Joe Budden

Artist: Joe Budden
Album: Mood Muzik 3
Record label: Amalgam Digital
Rating: 4 stars
Reviewer: Alexander Fruchter


Mark it down! Joe Budden convinced me. For a long time I've been hearing and reading about the immense talents of Joe Budden, wondering aloud if I may have missed something from the Jersey emcee. It's clear now that I have, as Joe Budden's Mood Muzik 3 is a paranoid, frantic record in which Joe straps listeners in and takes them on a ride into the depth of the human condition. Budden channels Gene Wilder and makes Mood Muzik 3 mirror the scene in which Wonka's visitors discover that everything's not just candy and smiles in Wonkaland. But it's too late, they're hooked, and there's no turning back. If nothing else, Mood Muzik 3 stays in the stereo, because listeners wonder just how gully, and grimy Budden can bring it?

The album's first song, "Dear Diary" pretty much seals the deal, and locks the doors. The song, which takes the form of a journal entry, is no hooks, and no breaks. It brings up an image of a slightly unhinged Budden who's pen and hand just can't move fast enough to match his brain. He doesn't know what else to do beyond venting everything into the understanding pages of his diary. He raps, "I would down a whole bottle of Pinot Grig, but I've seen the Group Home without the Primo beats." Indeed, Budden's troubled past provides the inspiration for a majority of the material on Mood Muzik 3. And during "Dear Diary" Budden asks his journal almost rhetorical questions, bouts of reflection that leave very much still to be resolved.

He continues on the track, "n***as ain't hungry as you then why feed'em? N***as ain't tryin' to be led, then why lead'em? Having problems with your dogs, then why breed'em?"

He also questions his relationship with his son's mother, and his own feelings of anger regarding the situation. "Dear Diary how can she deny me? How she go to bed without it f**king with her psyche? Is she wrong using him so I could back, or am I wrong for wishing I could have my cum back?"

"Dear Diary" puts it all out on the table. The issues brought up in this first song convey and define Joe Budden's mood, and his mood is not a light one. The album's intensity continues on "Hiatus," a song that starts with missed phone calls, deleted messages, and many Budden supporters wondering what's going on? Budden raps about a time in which the fire was burned out, friends were gone, and he saw opportunities slip away. He spits, "Friends came, friends left, bulls**t is endless, then next, Hip Hop, really not, impressed, maybe just my love died...I cried till I can't cry no more, believe my own nonsense, I can't lie no more, so damn breathless I can't sigh no more, the wheels already fell off, I can't ride no more."

What resulted was a long and arduous walk back into Hip Hop's elite. Budden's appeal and favor with fans is his honesty and his ability to turn perceived vulnerability into daunting strength. It's not that Joe Budden has mastered all his demons, but he has somewhat befriended them and learned their secrets. Budden puts his past demons on display further in the chilling track, "5th Gear," which employs a very fitting Metallica sample. Joe raps, "That's my depression talking, maybe it's really real, maybe them doctors was right, and maybe I'm really ill, see I can't really chill, without me feeling the guilt of stealing these pills, is anybody feeling me still?"

That kind of honesty and simultaneous lyricism is not found much in Hip Hop these days, and it is refreshing in all it's darkness, and humanism. But Budden is not all psych ward and anxiety medication.

Budden opens it up to Joell Ortiz on the track "Warfare," and the duo turn in another highlight of the album. Rather than doing the traditional 'verse a piece' dichotomy, Ortiz and Budden trade scathing punchlines, with Ortiz perhaps stealing the show with the following: "I was really in the lobby with the grams trying to take Guap, in the hallway all day either it is or it ain't hot, listening to 9 like 'what do they got,' that I don't, with a blindfold I'll see everyone they say's hot, it's too easy, I'm feeling like I'm a cheater, my flow's heavy, yours is light like a slice of pita, when mom's was pregnant she was lighting reefer, that's why I'm nice, in the middle of Alaska I'll writer a heater...."

"Star Inside" is further departure from the rest of the album, and actually is, dare I say, feel good track? "This ain't about rap, if you ain't come to feel good we're going to do it without ya, too low, turn the music louder."

The album is not without its faults. "Family Reunion," drags on as it comes in at an obese 6:52, and really serves to take the focus away from Joe, rather than compliment him with other emcees. Friend/foe, Ransom turns in a ridiculously fresh verse, but the rest are just taking airtime. At parts, Joe's cynicism can weigh heavy, but overall, the artistry pushes each track - Soundslam Reviews