The public, fiddling firing of Rory and Mal from the Joe Budden Podcast coupled with accusations of workplace sexual harassment seem like the latest bout of cocky-sabotage for the rapper turned podcaster. Photo: Paras Griffin/Getty Images for Revolt

Joe Budden signed to Def Jam at a peculiar juncture in the history of the venerable hip-hop label, arriving just equally tardily-'90s and early-aughts heavy hitters like DMX, Ja Rule, and Ashanti had reached the twilight of their platinum striking streaks but earlier the middle-aughts influx of movers and shakers like Rihanna, Kanye West, Jeezy, and Ne-Yo. In 2003, when Budden released his cocky-titled debut — capitalizing on excitement for his single "Pump It Up," a perfect Eastward Declension hip-hop banger that may or may not be virtually jerking off — Def Jam made news when its subdivision Murder Inc, run past mogul and producer Irv Gotti and home to those Rule and Ashanti hits, was raided by federal agents investigating money-laundering allegations that Irv would ultimately crush at the cost of losing his distribution deal. A lawsuit over rights to early Ja recordings left the label and its president at the time, Lyor Cohen, on the hook for over $100 meg. Lyor left, replaced by Jay-Z, who'd had a tiff with Budden over "Pump It Up" every bit plans for him to appear on an official remix went belly upwards, and he released a freestyle over the beat containing snark many believed to exist directed at Joe. Joe Budden, meanwhile, reviewed well just didn't sell well; the solid follow-up unmarried "Burn down (Yep, Yes Y'all)" bricked. It was a bad time for a bad sales showing. Jay built careers at Def Jam but too made mistakes. "Nobody is getting promoted the way they should exist promoted," LL Cool J told MTV in 2007, the twelvemonth Jay stepped down and Budden was released after years of abortive attempts at crafting a sophomore album.

It'due south a design that repeats with Joe, one he seems keenly aware of: He builds things. They pause. Then he maneuvers his way into another situation, starting the timer once again. Joe left Def Jam with a significant buzz and a respectable following, thanks in part to the mid-to-late-2000s Mood Muzik mixtape serial, where he poured his heart out and tightened his craft while growing a dedicated army of "internet warriors" speaking his mind on his vlog, Joe Budden Television. Budden brought that attention into Slaughterhouse, a supergroup of interstate rap geniuses whose gifts were a perfect fit for Eminem's Shady Records imprint, where the quest to residue integrity and commercial success played out again on the choppy if promising 2012 full length Welcome To: Our House. (In fourth dimension, once more, a tiff with his benefactor would complicate Budden'due south career.) The next twelvemonth, tensions between Joe and fellow tristate-area rapper and Dear & Hip-Hop: New York cast member Effect exploded into public squabbling and concrete confrontations. Budden's stay on the 2015 season of VH1'south Couples Therapy was interrupted when a warrant was issued for his abort for skipping a court date in a domestic-abuse example involving an ex claiming he attacked her in public the previous yr over accusations of infidelity. The charges were eventually dropped, but they weren't the simply accusations. Other exes — including models Esther Baxter, Tahiry Jose, and Cyn Santana — have told like stories equally recently equally last fall. Nothing sticks, merely Joe's insistence that he's never been concrete with a partner runs counter to his own discussions of the day he and Baxter tussled prior to her miscarriage on the Mood Muzik rail "Ordinary Dearest Shit Pt. 3: Closure" and in a 2011 interview with The Breakfast Club, in which he has since claimed he "misspoke."

To be a fan of Joe Budden is to believe that he is adept but troubled, smart just chaotic, a man destined for greatness who struggles to go out of his ain mode just who learns from his mistakes to the extent that his enemies allow. Information technology's the bulletin of the inarguably great Mood Muzik tapes, and Joe Budden cuts like the passionate "10 Min.," and of the glossy culture-page profiles in recent years where Joe, smiling in porkpie hats, explained how he turned the hot dress-down the hip-hop industry served him into diamonds in his lucrative talk show and vlog, The Joe Budden Podcast. There'south truth to it: Who ameliorate to give listeners the behind-the-scenes scoop on the business of rap than someone who has seen every side of it (and more than or less retired from it after burning every bridge on the fashion out), who was touted as a mixtape wonder in the same class as futurity megastars like l Cent, who was chewed up and spit out but has maintained a presence in the ever-evolving intersection of music fandom and internet media? Who ameliorate to voice the inequities and absurdities of the game than a man immortalized in two Def Jam–themed fighting games, who didn't go to release two Def Jam studio albums? The Joe Budden Podcast scratches a certain itch for a certain type of hip-hop fan, the irreverent difficult-ass one-time plenty to know the classics and observe the old bro code but young plenty to have opinions on, say, Nicki Minaj'south personal life. Alongside his co-hosts Rory Farrell and Jamil "Mal" Clay, Joe created a kind of people'due south history of the modern hip-hop industry, and points were fabricated in episodes roofing shocking events like the Pusha-T and Drake battle and the passing of XXXTentacion. In their wheelhouse, they're witty and even relatable.

