Joe Budden Vs. Method Man

By now, it has been widely reported that Method Man and a slew of other Wu-Tang and non-Wu-Tang rappers took offense to an interview in which Joe Budden claimed that he was capable of winning a battle with Method Man. Now, every rapper has a right to their opinion about their skills. Hip-hop is built on braggadocio, and countless artists create self-aggrandizing monikers that fans either immediately or eventually buy into - look at the "best rapper alive" and "god emcee" Jay-Z or the "King of the South" T.I.

But the thing is Method Man comes from an era wherein you got a record deal in no small part because of your skills rather than a local buzz created by MySpace or the creative use of autotune. Lyrically, the nineties were much tougher. And if you said something slick to another rapper, you were likely to have to battle right then and there, and if not, you might get jumped on or off-stage.

The issue is not whether Joe Budden is entitled to his opinion, but when you deal with nineties rappers, a hypothetical challenge is still a challenge. If he said that to his Slaughterhouse compatriots in the privacy of a studio, fine, but the minute he said it on radio, it became a completely different story.

This is not an issue of rappers being too sensitive. Throughout the eighties and nineties lyrical battles were a prevalent part of the culture, and so you cannot expect an emcee from that period not to be ready to tear your head off lyrically at the first sign of offense. Now, Budden is nice and Method Man has always been nice so I cannot call it if both of them were to head up to Fight Klub tonight and duke it out on the mic. But Budden should understand that saying that he can outrap an elite emcee is never a hypothetical.

I'm a fan of Joe's but I think he really should spend some more time focusing on his own career than people's opinions of his role in hip-hop, which he has been overly concerned with as of late. Artistic maturity is achieved when you create records that adhere to your artistic standards that become popular. You know what you are getting with a Scarface or a Common record for example, and neither of them has to follow trends like Autotune or regional instrumentals in order for people to want to hear their records. Joe is not at that level yet, as his sales reflect. There are many hip-hop fans who simply cannot name five post-2003 Joe Budden songs and that is a shame. But the records that he makes are generally not too accessible to casual hip-hop fans, and mixtapes do not mean much in an oversaturated market.

Joe Budden has a lot of potential to leave a lasting impact in hip-hop, but his focus should be on making records that can elevate his profile, rather than ruminating publicly on his role in hip-hop. But now that Pandora's box has been opened, I am all for a Slaughterhouse/Wu-Tang lyrical collision, which, hypothetically speaking, could generate some real interest in lyrical hip-hop again.

Sources

Cyrus Langhorne, Method Man To Joe Budden, "Stop Being A Cry Baby", SOHH