Joe Budden made a recent appearance on Drink Champs where he touched on JAY-Z’s alleged astronomical fee for 16 bars. Speaking to co-hosts DJ EFN and N.O.R.E., the dogmatic media personality shed doubt on Hov’s $250,000 request to hop on a remix of 2003’s “Pump It Up.”
“That’s a rumor,” Budden said during the sit-down at the 5:30 mark. “I didn’t personally ask him. I couldn’t personally speak to him.” He continued, “I just know that I don’t have 250 grand. I think Webb [producer] put the battery in my back. [He said], ‘You gon’ let him do that? Nah, you gotta get to the studio right now!’”
#HOV wanted $250K to get on the “Pump It Up (Remix)”? 👀
— REVOLT (@revolttv) March 25, 2023
Your favorite Happy Hour is here 🥃🏆 Watch an all-new episode of @DrinkChamps with @joebudden out now on the REVOLT app, our YouTube or https://t.co/ROjgySr6YT 📲 pic.twitter.com/ViFYx4ZOlg
Budden addressed the chatter again in 2022, telling the Flip Da Script podcast, “I don’t think it was a big number. I think that was his number. It was just big in my world, but it wasn’t a big number … Listen, I’m super young in that moment. I wasn’t in the studio when they [Jay and Budden’s A&R, Skane] had the conversation. I knew that they had some type of relationship. It was a Just Blaze beat, and I was green behind the ears. I mean, just thought that it would get done.”
Elsewhere in the Drink Champs episode, Budden remained committed to rap retirement and his popular podcast, saying, “People are shocked by my resistance to that idea. They just don’t understand how liberating it feels. Wake up, I go down the street, I talk to my friends, and then I go home—twice a week. Just really sit with that.”