Earlier this week, an alternate version of Eminem’s feature on his Conway the Machine collaboration, “Bang,” surfaced online, in which Em takes shots at Joe Budden. The New Jersey rapper addressed the leaked verse on The Joe Budden Podcast and said he wasn’t going to get upset about an old verse. Budden added that there are more important things to be focused on than his on-and-off beef with Em.
“Listen, I was 100 percent prepared to come on here and scream on Paul [Rosenberg] cause I thought Paul leaked this,” Budden explained. “I was prepared to come on here and tell Paul and Em to read the room. Now’s not the time for all of that. But this is an old verse."
The retired rapper continued by alluding to “behind-the-scenes conversations” that led him to believe that Em and Budden’s former group, Slaughterhouse, were trying to mend fences with him.
“I don’t think anybody’s on that right now. I don’t think Em is on that. I don’t think my Slaughterhouse brothers is on that. I don’t think anybody is on that side is on that right this second,” Budden said. “I’m going to assume we were taking some baby steps to try to reach unity with some of the behind-the-scenes conversations that were taking place. So, nah, this is not 35-year-old Joe that’s going to come and just f-ck everything up ‘cause I’m mad about some old sh-t.”
Budden explained that there are more important things to be concerned about, like the ongoing civil unrest in the US in response to the killing of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police officers, as well as other recent incidents of police brutality that led to the deaths of Rayshard Brooks and Breonna Taylor.
“That’s not really where the focus is right now,” he said. “That’s not where our concern is, or where it should be. It’s way too much important sh-t going on right now. Even if I was going to come in here and start screaming, I’m not rapping, so that’s not fun. Nothing about this is fun. It’s more power in the unity.”
For his part, Em released a statement expressing similar thoughts about the leak in response to an explicit tweet from Diddy’s cable channel, Revolt, which he also dissed on the track.
On the leaked verse, Em aims Budden by referencing the former Slaughterhouse rapper’s infamously contentious interview with Migos at the 2017 BET Awards:
Wasted tissue, tell this journalist stick to the stuff he knows
Like always runnin' from Migos
Here a mic, there a mic
Everywhere a mic, share and share alike
But just don’t compare alike
Instead of comparin' me, pick a fair fight
At the time when “Bang” was released, Em was already engaged in a feud with Budden, his former Shady Records signee who has frequently criticized Em’s recent output on his Spotify podcast. Eminem first went after Joe on 2018’s “Fall,” rapping:
Somebody tell Budden before I snap, he better fasten it
Or have his body bag get zipped
The closest thing he’s had to hits is smackin’ b-tches
Although Em continued with more recent tracks like “Lock It Up” from Music to Be Murdered By, Budden has resisted the urge to come out of retirement.
“The same way I feel like [Eminem] should stop dissing Lord Jamar, he should stop dissing me,” Budden said, on a previous episode of his podcast. “We had our exchange. It’s over. In 2020, I can’t harbor negativity not only towards one of the best rappers, but somebody I’m not angry at. That’s what I gotta stop doin’. I don’t be mad at the people I come in and kill. There’s no hostility after that.”
Read all the lyrics to the alternate and original versions of Conway’s “Bang” featuring Eminem on Genius now.
