Well, that escalated quickly.
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In the last couple of months, The Joe Budden Podcast has been derailed by marital discord. Going into business with friends is never easy, and the turmoil surrounding the popular show has clearly impacted Budden and his co-hosts Rory Farrell and Jamil “Mal” Clay.
In March, Rory and Mal’s frustrations drove them to take a “hiatus” from the show that I reported on as such:
For the past two months, the former Slaughterhouse member has been ensnared in a cold war with his co-hosts Rory Farrell and Jamil “Mal” Clay. Details have been murky, but as we previously reported at The Root, it would appear that the root of their acrimony mirrors The Lox’s debut album: money, power, and respect. As such, Rory and Mal have abstained from appearing on the show for weeks now, while substitute teachers Ice and Ish have filled in admirably on the fly.
However, in April, they were all able to resolve whatever lingering issues they had—or so it seemed—when, to the surprise of their fans, they announced their peace treaty with a single picture that would later serve as podcast cover art:
And then today happened.
In the latest episode of The Joe Budden Podcast, which, for the first time ever, is only available exclusively on Patreon, Mr. “Pump It Up” went the entire fuck off on his co-hosts and announced that their popular podcast, as currently configured, would be no more.
In this episode, which was preceded by another ominous week-long hiatus, the Slaughterhouse member tore into Rory and Mal—who were noticeably absent yet again—for their “dark energy, arrogance, and entitlement.”
“I’ma come clean,” Budden began, explaining why he took a quick vacation to Los Angeles. “I thought that I would get some firm answers behind the scenes from emails that have been transpiring between attorneys and just different people.”
He then called out the two for a myriad of transgressions, including their failure to secure advertisement deals for the podcast, their requests for equity in the show, and audits they wanted to conduct in order to properly assess Budden’s finances.
It’s... a lot.
“You niggas ain’t brought shit!” he snaps. “And got the nerve to have y’all representation that ain’t been around in six years hit [Budden’s manager] Ian’s phone about something?! I won’t say what I want to say! But y’all will not continue to treat me this way.”
He continued, “We gonna do this since Rory thinks he has so many options here. He somehow feels like he’s still running the show. He still feels like he has choices and options, he feels like he’s entitled to more. Rory, you are in breach of your contract and from this point forward you are fired and you’re not welcome back!”
Budden then asserts that he’ll be perfectly fine without Rory and Mal’s services.
“Business is good over here, creative is good over here, the staff is good over here, the network is good over here, the sponsors are good over here!” he snaps. “You niggas can audit, you niggas can sue! You will lose!”
He continued, “We sit here and talk about ‘respect, respect, respect.’ When are we gonna talk about you niggas having the same lawyer?! [...] Your lawyer has all these problems with the current contract. It’s the same lawyer that made the contract! I don’t play lawyer games! And I don’t do well when people try to take advantage of me!”
Whew, shit. Like I said, it’s a lot.
And in case there’s any doubt that things are over between him and his former co-hosts, Budden took to Twitter to make things abundantly clear:
Naturally, this whole debacle has created absolute chaos. All over the Twittersphere, fans (and Slack chats) are divided as they process the abrupt demise of one of the most popular podcasts out.
It’s unclear how the show will proceed moving forward, but as long as Joe Budden is at the helm, things will always be as volatile as they are entertaining.
Straight From 
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