Credit: Alamy

It is well known that rappers often charge extortionate prices for verses, and sometimes, it is quite simply out of reach. Some MCs are so inaccessible that they don’t even charge and instead offer free verses to people with whom they have a long and meaningful relationship. However, during his prime, Jay-Z was happy to appear on anyone’s song as long as the money was right. Unfortunately, one rapper who asked for a feature found Jay’s fee outrageous.

Of course, Jay-Z is widely regarded as one of the greatest lyricists of all time and was one of hip-hop’s first billionaires. His appearance on a song significantly boosts its profile, and collaborating with him lends substantial credibility to the artist.

However, in 2003, when Joe Budden asked Jay-Z to feature on the remix of his hit single ‘Pump It Up’, Hov hit him with a hefty price tag. Budden’s self-titled album peaked at number eight on the Billboard 200, but its most successful track only just managed to scrape into the top 40.

The Just Blaze-produced track had initially been presented to Jay, who turned it down, but when Budden made a hit, he wanted the biggest rap star on his track. However, during an appearance on the Flip Da Script podcast, the New Jersey musician admitted that after seeing the price tag of $250,000, he had to turn it down because he couldn’t afford it.

Speaking to the hosts QueenzFlip and DJ Gmoney, Budden recalled the failed collab, explaining, “I don’t think [$250,000] was a big number; I think that was his number. [Jay told me], ‘That’s my number to rap on this new artist’s remix.’” Budden admitted that in the industry, $250,000 is a standard fee, but for a new artist, it is simply unaffordable. Concerning the unremarkable figure, Budden added, “It was just big in my world, but it wasn’t a big number”.

The ‘Give Me a Reason’ rapper also accepted that, during that period, he was naïve, very inexperienced and utterly oblivious to the workings of the music industry. Opening up about his naïveté, Budden stated, “Listen, I’m super young in that moment. I wasn’t in the studio when [Jay and Budden’s A&R 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.”

He continued: “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.” However, what gave Budden a kick in the teeth was the fact that shortly after its release, Jay-Z recorded a freestyle over the beat, with many claiming he outdid Budden on his own song. Many saw it as a conniving way to steal the new emcee’s thunder.

In 2022, during a sit down with Kevin Hart for his Peacock TV series Hart to Heart, Budden accused Jay-Z of stalling his career and insisted that after the ‘Pump It Up’ remix debacle, when Hov was promoted to the position of president at Def Jam, he blocked his second album.

Budden’s sophomore album was shelved for years, and Budden believed it was because of the strained relationship between the two. However, Budden said that he was just oblivious to the politics of the industry, concluding, “I didn’t know anything back in the day, and when you don’t know enough, all there is to do is feel, to just be sensitive to things, be reactionary to things! If you don’t know. I didn’t know shit about shit”.