Joe Budden – Mood Muzik 4 [Mixtape Download… or Not]

Here’s something small about something big. We cover Joe Budden here with a bit of a favorable bias, as the general consensus here is that he is dope, and had been underrated. Founder and Editor-in-Chief Manny Faces said so multiple times, most boldly in his editorial “God Damn You, Joe Budden,” recently reiterating his assertions in “New Joe Budden – “Inception,” or, For The Last Time, Stop Fronting On Joe Budden.”

So last night, while attending a few CMJ events, we noticed that a couple of prominent hip hop blogs had posted that Mood Muzik 4 had “arrived early” and of course, we were a big annoyed that we were all out on the town, and couldn’t republish this, as our audience has usually been favorable to our favorable coverage of Joe Budden.

Today, we were going to finally get that post up, but then something occurred to us. We had previously been informed that the “digital” version of Mood Muzik 4: A Turn 4 The Worst would be available October 23, with a physical version available for purchase November 6.

The blogs were ripe with words like “early” and “leak” and even a post in Joe Budden’s site’s messageboard asked the question, “is this an album or mixtape??” to which someone answered, “Album… No DJ, all original beats, and meant for you to buy….”

That got us to thinking. Is this an unauthorized leak? While it’s great that there is such demand (and, apparently, very good response), is the free distribution of the product something the Joe Budden camp approves of?

So, we did what I can almost guarantee 99% of other online publications, blogs, etc., don’t do.

We asked.

The reply from our inquiry to Joe Budden’s camp, came back simply stating that “it is for sale,” which still could mean that they are fine with the leak. We’re still not sure, so, in either case, if you want to find it, we’re sure you can. We just figured it was a good time to state that we support largely independent artists, and their art and their business. And while we do play the post-up-a-leaked-song game here and there, we know that a majority of those times, there is no objection to such from artists and labels, a bait-and-switch for promotional value.

But for a full body of work, clearly one that is to be sold, to be freely distributed by the very blogs and websites that claim to value and cater to our hip hop sensibilities, we feel is wrong. And we promise today to never participate in that.

We are not the “super exclusive we got it before the artist even recorded it” hip hop site, or the “show you only the dramatic shit no matter how ignorant it is” site. We deliver you New York area hip hop news, artists, events and organizations, past, present and future, and strive to do so with an air of journalistic integrity. We cover indie artists, mid-level artists and mainstream artists, who are from our region of the world, one that we proudly share as the Birthplace of Hip Hop. We hope that these ethics mean something to some people, and that those people will ride with us because we have many stories to tell, and can use all the loyal support and word of mouth we can get.

Rant over. Buy Joe Budden’s shit. Peace.

The Making of Joe Budden’s Mood Muzik 4 from Dan M on Vimeo.