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Joe Budden Reviews

Joe Budden – No Love Lost album review

Joe Budden displays significant evolutionary change with his new LP, “No Love Lost.” The album, which carries 17 tracks, debuted at number 15 on the US Billboard 200 chart with first-week sales of 30,000 copies in the American market. Compared to his projects of year’s past, Budden is showing off, or at least making one hell of a leap towards progress. To put it plainly, this is Joe’s tour de force; his out of body experience; his beacon of irrefutable redemption; and his dry middle-finger to all naysayers, past and present. This go round, Budden’s lyrics cut like machetes to cray paper. His delivery is prismatic and hard-hitting. And like a runaway train bulling through a narrow playground, Joe fiercely rattles off verse after verse throughout the album’s entire 70+ minutes. It sounds as if his mouth is a fully-loaded assault riffle in the hands of a maniac.

From a technical standpoint, “No love Lost” remains solid. The music exemplifies crayon-like diversity, offering a playful, yet brazenly raw blend of bells, whistles, thumps, thuds, metronomes and loud bangs. The result of such amalgamation is a bold imagining of street-lyricism with a futuristic twist. Your ears will be pleased, despite murmurs of the contrary by a surprising number of fans and critics. That’s not to say the album is without spots. In fact, Joe and company fall short of the goal line on several possessions. Nevertheless, the content overall is forward-moving.

But wait, there’s more.

Like a ball player desperate to raise his game to the next plateau, Joe seems intent on continuously adding new wrinkles to his offensive playbook. For instance, the days when he would slow down his prose so our brains could keep up are long behind him. Since his inception into hip-hop, Budden has always faced questions about how he stacks up against the competition. The jury may still be out in that respect, but one thing is now transparently clear: In a cypher, ain’t nobody fucking with Joe, end of discussion. Nowadays, he spews rampant cannon-fire with effortless flair. Play All in My Head on the album, and you’ll be hard pressed to find a clearer example of top-shelf vernacular.

Also to Budden’s credit, only hard metal constitutes his chain of collaborations on “No love Lost”, which include contributions from Wiz Khalifa, Lil Wayne, who remains damaged goods, Kirko Bangz, Lloyd Banks, Twista, Fabolous, Omarion, Tank (the only vocalist), and of course, his Slaughterhouse brethren, among others.

In that many of the aforementioned artists suckle on the teat of mainstream success, one might assume Joe is steadily inching away from his underground roots toward the shallow end of the pool. And though most of the songs on the album fail to scratch the proverbial surface, Joe often acquiesces to his nature of being sincere, organic, forthcoming and simply put—blunt, even in the midst of pretentious folly.

Continued thoughts…

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Articles Joe Budden

Joe Budden: New Album, New look, New Sound

“Why time heals all wounds, even those of a struggling rap career”

During an interview late last fall, Budden again demonstrated his readiness to compromise false appearances in the name of keeping it 100.

“For me, it’s been a long, long journey. I’ve met a lot of people, some I’ve pissed off,” he explained. “I’ve been public about some things, I’ve been immature, I’ve been a dickhead, and some people have been those things to me. The title [of the album] just symbolizes being in a real state of happiness. I don’t have any malice toward anyone, no grudges, just being in a real pain-free type of state. I wouldn’t say free of pain, but a different type of pain. It’s like a new Joe Budden.”

For example, in one of his cuts, “My Time,” Joe candidly reflects on the peaks and valleys he’s traveled throughout his roller-coaster of a career. In fact, conceptually, each song on the album represents a different shade of Joe’s inner-spectrum:

Joe Cool
Slaugtherhouse’s chief ambassador switches gears on, “She don’t put it down like you” (track 3). Budden rarely, if ever, opts for the “grown and sexy” approach. But who says old dogs can’t learn new tricks? Over a chorus line that melts like butter, Joe gushes over the superior lovemaking ability of one specific girl in comparison to another. Fabolous provides additional insight, followed by Lil Wayne’s bizarrely crude interpretation of the subject—surprise! Tank—not the actual machine but the R&B singer—delivers the hook (and essentially saves the day). Despite underwhelming verses from all but Joe, the song, provided you listen to it with a partner in bed, has legitimate baby-making potential (as if the tile wasn’t enough of a clue). The remix aint’ half bad either (track17). It features Twista, so if nothing else, at least you’ll be occupied with trying to comprehend what he’s saying.

Broadway Joe
Budden gets lordly in his bombastic ode to sustained wealth, “NBA (Never Broke Again).” Despite predictable basketball references, lewd female objectification and shameless braggadocio (what else is new?), this song is without question a slam dunk (hey, when in Rome). To the tune of resounding bass and triumphant horns, Whiz Khalifa gets the ball rolling (no pun intended) by expounding on what he knows best—counting money and smoking inconceivably large quantities of California bud. Joe also chips in with several lines of uninhibited self-bravado. And not to be outdone, French Montana brings up the rear with a little boasting of his own. The hook pretty much sums up the rest (‘Bitch I’m ballin’, bitch I’m ballin’. Racked up no wallet. Keep a bad bitch on my team. I should join the league). Enough said.

Joe Street
In his 4th track ,“Last Day,” Joe takes your ears and drags them through the filth and grime of the streets in Jersey. His lyrical onslaught is punctuated by a collision of hammering drums, fluttering high-hat combinations and raging outbursts of whimsical, yet ominous measures of synth. Simply put, Joe rhymes angry—very angry. He, in fact, sounds as if hip-hop owes him an apology for being ignored all these years. Juicy J tries his hand at being gangster (to no avail). And Lloyd Banks emerges from obscurity to complete the trifecta.

“No love lost” is a good, hard listen. Enjoy.

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Eminem Joe Budden Reviews

Slaughterhouse – Welcome to: Our House album review

6 months ago the general public got its first taste of Welcome to: Our House when Funkmaster Flex played “Hammer Dance” on his radio show. Featuring a sample from Korn’s “Falling Away from Me” and production work from AraabMuzik, this song was a surprising single from Slaughterhouse.

Composed of Joe Budden, Royce da 5’9”, Joell Ortiz, and Crooked I, this group is a legitimate powerhouse in Hip-Hop. Each one of these MCs can hold their own and have a flow adaptable to almost any situation.

Almost being the operative word. Eminem is brought on to Executive Produce the album, which ends up hurting more than it helps. Welcome to: Our World shines on tracks that are far from Eminem’s trademark sound, and that allow the other rappers to play off of one another.

“Our House” embodies the issue perfectly. With a verse from Em and a hook from Skylar Grey, the song ends up being a bloated 6-minutes long because of 3 more verses from Slaughterhouse. The beat sounds like it was tailor-made for Recovery and is completely out of place.

That being said, there are plenty of great moments on this album that wisely get as far from the Eminem aesthetic as possible. “Get Up” finds the group rapping over drums that clip aggressively, and a keyboard line that keeps the momentum going. No I.D.’s clever sampling of “Ali in the Jungle” by The Hours does wonders for all of Slaughterhouse, but Royce Da 5’9” absolutely demolishes his verse.

Towards the end of the record is “Goodbye,” which finds Slaughterhouse being surprisingly poignant and emotional. A lot of rappers’ attempts at eulogizing their loved ones comes off heavy-handed, but this track does an incredible job of being honest while not being sappy. Ortiz’s verse stands out as it perfectly engulfs the listener in the whirlwind days before a funeral.

After numerous delays and a huge amount of hype, it’d be easy to dismiss Welcome to: Our House, but the pure talent and natural charisma between the 4 members cannot be played down. That is, when they’re fifth wheel isn’t demanding his presence be known.

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Press Releases

GRAMMY AWARD WINNING PRODUCER DOC ISH TO RELEASE THE FIRST TREATMENT THE FIRST TREATMENT WILL BE RELASED ON MAY 11th, 2010

GRAMMY AWARD WINNING PRODUCER DOC ISH TO RELEASE THE FIRST TREATMENT THE FIRST TREATMENT WILL BE RELASED ON MAY 11th, 2010

Star-Studded LP Features Appearances From Jay Electronica, Joe Budden, Crooked I, Sean Price, Joell Ortiz, Talib Kweli, Bun B, Max B, Saigon, Nipsey Hussle, KRS-One, Kool G Rap, Buckshot, Bizarre and many more

A bit of a transient, Doc Ish is from a little bit of everywhere. Born in Dallas, TX, then onto places such as Virginia, and Brooklyn NY and everywhere in between, it has been Hartford, CN that Doc has always returned to and calls home. Doc signed his first deal as a senior in High-School and soon thereafter moved to NY where he was introduced to a slew of industry talents and had the opportunity to work with artists such Heavy D, Kurupt and Foxy Brown to name a few.

Since then, Doc has lost a lot of time, “years,” in regards to his music career. For years, he was jumping from doctor to doctor, hospital to hospital, trying to figure out why his health would take such dramatic shifts and leave him in an almost debilitating state. Lying in hospital beds, with nothing but time on his hands while his various health problems were both diagnosed and treated, Doc’s health eventually got better and when it did, so did his hunger for making music. When Doc re-entered the scene in 2008, he did so with a renewed vigor and his networking lead to meetings with various artists, one of which, D-12’s Bizarre, would eventually change his world as he then knew it upside down. After recording sessions with Bizarre, Doc received a call from him that a certain Detroit superstar heard one of his tracks and immediately gravitated to it. That track was what you know as “We Made You” the lead-single from Eminem’s Grammy award winning LP Relapse, which has since gone 2X Platinum and re-vaulted Eminem back into the national spotlight after a five-year hiatus.

