Joe Budden is a New York born rapper who is now retired but he is still active in the media through Love & Hip Hop New York reality TV series and his podcast. He is known for his beefs with Drake, Meek Mill and Migos.
Early years
Joe was born as Joseph Anthony Budden II. on August 31, 1980 in West Side Harlem in New York.
He was raised and has spent most of his childhood in Jersey City in New Jersey. The family relocated to Jersey but they first lived in Queens.
He grew up in the company of his four brothers. He has one older than him and three younger than him. Out of the younger, two are twins.
Since his early age he was interested in music and in having fun with his friends but he was never interested in school or in education of any kind.
He started using drugs very early, in elementary school, starting of with the use of weed. Highschool was also the place where Joe learned how to freestyle with his friends.
He dropped out of school early but later he decided that he had to gain his GED.
His mother didn’t want to tolerate his misbehaviour and the abuse of drugs so she confronted him when he was 17. They argued for hours but ended it very emotionally after which Joe decided to get a rehab. That was in the summer of 1997.
His parents were both addicts but if alcohol and they are both sober now.
In his later interviews he pointed out that he had big problems which involved pyromania and small robberies.
Since he loved music he chose rapping as a way to help himself in rehab so he continued freestyling after highschool.
He was a guest at some mixtapes of New York’s artists such as DJ Clue and DJ KaySlay.
Career development
His first bigger career move was in 2003, when he released his first studio album named after him: “Joe Budden”.
Album featured his big first hit which came before the album: it was “Pump It Up”, which was even nominated for a Grammy Award in 2003 but hasn’t received it.
He was nominated for “Rookie of the Year Award” the same year.
He became a household name real soon and started collaborations with various rappers.
This single became a huge hit and ended up on the soundtrack of “2 Fast 2 Furious”. It became a background for a lot of video games, f.e. “Def Jam Vendetta”.
“Fire” is the name of his 2nd single which featured a colleague rapper Bust Rhymes. This song was also used in a movie: it was in a teen comedy called “Mean Girls”.
“Drop Drop” was his 3rd single which ended on the “Cradle to the Grave” action film starring Jet Li and DMX.
He guest appeared on a song by Marques Houston called “Clubbin”. This single wasn’t a big success but Joe said that it was a great collab for him.
He had a contract with a record label “Def Jam” but the label didn’t want to release his 2nd album “The Growth” because they didn’t like his new direction in music.
In 2007 he joined Amalgam Digital, an independent Massachusetts record label which released his album “Padded Room”.
On his album “Halfway House” he collaborated with few artists (Joell Ortiz, Royce Da Sig, Crooked I,…) and they decided to continue their great collaboration by forming a rap group “Slaughterhouse”. It was titled after their first single.
In 2009 they released their album, again named “Slaughterhouse” which featured DJ Khalie and the Alchemist.
In 2011 the group had a lot of singles behind them so they signed to Shady Records the same year. Joe released his new mixtape “A loose quarter” in 2012, over a social platform called “A Loose Quarter”.
The group released their mixtape too: it was named “Welcome to: Our House”. It came as far as No. 1 and No. 2 hits for all the songs.
In 2012 Joe and the grouop signed to Shady Records, which was owned by a famous white rapper Eminem.
Budden always respected Eminem and him sticking to his style and roots no matter what.
Eminem, Cee Lo Green and B.O.B. are only a few famous personalities who guested on the album. “No Love Lost” is his 4th studio album and it came out in 2013 by E1 Music.
He collaborated with French Montana, Juicy J, Wiz Khalifa and many more on this album. This album came to top 20 on the Billboard 200 chart.
In 2013, he was asked to appear on a TV show called “Love & Hip Hop: New York” and was featured in seasons 3 and 4. This reality series brought him bigger attention because he was unaware how big fanbase this series had.
At this reality TV show he met his current girlfriend Cyn Santana.
His EP was named similar to his prior album “Some Love Lost”. This EP gained good critics.
In 2015 he released “F’em All” on Soundcloud. In 2014 he was a member of the rapp battle against Hollow Da Don. Hollow won the battle of the two..
Joe hosts his podcast which is interestingly name ” I’ll Name This Podcast Later” and he hosted “Everyday struggle” show. This aired in 2016/2017 and contained a diss track he made himself.
He no longer host this Complex’s Show from 2017, although he was very good at it and became popular. The reason for his departure seems to be a dissagreement over his contract.
He went on tours in 2016 and the same year he released his new album called “Rage & The Machine”. This album had quite a success and was released by AraabMuzik.
He helped produce a documentary “The Message” on BET TV.
Personal life
In 2010, he was sued by Hudson County because he stopped paying his child support. There was even an issue for his arrest. He has no contact with his son and after this event he continued to pay support for him.
He assaulted his girlfriend in 2014 and stole her cell phone. The newspapers stated that he viciously beat her up and even chocked her in a jealousy attack. It was never proven and he hasn’t served any time in jail.
He was an MDMA addict for years and that he is lucky that he has survived. He used to hallucinate and could even handle being awake for five-six days. He said that in that period of life “angel dust” was everything to him.
He had a beef with two known rappers and it lasted for years. The beef was started by Joe himself. He had a beef with Meek Mill and Drake. The beef with Meek Mill started over Twitter. The beef with Drake started online after Joe offended Drake’s album called “Views”.
After that Drake dissed him back in one song but that eventually leaded to Joe dissing Drake with four diss tracks in one month. Those were “Making a Murderer Part 1,” “Wake,” “Afraid,” and “Just Because”. The single “Wake” even had an embarrasing photo desicated to Drake.
Budden has a bad opinion about Drake’s music style and consideres it too far from the original rap Drake had in the past. Joe thinks Drake should move away from flerting to Pop Music.
He also often speaks about Migos, a rap group he dislikes.
This group landed an album with a photo of a white female and two men kissing which caused Drake to get up in the middle of the interview at BET Awards and go.
He says that Migos don’t have any respect for hip hop and it’s roots.
After that some arguments continued at the event and the police was cold out to guard the show.
He has a son named Trey and he is 16 years old. He was born in his former relationship and Joe broke up with his mother before the child was born. He hasn’t got any close relationship with his son.
Currently he is in a relationship with Cyn Santana, a known TV person and a star of the reality TV show “Love & Hip Hop”. They have a son together.
Cyn and Joe knew each other for six years but it was in the show that they felt connected in a different way. They are happy parents of their baby boy and Joe promised to keep his boy safe and away from problems he was involved in when he was a child.
In the summer of 2016 he was confronted by a group of Drake fans who came to his house and started filming him. He even chased them in his own car and started throwing rocks at him. He stopped them and made them apologize.
He was in relationship with Tahiry Jose, Latino Diva, with Yaris Sanchez, Esther Baxter and Kaylin Garcia.
He dated Tahiry Jose the longest, from 2005 – 2012, but it seems that she is genuinly happy for Joe and Cyna.
There are rumors that he signed a deal with Sean “Diddy” Combs Revolt TV.
He launched his own YouTube channel in 2015 and his most popular YouTube video was a Twitter beef with Nicki Minaj.
He was also a crew member for the “Couples Therapy” show in 2015 and in “Hip Hop Squares” in 2017.
He is a big fan of expensive vehicles and himself drives a Cadillac Escalade Platinum.
His known nicknames are Mouse and Joey Jumpoff.
Quick summary
Full name: Joe Anthony Budden II
Date of birth: August 31, 1980
Birthplace: Harlem, New York, United States
Age: 38
Profession: rapper, writer, lecturer, radio and TV host, producer
Height: 1,83 m
Weight: 78 kg
Net Worth: $2 million
