Joe Budden proclaims his freshman album will drop once “Def Jam gets off its ass.” Mighty words from a relative neophyte to the overcrowd game of hip-hop. However, Budden isn’t your average rookie. Through mix tapes and high-powered, visible associations [DJ Clue, Envy], he’s managed to skip Junior varsity squad and jump straight to the big leagues – side-by-side with all the Def Jam heavy hitters. After going through his share of trials, his penchant for rhyme writing acted as therapy for a drug addiction and turbulent childhood. Now that he is here, Joe is ready to slam dunk his demons and spit fire at unfit emcees. [Click here to LISTEN to Joe Budden’s new joint ‘Pump It Up.’] [Click here to WATCH Joe Budden discuss his childhood.] AllHipHop.com: Can you talk about your history of getting into the rap game? Joe Budden: How far back do you want me to go because I can go back! AllHipHop: Go back as far as we need to know. JB: I was probably about 12. It’s a long story so I’m going to try to sum it up. I was around 12 and I moved to New Jersey ‘cause my brother was in rehab. My mom and I were in Queens so we moved to New Jersey when my brother went to rehab. This rehab was real close with the family and it came about that I was getting high and I wrote [rhymes], so they started taking real in depth looks at my writing. I was real depressed. AllHipHop: How did you react to your conditions? JB: You name it – I was smoking it except for cocaine and heroin. Being depressed, isolated by my self, having issues from my mother, brother, the drugs writing [rhymes] was really all I had. That literally helped me live and be all right. I wasn’t trying to be a rapper, I wasn’t trying to get signed, and I had no idea really anything about a mix tape, major labels, the money it generated or anything like that. It was about me living and being alright so from me going from one rehab to another my mom put me in therapy where writing was also a major thing with the therapist and me, who read my lyrics and by me being depressed sent me to a psychiatrist, so really what I’m trying to say is my whole teen years were self help, programs and institutions. AllHipHop: How would you say those institutions factored into you as a rapper? JB: I think that played a big part of where I am and how I write. I don’t write the gimmick or the bullsh*t, I write for me. I stopped getting high at 17 and God works his magic once you stop getting high and start doing good things for yourself. I was 20, I had a demo ‘cause I was working on music but it wasn’t serious. I gave my demo to my godbrother; he gave it to Cutmaster C who gave it to Webb, who started his production company, On Top. They basically came to me like look we feel you can do it, we could get together and sell some records independently or we could get at the mix tapes hard however you want to do it we start a family and lets rock & roll. At the time my demo was trash, I was all right but I wasn’t nearly as developed as I am right now. We started hitting the mix tapes hard Cutmaster C, Clue, Envy and it generated a buzz. I never expected it and they never expected it. I don’t think when they signed me they knew the type of artist they was getting. I was just hitting the mix tapes being me so for people to grasp on to that is a blessing. AllHipHop: What about the psychiatrist when he or she read your rhymes, what were his or her thoughts? JB: The psychiatrist tried to put me on some anti-depressants and I flipped the desk over and wild out. Because they tried to act like I was really crazy and didn’t have any sense. I may have did some crazy sh*t on drugs but I’ve been a genius since I was five so people have been telling me, all through school I was about five grades ahead. School was boring so I left and the therapist new that, but she was doing her job she reading lyrics I want to kill myself, we got to send him. They thought I was a nut case. AllHipHop: Do you think a lot of black kids have that ‘cause I know my moms used to work in special education and they throw a lot of black kids in that little thing? JB: Yeah they do. AllHipHop: The mix tapes was real strong for you, I became familiar with you more recently I was a little late. Can you talk about your relationship with Clue and them and Desert Storm? JB: I’m not signed to Desert Storm as a lot of people may think. On Top signed me, the n##### from Queens, Desert Storm is from Queens. Clue and all them pretty much grew up together so the first place that they took my demo was Desert Storm. To my knowledge they aint want to do sh*t or they couldn’t afford to do sh*t or whatever it was, but Clue played me often on radio and mix tapes. I didn’t care if it was 11:59 [pm at the end of his show] he was playing me. Coming up as a kid to be on a Clue mix tape was some sh*t. Desert Storm does play a big part in Joe Budden’s life but, I’m not signed to them, I’m strictly signed to On Top/Def Jam. AllHipHop: Weren’t you in an article with them at one point? JB: Yeah, they family. At the end of the day they all family they just […]

