Joe Budden : Highly Underrated

I don't listen to the radio and I haven't for a long time now. The last song I remember listening to on the radio was "Stay Fly" by Cash Money Records recording artists Manie Fresh & Baby. The lyrics of the song pissed me off to the point I vowed never to turn on the radio again, nor will I spend my free time watching the same music videos on BET & MTV over and over again.

I turned to mix tapes and my previous rap CD's to feed my hunger for lyrical MC's and that is when I came across New Jersey native Joe Buddens freshman album entitled Joe Budden. I had heard Joe Buddens summer hit "Pump It Up" blaring on the radio and was less than impressed at his attempt to sell records with the now coined phrase "Jump Off". Reluctantly I put in the CD anyway and was instantly impressed with what I heard, I was hooked ever since.

Since that time I have purchased and downloaded everything Joe Budden has put his voice on but it was his Mood Muzik 2 mix tape that I realized that, like Mos Def, Joe Budden is extremely underrated. Joe Buddens has an extreme talent of lyrical content, word play, the usage of punch lines, creating original concepts and more importantly his stamina. He raps for lengthy amounts of time and is able to contain your attention because before you can begin to astray the next line grabs and shakes you up.

Overall I love his debut album, I got to know who Joe Budden is because his album consisted of songs like Calm Down and 10 minutes which gives you a personal insight of the life of an MC outside the rap smoke and mirrors that cloud the average artist. Joe Budden succeeds where most rappers don't because of the stamina he displays on his mix tape freestyles and songs not to mention his content is full of passion.

On Mood Muzik 2 Joe Budden has a song called Dumb Out. Dumb Out is a straight seven-minute song of nothing but pure unadulterated lyrical skill. There are no stops, no pauses and most of all there are no choruses. The song is filled with so many memorable lines that the entire song can be entered in the Source Magazine in the Hip-Hop Quotable section. That kind of content is displayed throughout the entire CD.