There are two sides to every story, sometimes even three if you ask Joe Budden. So in the midst of his feud with fellow New Jersey rapper Ransom, HipHopDX caught up with Budden to gain some insight into his perspective on the conflict. Clearly a fan of the now disbanded A-Team duo, Budden seems both bewildered and indignant about Ransom’s negative reaction to hearing himself reunited with Hitchcock on Mood Muzik 3. Never one to retreat from a battle, Budden rapidly mounted a strong offensive with “Heart of the City” and “Ransom Note,” a scathing diss which his opponent cried foul.

As he prepares to drop Mood Muzik 3 to expectant fans in December, Budden also discusses his long-awaited release from Def Jam, the mind state behind the mixtape, and his marketability in today’s rap climate.

HipHopDX: Let’s start off addressing the beef with Ransom. Is he still going to be on Mood Muzik 3?
Joe Budden: Yes, yeah, he’ll still be on there, whether he likes it or not.

DX: What was your motivation in putting him and Hitchcock back together on the same track?
JB: Well, I was more so putting their personal issues to the side for the good of the record. I felt like our camp had already lost one person, that being Stack Bundles, may he rest in peace. I just felt like frivolous nonsense shouldn’t put a halt to great music. And I figured there were people out there that would like to hear him and Hitchcock on the same track together, even if they weren’t performing as the A-Team, that it would’ve been nice for certain people to hear. And it was; people enjoyed it.

DX: So why do you think Ransom was so offended by it?
JB: I don’t know, that I don’t know. I think maybe he might have had some issues with me prior too, and just used that as a scapegoat and a reason to start dissing me out of the blue. Either that, or he could’ve really felt like I disrespected him or had some malicious intent towards him. That would be stupid, that’s my man, but Lord knows some of the things that go on in these people’s heads.

DX: It’s known that you helped put the A-Team on, but there are some conflicting stories coming out of the disses, with you saying [on “Heart of the City”] that you were ready to sign them but they went to Clue instead, and with Ransom saying you abandoned them after the success of “Pump it Up”. What’s the story behind that?
JB: You can’t believe one word that comes out of their mouth. That’s a bull face lie. I haven’t abandoned anybody, not at all. What happened was me just making a foolish mistake due to thinking everybody’s intentions are great like mine. When I met Ransom and Hitchcock and I had the idea of forming a group and putting them out, they were fucked up. They were starving and thirsty for a deal, niggas was hungry like every rapper is when they are unsigned. And then you start to bring them around, and they start to see things that they wouldn’t normally see, and [they] start wanting to cut out the middle man. That’s the case in most business deals, so they felt like, “What’s the point of signing to Joe if we can sign directly to Clue, and get the same benefits, if not more?” And in the long run, I’m right and they’re wrong. I told them that wasn’t the best move, and they went and did it anyway, and look how far it got them.

DX: You talk about mentoring people and hinted in the diss record that you gave advice to Ransom to be more introspective, would you say that his shift to sounding more emotional on his records was your influence?
JB: Definitely, definitely, definitely. Hell yeah. I hate to pat myself on the back, but anybody who I’m closely affiliated with, or anybody from New Jersey, especially Jersey City, who is talented like he is- nine times out of ten, I’m more experienced than them and I’m a bit wiser in certain areas. Not all, but certain areas. So I tried to give him a couple words of advice, but some niggas don’t want to hear everything. I did tell him that the introspectiveness was needed to kind of get away from being so repetitive, and to create your own lane and get out of that whole guns and ratchets and sex, money, murder shit that he was doing, and he then started to do that, which was great.

DX: What is the JC disease you refer to in “Heart of the City”?
JB: Crabs in a bucket. The minute somebody doing good, you gotta hate him. It’s been like that for quite some time. And I only call it the JC disease cause that’s where I’m from and that’s where I see it. Jersey City is only 8 miles long, it’s a very small place and the amount of hate that comes out of there is just uncanny.

DX: A lot of people think you already kind of did him in with “Ransom Note.”
JB: I didn’t though, and I keep telling people- if Ran wasn’t a friend of mine- not even a friend, I don’t want to use that word too loosely- if me and Ran didn’t have the type of relationship that we have, after I put my initial response out, I could’ve put three more out the same day and the next day I could’ve put two more out. I could’ve really kept going and said some hurtful things to make niggas really not want to fuck with him anymore. But I didn’t do that. I was cool, I was mellow about it I went really, really light. But even with me going light and him going hard, he’s still not going to be able to fuck with me lyrically. Continued on page 2 »