(AllHipHop News) The moment Eminem’s new album Music to Be Murdered By arrived on January 17, listeners began dissecting lyrics to see if the Hip Hop veteran took shots at any other rappers. Joe Budden did catch a bar from his former Shady Records boss.
“So why would I give a f*ck about backstabbing traitor [Trader] Joe for?” spit Eminem on “Lock It Up” featuring Anderson Paak. Of course, Budden heard the line. He responded to Em on The Joe Budden Podcast.
“That’s hurtful. That’s not right. That’s offensive, man. Trader Joe? I’m Joe. So you’re telling me Joe is a traitor?” joked the host of Revolt’s State of the Culture. “Joe is not a traitor.”
Budden later added, “It was an aggressive tone. He’s saying, ‘I only joke with friends and whatever you’re doing, calling it a joke, I’m not your friend.’ And I reply to that by saying, ‘I wasn’t joking.’ Everybody has to do what’s best for them. Everybody has to move the way that they see fit. The word ‘traitor’ is just a little misleading. I have no beef with Em. I have no problem with Em… The only problem or issue I had with is how our business was set up. The end.”
Joe Budden and Eminem have been going back and forth publicly for over two years. It seems the open tension between the two emcees apparently began when Budden criticized 2017’s Revival album. Em fired back at Joe on the Kamikaze LP in 2018 with the New Jersey resident responding on his show.
There were also issues over the Slaughterhouse breakup. Budden suggested Eminem and Shady Records co-founder Paul Rosenberg financially benefited way more from the supergroup’s music than the actual members.
However, Em claimed it was a dispute over production direction that ended Slaughterhouse. The Detroit native insisted that his label actually lost money on the promotion of the crew’s collective discography. Ex-SH members Royce da 5’9″, Joell Ortiz, and Kxng Crooked appear on Eminem’s Music to Be Murdered By track “I Will.”