The truth hurts. No, seriously, it really does. During the making of his 2013 effort, No Love Lost, Joe Budden harnessed himself in a web of happiness and orgies. That decision befuddled fans and left them clamoring for the depressed Budden, who they learned to love over the years. After being harpooned by a bevy of tragedies, consisting of family issues, heartaches, and a failed suicide attempt, Joe penned everything down and returned with his Some Love Lost EP.

After letting a chilly instrumental serve as his intro, Joe segues into “The Way You Love Me”, where he quickly tackles his woeful relationship issues. “We had a couple of breakups, gotta to respect cousin / I’ll hit the reset button / You tried to reset button," said a perturbed Joe.

On “Only Human," Joe Budden drags his skeletons out of the closet and wheelbarrows them over to the studio, where he painfully crafts his most candid record to date. Thoughts of suicide consume Joe as he reveals his failed attempt in a dark and vivid manner. With Emanny crooning over the hook, Joe provides heart-wrenching bars sketching his near demise. “I’m tired of being strong; please let me be weak for a minute.” Then he speaks on almost pulling the trigger, but restraining himself because of the fear of hurting his mother. “I ain’t tell her just the other day that that gun was in my lap / Pen and pad in my hand and I was writing a note / Didn’t get far, as soon as I wrote down ‘mom’ / I just stopped, couldn’t lie to her, couldn’t figure out how to say bye to her.”

Joe continues his streak of melancholy-filled records with “Poker In The Sky” and “Ordinary Love Shit Pt. 4.” On “Poker In The Sky”, he raps about his grandfather’s troublesome bout with cancer, while on “Ordinary Love Shit Pt. 4”, he extends an olive branch to his ex-Tahiry in hopes of revitalizing their relationship.

While Some Love Lost serves as merely an appetizer to his upcoming album All Love Lost, Joe Budden’s anguish and candor on this project will do more than enough to hold over his ravenous fan base.—Carl Lamarre

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