Jay-Z explained in a recent interview that he “never” charges for guest features, but works off relationships instead. However, Joe Budden had an entirely different experience when he attempted to get Hov on a verse.
The retired rapper turned podcaster recalled the time he tried to get a Jay-Z verse during a recent episode of Queenzflip and DJ G Money’s Flip Da Script podcast. Budden wanted the Hip-Hop mogul on the remix to his 2003 hit “Pump It UP,” but Hov quoted his A&R a price of $250,000.
“I don’t think that was a big number, I think that was his number,” Joe Budden explained in a clip released on YouTube. “‘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.”
‘Pump It Up”
Budden continued, explaining he really had no clue how the industry worked back then. “Listen, again, I’m super young in that moment. I wasn’t in the studio when [Jay and Budden’s A&R Skane] had the conversation,” he added. “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 for the course.”
Ultimately, he didn’t have the quarter million dollars Jay-Z asked for, and so he couldn’t secure the feature. “It was big to me because it was unattainable,” Budden explained. “It was outside of my budget, but the blessing was that he gave a number.”
Nonetheless, Jay-Z was evidently a fan of the beat and would end up dropping a freestyle over the beat a month after Joe Budden released the official version. Hov’s freestyle appeared on his 2003 mixtape, The S. Carter Collection. He used the freestyle as an opportunity to fire back at the subliminal shots Budden had aimed at him. Check out the episode below.
Joe Budden Talks Jay-Z Charging $250k For ‘Pump It Up’ Remix