There was something captured in the early 1980’s New York Hip-Hop culture that we may never have back: A carefree attitude, and the music to match it. In a year that eulogizes Run-DMC as the pioneers of taking Hip-Hop to the suburbs, I recall another pioneer who helped bring hip-hop to the dance floor. Steve “Steinski” Stein and his partner Double Dee owned New York radio waves in the early eighties with the “Pay Off Mix”, and the following three ‘lessons.’ Despite a contract with Tommy Boy Records, Steinski may be an unfamiliar name because his cut-and-paste mixes were too sample-heavy to ever clear. Still, Steinski’s musical visions echo in the work of DJ Shadow, Jurassic 5, Gang Starr, Beastie Boys, and nearly every other artist who ever used others’ records tell a story, or pass a message. From his New York office, the self-proclaimed “elderly” Steinski recalls the early days of Manhattan Hip-Hop. Just as his colorful anecdotes in the film Scratch, Steinski brings life to a closed book of culture, style, and some of the greatest records ever made. Age ain’t nothing but a number. AHH: In Scratch, I loved your account of the first time you experienced Hip-Hop. It really wasn’t long enough. I was hoping you could elaborate and recreate that experience. S: I had been collecting music for a while, and playing music as a DJ, although not as DJ’s are sort of commonly thought as now in clubs, or parties. It was just: play a record, the record fades down, start a new record. It was the first time in my life I ever had money to spend on records. I had a real job. And I could start going into record stores and actually purchasing records. Back then, vinyl was cheap man! I was spending a lot of money. I was spending five, six, seven thousand dollars a year on vinyl. And I was going into stores with lists of every record that I had remembered that I ever liked, I mean ever. And it was a wonderful thing. New York at that time had some really good radio stations, and one in particular was WPIX. It was a real discovery for me. They had Debora Harry and Chris Stein [ from Blondie] as guest DJ’s on this one show. They said, “Oh yeah, we were at a party in the Bronx last night and we got a bunch of records from there and brought them down.” And I was taping this thing, with half an ear. The next morning, I came back and listened to the tape, and was like, “Holy s**t! This is it man!” And I listened to the tape over and over again until I figured out what the title to one of the records was. And went down to one of the stores where I was shopping and I picked up this twelve inch like, “Holy s**t, I got it.” I brought it up the counter. And the woman who was sitting behind the counter looked at me, looked at the record, and said, “That’s a Rap record. If you don’t like it, you can’t bring it back.” I said, “It’s alright, I know what’s on it.” And I just stayed right with it. This was something that was really really important to me. AHH: You submitted “The Pay Off Mix” to Tommy Boy and won. How soon until the hip-hop community recognized you, and how did they accept you? AHH: I’d say that day. The day we won the contest. What happened was that we had submitted it, they said that the winners will be announced in five weeks. So of course, we thought two and a half months goes by, and they announce the winner. My secretary at the advertising agency, I’m coming back from a meeting, and she’s like, “Oh wow, Tommy from Tommy Boy called, you won the contest!” I called up [Tom Silverman], and [he congratulates me], and says, “Who are you, man? What kind of a master mixer has a secretary?” We went to the office which at that time was three employees in a tiny little office below street-level on the Upper East Side, and he told us, “When we were listening to the mixes just to screen them, we knew this one was gonna win. So this was the one we played last to all the judges the evening they came in.” They just loved it. We each got a complete catalog of Tommy Boy Records, which was like twenty records, [laughs] a cheap polo shirt, fifty bucks, and we needed some reel-to-reel tapes to send this out to radio stations so they can play it as part of the prize. AHH: The easiest way to associate your work to somebody is to simply say “The Lessons.” As far those lessons, when did you realize you were creating a series, and why did they stop? S: We never really thought of them as ‘the lessons’ so much as, we just thought of them as Double Dee and Steinski records. I just happened to have all these instruction records with that guy going, “Lesson one, Lesson two, Lesson three…” We’d stick that in, as make it easy for people. Don’t be too arty, just because they can’t understand it, doesn’t make it good. This was just a way we had of giving it a little bit of a hook. The reason it stopped because [Double Dee] lost his taste for making records in a big way. And he decided that it wasn’t like we’d ever lost touch, he was just like, “I’m moving in with my girlfriend out in Queens, and get a job again.” At the time, we were both free-lancing. That was when I did the Kennedy record [“The Motorcade Sped On”], because now it was time to figure out if I could make a record on my own. AHH: Sample clearances have held your career and stardom bac. […]

Whether it be original "Trouble Man" Marvin Gaye or embattled crooner R.Kelly, R&B men who exhibit abnormal or illicit behavior are often viewed as victims of a painful childhood. However, when rappers cross the line of respectable behavior they are viewed as deviants and delinquents. Critics then denigrate select lyrics from said rapper’s catalogue as poisonous influences on impressionable youths. Before we go running to the nearest media outlet to warn/scare Joe Schmoe about a rapper’s influence on his children, shouldn’t we instead offer a helping hand to the person who may really need help? With that said, AllHipHop.com went to Denyse Hicks, Ph.D. for answers. With over 15 years experience as a board certified expert in traumatic stress, Dr. Hicks and her company, Star Care, offer unique health programs that offer psychological and chemical dependency services for athletes and entertainers. "Studies have shown that children raised in physically abusive families are at increased risk to be assaultive toward an intimate partner when they reach adulthood," Dr. Hicks says. "This increased risk comes not only from direct modeling effects, but also from the development of a variety of potentially dysfunctional defenses." We asked Dr. Hicks to analyze some lyrics from a few hip-hop tracks and give an assessment on the performers. Though these commentaries are not a final diagnosis and are based solely on lyrics, Dr. Hicks noted they all seem to share the same origin-Trauma. DMX "X is Coming" Will have that same n*gga like you, gun in your mouth/ But won’t be like the last time when you run in the house/ ‘Cuz I ain’t knockin’ on the door I’m coming in the house/ And I’m gunnin’ for your spouse/ Trying to send the b*tch back to her maker/ And if you got a daughter older then 15, I’ma rape her/ Take her on the living room floor, right there in front of you/ Then ask you seriously, whatchu wanna do? / Frustrating’ isn’t it? Wanna’ kill me, but I’ma kill you/ Now watch me f*ck just a lil’ while longer, please, will you? Dr. Hicks: Controlling aggression is a focal issue for many trauma victims. Traumatized children have trouble modulating aggression, tending to act destructively towards themselves or others. Many traumatized children have temper tantrums and fights with siblings and schoolmates. Developmental studies of children’s reactions to repeated family conflict indicate that repeated exposure to strong negative emotions like anger becomes, for most children, an aversive experience encompassing strong arousal and behavioral expressions of anxiety (distress) or anger (aggression) especially when the conflict is not satisfactorily resolved. In abused boys, another prominent sequel of abuse is hyper aggression. Researchers suggested that abused boys are more likely than girls to identify with the original aggressor and to eventually perpetuate the abuse on their spouse and children. In their view, an effect of physical maltreatment by a parent is to exaggerate sex role characteristics, possibly as a means of shoring up the damaged self. They also noted that traumatized children had trouble modulating aggression and included being physically abused as a child as a trauma source. The four-predictor variables in this study were convictions for violent crime, history of violent suicide attempts, neurological abnormalities and deviance in the family environment. Some early potential stressors reported by the men: shaming and rejection from fathers, insecure attachment to mothers, witnessing parental violence and experiencing parental violence. We suggest that this combination of stressors is traumatic. Foxy Brown "What your Fantasy?" Remix: I’m a BK b*tch/ love to ride d*ck/ Ass in his face, c### spread out/ n*gga uptown, n*gga down south/ Same ol’ sh*t, foot’s in his mouth/ F-O-X /call me rough sex/ Especially when a b*tch get right on the X/ Get it, right on X/ f*ck him, check right to the next/ b*tches go right, Fox right to the left/ n*gga can’t f*ck, burner on his chest/36 D’s, Prada on the breasts/ Baddest, send him home with na na on his breath/ Dr. Hicks: The younger the age at which trauma was experienced, and the longer its duration, the more likely people are to have long-term effects with the regulation of arousal, anger, anxiety and sexual impulses. Childhood events generate chronic long term emotional responses, which are themselves, risk markers for interpersonal dysfunction and abusive behavior when adult intimate conflict occurs. There is a proclivity for intense, unstable interpersonal relationships characterized by intermittent undermining of the significant other, manipulation, and masked dependency; an unstable sense of self with intolerance of being alone and abandonment anxiety; and intense anger, demandingness, and impulsivity, usually tied to substance abuse and/or promiscuity. Factor analyses support the inclusion of the two factors (e.g. children and parents), in anticipatory anger, anxiety and "sub anger" (frustration, irritation) while needing to express the internal pain. More is now known about the intergenerational transmission of abusive behavior. This personality typically is formed by trauma in early childhood. Scarface "Diary of a Madman": Dear diary today I hit a n*gga with a torch/ Shot him on his face and watched him die on his front porch/ Left his family heartbroken/ Flashbacks of him laying there bleeding with his eyes open/I can’t put the sh*t behind me I’m know I’m here somewhere, but I can’t find me/ I used to be a drug dealer/ On the fo’reala/ now I’m a born killer/ and it ain’t no changing me/ It used to be hard, but now it ain’t no thing to me/ To go up to a n*ggas house/ Put a pistol in his mouth/ and blow his f*cking brains out/ Dr. Hicks: People who are exposed early to violence or neglect come to expect it as a way of life. They see the chronic helplessness of their mothers and fathers’ alternating outbursts of affection and violence; they learn that they themselves have no control. As adults they hope to undo the past by love, competency, and exemplary behavior. Males who have experienced childhood abuse victimization increased the likelihood of an […]