DX: The attention span of today’s average rap fan is pretty short. Do you think the market, outside of your following, is going to be receptive to you?
JB: They’ll be receptive when I put this smash record on the radio that I have on my computer, they’ll be receptive then. When I come back… I have records in my computer that could change the whole course of the direction that music is in right now, but I’d have been a fool to try to put those records out in a building that isn’t behind me at all. So when I get my next situation, I think the mainstream, buying audience will be receptive to me. I mean, you got guys like Freeway who haven’t been out in a million years, you have guys like The Clipse, who aside from putting out this last album, had like four years in between their album. There’s a lot of people that are taking time to put out their sophomore releases due to the climate, or the label situation with all the mergers. But whatever the reason, it seems like when Joe Budden takes so long, every day somebody is asking “Where is it? Where is it? Where is it?” instead of trying to find out what the problem is.

DX: It sounds like you’re venting a lot on the tracks I’ve heard from Mood Muzik 3.
JB: Well I mean it’s Mood Muzik. Llaughs] It’s going to be Joe Budden venting, it’s vent session, that’s all it’s going to be. But I don’t have too much to vent about nowadays- I feel great, I’m in such a great place that the air around me is fresher. On Part 2, I had a million things to vent about. Now, not so many things to vent about.

DX: Did the news about being released from Def Jam affect the content of the mixtape at all?
JB: The things I do on Mood Muzik have absolutely nothing to do with Def Jam, or their plans, or what they’re thinking, or what they’re doing. The Mood Muzik series is all about emotion and a mind state, wherever your mind state is at the time. And if you notice, on a lot of the songs the record’ll start talking about one thing and it will end talking about something completely different. I feel like it’s back to the essence of just letting the pen flow and letting your thoughts all go. So no, the news of the release from Def Jam, that didn’t do too much. I had already spit about wanting to be off of Def Jam prior to the news, so it actually worked out great. It’s like I spoke something into fruition.

Order Mood Muzik 3 at JoeBudden.org.