Joe Budden Albums (3)
What The Critics Say
Gruff rapper Joe Budden's conquest of 2009 continued with Escape Route, an album released the same year as his hit full-length, Padded Room, along with the debut from his supergroup Slaughterhouse. Escape Route is labeled as a precursor to his 2010 album, The Great Escape, but save a rocky flow plus a couple tracks that are B- at worst, this hardly feels like a stop-gap release. You wouldn't expect to declare a track dubbed "Intro" a highlight, but with a Requiem for a Dream sample and cold killer punch lines like "Life's a bitch/I'm just lookin' up her dress," this generically titled juggernaut is Budden at his best. The regretful "Never Again" sounds like the unlikely pairing of Mobb Deep and any given emo band, while the stately "State of You" takes a much more Hollywood approach to despair, and along with the "Intro," suggests the rapper has been digging on soundtracks of late. Most of these dramatic creations come from producer Jared F with a handful of helpers -- the Worxxx, Chad West, and Streetrunner -- making worthwhile contributions. Budden's years stuck in contract negotiation limbo gave him plenty of time to store up material, but his third release of the year is almost as strong as his first triumphs of 2009. Poll the hip-hop faithful for opinions on Escape Route, and Budden himself would be the only one underselling it as a minor release. ~ David Jeffries, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
A well-known veteran of the New York mixtape scene, Joe Budden was no rookie when he recorded his self-titled debut album. The Jersey City rapper had worked the mixtape circuit relentlessly, freestyling over all kinds of beats, everything from Timbaland ("Work It") to the Neptunes ("Grindin'") to the usual East Coast fare. His workmanlike presence earned him quite a reputation, among the leading mixtape DJs like Kayslay and Cutmaster C as well as among the scene itself, and led to his eventual signing by Def Jam, an increasingly conservative label that generally only deals with long-established artists. But all of this fanfare belies the fact that Budden is far from your typical East Coast rap sensation and is actually quite noncommercial. Unlike, for instance, 50 Cent, another rapper who initially made his name on the mixtape scene before debuting in 2003 with much fanfare, Budden doesn't rap about guns, drugs, or violence; furthermore, he's not anyone's protégé, he's not particularly fashionable, and he's not into beefing. Yet while he's not gangsta, he's nowhere near backpack either. He raps about himself and is good-natured and often humorous, and he raps in a fluctuating, conversational flow over beats by an unknown producer who bills himself as White Boy. In sum, Budden is one of those very few major-label rappers who is truly an anomaly, and that itself makes him noteworthy. His 75-minute debut album is wonderfully all-encompassing: there are a pair of radio-ready Just Blaze productions ("Pump It Up," "Fire"), a pair of urban-crossover duets ("She Wanna Know," "Ma Ma Ma"), a couple deep tracks that showcase his heart ("Walk with Me," "Stand Up Nucca," "10 Mins."), a BDP-sampling ode to the old school ("#1"), a roof-raising club-banger ("Focus"), and more. Budden's debut isn't quite an instant classic, as he's still better at freestyling verses that crafting hooks, and the album could use a couple more non-White Boy productions, if only for the sake of variety, but it's nonetheless promising, an omen of a greater things to come, for Budden as well as for listeners. [The standard edition includes two bonus tracks, "Real Life in Rap" and "Porno Star," that are rather profane and thus excluded from the clean edition.] ~ Jason Birchmeier, All Music Guide
