Joe Budden has issued a response to Method Man after the Wu-Tang Clan legend said he once planned to “snuff” the rapper-turned-podcaster.
Back in 2009, Budden questioned Meth’s placement on Vibe’s Best Rappers Of All Time list. This ignited a feud between the pair that eventually turned physical when Raekwon and his crew assaulted Budden backstage at Rock the Bells festival in 2010.
During a conversation with Math Hoffa on his barbershop interview series My Expert Opinion, Meth noted the whole ordeal was entirely avoidable but revealed he’d planned to “snuff” Budden long before Rae got to him, but that he didn’t because of a conversation they had.
Responding on the latest episode of the Joe Budden Podcast, Budden said: “At first I heard that interview and I said, ‘I think he’s got the timeline off’. But no, he didn’t. Him and I had that Jones Beach talk and after that is when that [Rock the Bells] shit happened in L.A., and listening to Meth, he said: ‘Well, no ’cause Joe would have already got a warning when we had our conversation.’”
Budden went on to recall that Meth had also pointed out that the “Pump It Up” rapper gave an interview shortly after their talk, and in that interview he continued to insult Wu-Tang Clan. Budden denied this claim.
“Him and I had that talk, we had a real talk,” Budden said. “I speak really highly of that conversation to this day and it learnt me a little bit. It learnt me some things. But the way the internet worked, I did an old interview before this conversation and they just happened to drop it after this. But after listening to this [Math Hoffa interview], I still don’t think he knows that.”
The way Method Man remembers it, he had warned Budden after their conversation that if any other slander were to come out about his Wu-Tang brethren, there would be nothing he could do for him.
“It got to a point where I’m talking to him like, ‘You a talented motherfucker,” Meth explained. “You don’t need to go this route with all that dumb shit. But I’m telling you, after this moment, if there’s any more bullshit, my hands are tied. I don’t know if he acknowledged that shit now that I think about it. I don’t think he did, because later on that day, he did some kind of interview or some shit like that, or some freestyle or something. He named [Inspectah] Deck and he named Rae.”
He continued: “I think he came from that environment where that’s what n-ggas did, but it was never taken to a point where somebody put hands on somebody. You know how n-ggas talk amongst each other and shit, ‘Fuck you, bitch ass n-gga.’ In a different kind of setting though, fighting words, period. Joe, like I said, he’s just a smart motherfucker and that shit could have been so avoided, ’cause I spoke to him, me and him spoke. He knows this shit.”
Watch Method Man’s full conversation with Math Hoffa below: