Joe Budden has confirmed he's not considering coming out of retirement to hit back at Eminem, who targeted him in recent diss tracks.
The rapper-turned-hip-hop commentator insisted during an interview with HipHopDX he won't "dust off the microphone", after stating he's "been better than [Eminem] this entire f**king decade".
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Eminem attacked Budden in two tracks on his recent Kamikaze album, 'The Ringer' and 'Fall'. That came after Budden harshly criticised his 2017 album Revival, despite the pair working together on ensemble rap group Slaughterhouse.
Budden is also taunted by Eminem in 'Killshot', his diss track aimed at Machine Gun Kelly (MGK).
But the 'Pump It Up' hitmaker isn't taking the bait and responding with his own diss track.
"I wouldn't do it. I wouldn't want to dust off the microphone and get in the studio strictly to respond to two bars," Budden told HipHopDX.
"I think that would contradict my retirement and all the work that I've done up to this point.
"I'm not just going to the studio to give somebody else the benefit of saying 'Yeah, Joe responded.' I'm retired, I mean it."
Eminem discussed at length the origins of his beef with Budden in a recent interview.
In lyrics on Kamikaze, Eminem threatens Budden to stop trash-talking, or face potentially lethal consequences. He also criticises Budden over domestic violence charges he faced in the past, mocked his lack of hit songs and suggests his greatest talent is critiquing superior rapper's talents.
In 'Killshot' - the track which appears to have triumphantly ended his feud with MGK - Eminem asks "Who else wants it? Budden?" before pre-emptively labelling any potential comeback an 'L', or loss.
Budden discussed Eminem's disses on him on his podcast, claiming he's a better rapper and that there's been no depth to the 'Not Afraid' rapper's lyrics for the last 10 years.
"Let me tell you what Joe Budden has thought this entire time - I've been better than you this entire f**king decade," he said, referring to himself in the third person.
"In my rapper brain, I'm a content n***a. You gotta say something! You have not said anything for the better part of a whole f**king decade! You have rhymed a bunch of words."
Meanwhile, rapper CyHi The Prynce is also challenging Budden to come out of retirement for a rap battle, even saying he'd bet US$500,000 on it.
On his podcast, Budden responded saying the freestyle was "great" but that he doubted CyHi The Prynce had that sort of money.
"CyHi, I have half a million dollars, and I'll clean your ass up," Budden says.
Newshub.
