Joe Budden — Joe Budden

Debut studio album by Joseph Budden, New York-born rapper, raised in Jersey City, New Jersey. After a brief period on the mixtape circuit, he signed with Def Jam in 2002, which launched him by placing Just Blaze to set the beat for his one-hit "Pump It Up". The track goes strong in the charts and is protected by executives who reserve it a hot spot at the 2004 Grammys, where it loses to "Lose Yourself". The label packs a 76-minute album ready for the charts: second among rnb records, in the top ten of the Billboard 200, it's also good on the other side of the Atlantic.

Joe Budden spits bars like he's been forcibly pulled out of the rnb scene, he sounds like a singer, his rap style is slow, weak, sluggish and lacking in energy. Just Blaze also produces the other single ("Fire", with Busta Rhymes) and a forgettable third song ("Give Me Reason"), Lofey is credited with a ten-minute track in which the boy leaves personal outbursts, all the rest is under the management of White Boy, a friend of the rapper with whom he has been working for years. The music doesn't sound good most of the time, the drum is cheap, the samples are poor and weak: some tracks are good for a couple of minutes, then they start to get annoying.

You can perceive the absence of a real budget in the construction of this LP, finances that were all used for the guests (the aforementioned Busta, Lil' Mo and 112), construction of the singles, and promotion of the record. Joe Budden struggles with this rap thing — "this game is meant to select circle few, select few" — but he does very well in his field, rnb ballads, where he's truly versed, relaxed and without pressure, and produces its best results with an accelerated spoken-word delivery style, almost rap, but not yet rap ("Walk with Me", "Calm Down"). Side note: pretty weird Christgau guesses the review better than the hip-hop insiders, which disappoint again. 2/10.