Words and Pics by Ken Francis
It is February 24th 2009 and Joe Budden is celebrating the release of his new album entitled “Padded Room” at the New Era store in Soho.
Adorned in a hooded, rhinestone encrusted sweatshirt with an Ed Hardy-esque logo, True Religion jeans, and a big-dialed blinged-out watch; Budden holds product after product (logos facing front) as marketing interns placed them in his hands to endorse for waiting videographers.
Budden appears used to the routine and is cordial to everyone around him, he goes along with the demands of cameramen who incessantly ask him to repeat catch phrases and slogans for their various websites and stations.
Budden with a bottle of Seraphin
It's been a long time since Joe Budden has released an official LP; six years actually, so all the publicity (whether or not he appears on camera holding some obscure bottle of liquor or not) is definitely a good thing. His self titled debut album “Joe Budden” hit the top five of the billboard hip-hop and R&B charts back in summer of 2003 and spawned the ubiquitous “Pump it Up,” an infectious summertime hit that subsequently had everybody saying the phrase “jump off” for a while. He also found moderate success with another single called “Focus.”
All that shine was a long time ago and also when Budden was on one of the most popular labels in music, Def Jam (remember he appeared in the first two Def Jam Videogames).
For a while now, Budden has been with indie record label Amalgam Digital. Fans of the rapper were provided with more of his music via mix tapes produced and distributed by Amalgam such as “Mood Muzik 1: The Worst Of” and “Mood Muzik 2: Can It Get Any Worse?” These two gave birth to 2008s “Mood Muzik 3: The Album” which was a “mixtape style” album minus the DJ talking all over the tracks.
Budden doing yet another interview
Back in the New Era store a young reporter asked Budden about the choice of the venue for the party, to which Budden replied, “I didn’t want to make it a ridiculous function with rapper friends, it is real hip hop so this way it is real intimate.” Intimate indeed, literally any one who was allowed in the store could walk right in and interview Budden, congratulate him on the new release or just simply give him a pound.
A reporter holding a portable camera question said to Budden, “What do you want people to know about this album?” He replied, “I could care less what they know, a reviewer couldn’t really sit down with this album once and give a thorough review.”
Since the floor was just that open to talk to him, in between camera people waiting to sling another batch of questions at Budden, I approached him about answering some questions of my own, he agreed; I asked, he answered. It went like this (I’m Ken he is JB):
Ken: “Tell me about the concept for the album, what is the idea behind the title “Padded Room?”
JB: “Well a padded room, you know the booth in the studio is padded and also a padded room is a place where they send the insane, or people thought to be insane. The thing is, people called insane are sometimes misunderstood so that’s how it relates to the music. This padded room is a place where I can think whatever I want to think, say whatever I want to say and not be judged.”
Ken: “Is it safe to say you are cynical about the mechanics of the music industry and is that reflected in your music?”
JB: “No, because there isn’t anything worth doing without a struggle, if I could do it all over again, I wouldn’t change a thing.”
Budden and his girlfriend Tahiri
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