyda, Joell Ortiz and Royce Da 5'9" (and now that I watch again, damn near 3 years later, Kino & Dre Bond are in there too, which is slightly bizarre) with a Frequency beat playing in the background.



I suppose the implication was that Red Spyda had made the beat (being that he was the only producer in the room), but it was actually a beat that Frequency had sold to Red Cafe about a year ago. In fact, it was the track "Invincible" from Red Cafe & DJ Envy's album "The Co-Op."

Watch that video here:

I think we initially just let it slide, but then the song got leaked to HipHopGame a couple of days later. It was Joe, Joell, Royce & Crooked I billed as Slaughterhouse. The record was called "Onslaught" and Red Spyda was given producer credit. (side note: No shots, but I used to visit HipHopGame like 5 times a day. I don't think I've even gone there in like 2 years now...) We couldn't really beef about someone using an instrumental we already sold, but we at least wanted to get credit, especially for such a dope record. At first, we tried to reach out to Red Spyda (with whom we ironically had shot a pilot with for a reality/game show that went nowhere earlier that year), but he never got back. I also reached out to Joell's manager Mike, who said he didn't leak the record, but told me that Slaughterhouse were going to record an album. I told him that I'd love to actually get Frequency in the studio with those guys. I also reminded Mike that Frequency DJs, records, mixes, edits video, etc. etc. (my little sales pitch).

A couple of months later, I got the call. Slaughterhouse was going to be performing at the Paid Dues festival in L.A. and they needed a DJ. Could Frequency do it?

Absolutely.

Mike then set up a date for rehearsal, and a follow up date in the studio for Frequency to play beats for the guys. "Fight Club" was recorded at that session. I can't front, I was most impressed by Crooked I out of all the guys at that session - mostly because I was least familiar with his work, and the fact that he really did record his verse without writing shit down. Plus, he actually got shot in LA the night before and still came to NY and killed it. And, not for nothing, he complimented me on my boots. The same boots, I might add, that Joe gave me hell for this past March when we were all out in Austin for SXSW.

So I'll leave you with this: it's funny how things come full circle. I'm definitely a Joe fan now. And one of his lines that randomly pop in my head from time to time is from "Fight Club": "too many dudes Tyson Chandler, tried to leave their team and went nowhere." Well, Tyson Chandler has 11 rebounds and just had a nice dunk in Game 3 of the NBA Finals. PS - this game is crazy.

Oh, and uh, the reason for this post is that I was trying to find Joe Budden's first freestyle from a DJ Clue tape, cuz that was probably the first time I heard him. I definitely wasn't feelin' it at the time, but I wonder if I would enjoy it now that I'm a fan...

I couldn't find Joe's first freestyle, but youtube did reveal this, which was worth the search (and this long winded post):