Only in hip-hop media, irreverence and toxicity go hand in paw. And in spite of an open dialogue last year regarding widespread industry mistreatment of Black women and contempo attempts by figures like Budden and The Breakfast Gild'south Charlamagne tha God to reform and rehabilitate their images, improvement is slow going. Equally often as he is lacerating and funny, Joe is besides bullish, presumptuous, and flat-out incorrect. Although his unique purview sharpens his insights, he'southward a screamer, a loose cannon, and a chauvinist prone to slut-shaming and disrespecting women, sometimes upward close, a host who opens his platform to the inelegant caveman animus of figures like YouTube relationship counselor Kevin Samuels. This isn't and so much of a problem for an audience that sees itself reflected in some of this banter, that feels the pulse of the times shifting, that pines for freedom from a climate where controversial takes earn instant blowback from woke scolds. Really, the JBP is like a digital barbershop, a safe infinite to exist an asshole in all of the good and the bad ways and to collectively piece of work out an understanding of an increasingly complex planet. Joe being Joe, he's establish a manner to make a tough time of a sure bet again. Having amassed a post-obit willing to weather condition a flurry of horrific allegations, Joe Budden discovered the i affair they won't tolerate.

The public, picayune firing of Rory and Mal in a recent JBP episode over money disputes — that, after hours of explainers and rebuttals, don't make sense as Joe tells it — seems like the latest tour of self-sabotage. To hear the quondam co-hosts tell information technology, Budden's been lowballing them and combatively refusing to piece of work out the accounting. The host's clarifications take only muddy the affair. At that place'southward no fashion to know who's telling the unabridged truth, but Rory and Mal'south "I'll Name This Response After" answer — which references the pod's early title, I'll Proper noun This Podcast Later — makes a compelling case for Joe as a friend who let success go to his head and started treating allies like employees. Apologies notwithstanding, it's hard to unhear Joe threatening to sue his friends if they tried to beginning their own testify and musing about how he could farther brand their lives hell through their contracts. Information technology flew in the face of the reputation he'southward cultivated as a friend to the music-manufacture underdog and an enemy to suits who just care virtually their own bottom line. In that abruptly deleted episode, Joe Budden became the kind of person he has spent his entire career fighting. In that moment, he showed the world the cold, calculated manipulator his detractors have often said he is.

Another video from DJ Olivia Dope of See, The Matter Is — a show launched last autumn with the intention of building a bigger roster of shows around the JBP and giving Black women a seat at the table — outlined in meticulous detail her reasons for leaving the Joe Budden Network, which were rooted in Budden creating a piece of work climate that made her experience uncomfortable, including sexually suggestive remarks and inappropriate gestures. Joe immediately apologized on several platforms, only some fans of the pod are mad about flip, defiant remarks in the most recent episode, which is named after a joke he makes about people who are upset with how he's carrying himself in recent weeks. The mood in the Joe Budden Podcast subreddit is somber. The para-social illusion of eavesdropping on a hangout session between friends that listeners got from the best episodes is gone. The replacement hosts are too deferential. The vibes are incorrect. The mood is argumentative. There's much he tin can't explain. Budden has cleaved it again. Just if there'southward anything to know near Joe Budden it'due south that he'll always find a way to remain in the conversation. If there's anything to accept away from all of this, to endeavour not to forget in time when hereafter opportunities crave further image reform, it's Olivia Dope needing to provide time-stamped footage to back her claims to avoid having her experience pawned off equally another disingenuous smear aimed at Joe's pockets. It's to know for sure, who you support with your time and patronage, what they're about, and what they're capable of. Rory seemed genuinely surprised to find himself on the business concern end of Joe Budden's rage. Don't ever be surprised.

Mistrusting Joe Budden