Despite the overwhelming changes that have occurred since “We Made You” hit the masses, Doc Ish has remained humble and hungry throughout the process and is determined to capitalize on the opportunity and use it as a stepping-stone. The timing and subsequent spotlight that has been affixed to Doc’s back ever since was ideal for the forthcoming release of Doc Ish Presents: The First Treatment which will be released on 5-11-2010.

The First Treatment includes a collection of iconic and legendary emcees that would make a major label blush, let alone one of an Independent nature. While “Cut My Throat” f/Saigon, INS Deck, Ransom and Quan has already made an immediate impact on the urban blogosphere, fans are already salivating over the LP’s assortment of talent and eagerly awaiting to hear tracks such as the dream-team pairings of Jay Electronica, Crooked I & Sean Price (“She Did It Again”) and Bun B, Joe Budden and Talib Kweli on “Is It A Dream.”

Doc Ish believes that music is cathartic and creating this project proves as much and The First Treatment is the next step in curing Hip-Hop’s ailments.

Tracklisting and credits for Doc Ish Presents: The First Treatment:

1.) “Hi Kids” f/ Joell Ortiz
2.) “No Goodbye’s” f/ Apollo Swyf & Burroughs
3.) “Animal Grammar” f/ KRS-One & Burroughs
4.) “She Did It Again” f/ Crooked I, Sean Price, Jay Electronica & Novel
5.) “These Streets” f/ Max B, Red Cafe, Quan
6.) “Cut My Throat ” f/ Ransom, Quan, Saigon & INS Deck
7.) “Who You Are” f/ AZ & Charmange
8.) “Is It A Dream” f/ Joe Budden, Talib Kweli & Bun B
9.) “Open Your Eyez” f/ Termanalogy & Hectic
10.) “Stalker” feat. Bizarre (of D-12)
11.) “Make Movez” f/ Buckshot, Rock (Heltah Skeltah) & Colloso
12.) “Untitled” feat. Nipsey Hussle & Mya
13.) “War Outside” feat. King Gordy, Kool G Rap & Billy Danze (M.O.P.)
14.) “Skys Are Grey” feat. Quan, Oddisee & Nature
15.) “You Make Me Stronger” Kool G Rap & Ma Barker
16.) “Mo Money” Uncle Murder
17.) “FOH” ” f/ The Abnormals
18.) “Freestyle” f/ Supernatural

***All Tracks Produced By Doc Ish

Categories
Joe Budden Videos

Slaughterhouse (Joell Ortiz, Joe Budden, Royce Da 5 9 & Crooked I) – Move On video produced by The Kickdrums

Slaughterhouse (Joell Ortiz, Joe Budden, Royce Da 5’9″ & Crooked I) – Move On video produced by The Kickdrums

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Joe Budden Videos

Joe Budden – In My Sleep video from the new Joe Budden Padded Room (Behind The Scenes)

Joe Budden – In My Sleep video from the new Joe Budden Padded Room (Behind The Scenes)

Categories
Press Releases

Joe Budden – Mood Muzik 3 tracklisting / production credits

Intro Track

“Hiatus”
Produced by Mellow Madness

“Ventilation”
Produced by Klasix

“Talk to Em’”
Produced by Sultan

“Warfare”
Produced by the Klasix
Featuring Joell Ortiz

“Dear Diary”
Produced by Sultan

“Get No Younger”
Produced by Klasix
Featuring Ezo

“Inside of Me”
Produced by Dub B

Killa BH skit
Produced by Kill BH

“Send Him Our Love”
(Stack Bundles Dedication)
Produced by the Klasix

“Family Reunion”
Featuring Ransom, Hitchcock, Fabolous
Produced by Shatek The Producer

“5th Gear”
Produced by Sultan

“Roll Call”
Produced by Sultan

“Secrets”
Produced by Klasix

“All of Me”
Produced by Klasix
Featuring Imani

“Folder’s Brother”
By Killa BH

Joe Budden – Mood Muzik 3 tracklisting / production credits

“I’m Serious (Long Way to Go)”
Feat Mr. Propz (Amsterdam Singer)
Produced by Soul Searcher

“Thou Shall Not Fall”
Produced by Klasix
(Addresses the AllHipHop.com Celebrity Rap Battle)

“Still My Hood”
Produced by Wyks

Categories
Joe Budden Videos

Joe Budden – Star Inside Of Me video

Joe Budden – Star Inside Of Me video

Video For Joe Budden ‘Star Inside Of Me’ Off Of ‘Mood Muzik 3’.

Directed by: Rik Cordero