Rapper-turned-podcaster Joe Budden has addressed the rumour that Jay-Z once asked him for $250k in exchange for a verse.
The rumour has been in circulation for many years, and relates to Budden’s 2003 hit, ‘Pump It Up’. After it became a popular song, his team reached out to ‘Hov’ to provide a remix of the track with a new verse but the mammoth fee put their plans to a halt. However, now Budden has revealed he never spoke directly to Jay-Z and doesn’t know the precise figure he asked for.
“That’s the rumour. That’s a rumour. I didn’t personally ask him. I couldn’t personally speak to him,” he said on the latest episode of Drink Champs. “At the time I’m not ranting anywhere. I just don’t know how to receive that. I just know that I don’t have 250 grand, I think Webb put the battery in my back. [He said], ‘You gon’ let him do that? Nah, you gotta get to the studio right now!’”
He added: “I don’t think that was a big number, I think that was his number. ‘That’s my number to rap on this new artist’s remix.’ It was just big in my world, but it wasn’t a big number.”
Budden continued: “Listen, I’m super young in that moment. I wasn’t in the studio when [Skane] had the conversation. I knew that they had some type of relationship. It was a Just Blaze beat, and I was green behind the ears. I just thought that it would get done. I didn’t know anything about the business and how things like that are supposed to go. That was par the course… It was big to me because it was unattainable… but the blessing was that he gave a number.”
Watch the podcast below.
