Joe Budden Talks Slaughterhouse Show, Close Relationship With Fans

After tearing down New York club S.O.B.’s last night along with his Slaughterhouse co-horts, XXLmag.com chopped it up with New Jersey native Joe Budden to find out what went down and why he thinks his fans are different than other rappers'.

Slaughterhouse – the newly-formed, rap supergroup consisting of JB, Crooked I, Joell Ortiz and Royce Da 5’9” – took to the stage for the first time together last night and according to a hoarse-voiced Budden the show went “great.” “I mean those guys are phenomenal in their own right,” he said of his group mates. “For us to come together and do that last night, there was a couple of technical difficulties with the sound and shit like that, but I think we made the best of it and put a good show [for the people] that came out and paid their hard earned money.”

Fans that couldn’t make it out last night were excited over the news that the show would be streamed live online, but things didn’t go as planned. “I didn’t even find that out until this morning,” he explained. “Apparently the problem with the internet connection in the venue that I had them check on prior to the show, and for some reason last night through everybody’s efforts it still didn’t work.”

Despite his ongoing beef with Saigon, Budden doesn’t believe the hype had anything to do with yesterday’s turnout. “I didn’t benefit from that all,” he said. “I think all of them same people would have showed without any of that back and forth on wax."

Joey has a point. He is known for having some of the most die-hard fans. XXL asked him what's the science behind his following. “I think over the years I just developed a friendship of sorts with my fans and a relationship more so then just fan/artist, artist/fan,” he shared. “I really think that the artwork and feeling and the emotion and devotion that I put into it resonates and rubs off on them and is therapeutic for them also.”

In related news, an alleged truce between him and Budden sparked by a message left by Just Blaze in his Twitter account arose on Wednesday. Budden also told hip-hop personality Miss Info that they got on the phone, yet when XXL spoke to Sai, he vehemently denied it, saying the beef is still on. Asked to speak on the controversy JB laughed and said “No comment.”

Budden’s upcoming album Padded Room is scheduled to hit stores on February 24th on Amalgam Digital.- Jesse Gissen