Free Joe Budden...Release The Growth

This is a petition I wrote for Def Jam to release Joe Budden's second cd The Growth. Joe Budden is one of the rap game's best kept secrets, with many not realizing his lyrical prowess and insight. If you buy his first cd, you will know what I mean...it is the only thing I remember from the summer of 2003. Check out Joe Budden's recent tracks "Broken Wings Freestyle" and "Club Song". Here it is:

This petition is committed to ensuring that Joe Budden's long awaited sophomore effort, entitled “The Growth”, is released some time in the near future. It has been over 3 years since Joe Budden's debut entitled "Joe Budden" was released in the summer of 2003, consisting of the hit singles "Pump It Up" and "Fire", as well as the rest of the album's extremely deep lyrics that gave insight into the man that is Joe Budden, which as loyal hip-hop fans realize, is very rare for a rapper to do. Ever since then, thousands of loyal fans have been awaiting Joe Budden's next opus, knowing that it will most likely be a classic LP, as the standards have been set high by his debut effort. Unfortunately, as with most up-and-coming lyricists in the game, Joe Budden was seen as a threat by many in the rap industry, including but not limited to the current president of Def Jam Records, Shawn Carter aka Jay-Z. The two took subliminal jabs through freestyles at one another shortly after Budden's debut, and things have not been copasetic ever since. Further causing Budden to become black-balled in the industry was his highly publicized beef with G-Unit. G-Unit's ability to sell records mixed together with their campaign to put Budden's career to a halt furthered the industry's efforts in black-balling Joe Budden permanently. Despite all this, Joe Budden went to work on his sophomore effort entitled “The Growth” almost immediately after he was done promoting his debut album. Def Jam did indeed slate his sophomore release for June 2005; however, it was pushed back due to Budden's dissatisfaction with the final product and his willingness to go back into the studio to perfect the album, after all he is a perfectionist. Def Jam picked the Nate Dogg assisted "Gangsta Party" as the first single, another decision Joe Budden second guessed, but he went along with it for the album's sake. Unfortunately, the label still didn't know how to market the Joe Budden to the masses, even after it slated an August release date in 2005, and so, the album was indefinitely pushed back again. However, as most rap fans realize, it is nearly impossible to keep a great rapper down. While his album laid on the shelf, Joe Budden decided to take his career into his own hands by teaming up with DJ On Point and releasing a mixtape entitled "Mood Muzik: Can It Get Any Worse?". This of course came after the success of his last mixtape, entitled "The Worst of Joe Budden", which he released after being upset with his labels lack of promotion of his product once the album was pushed back the first time. “Mood Muzik” was a tremendous success, and of course, the fans that waited for so long for his second album were temporarily content with this release. However, it was not long before Budden was in the studio again capitalizing off of the success of the mixtape and soon, his next mixtape and collaboration with DJ On Point entitled "Mood Muzik 2" was complete. Upon its release, the album was acclaimed by critics and received incredibly favorable reviews in articles in the New York Times, XXL, Scratch Magazine, and was actually labeled "one of the greatest mixtapes of all time" by Scratch Magazine. The mixtape is considered to be better than 95% of the albums that came out in 2005 by most rap critics, and is actually seen as more of an independent LP than a mixtape because of its unbelievable quality and production. After the release of this mixtape, Budden's buzz was at an all-time high, and still remains so. Fans are getting anxious and growing weary of Jay-Z for heavily promoting and marketing rappers such as Rick Ross and Young Jeezy for their commercial appeal, and ignoring Joe Budden simply because they refuse to put in the work to market the man known as "the real rapper's rapper" because they don't know how to do so. Fans now await the release of "Mood Muzik part 3" and wonder if "The Growth" has been permanently shelved and will ever be released. Thus, the purpose of this petition is to avoid the shelving of "The Growth" due to the tremendous effect Joe Budden has had on the rap scene since his arrival, and the need for his influence within the rap industry to ensure lyricism and true artistic quality in rap music lives on in the future. Please support Joe Budden and "The Growth" by signing this petition. Let lyricism live on and real rap music live on.

Sincerely,

The Undersigned