Joe Budden Recalls Jay-Z Charging Him $250k For “Pump It Up” Verse

Joe Budden claims that Jay-Z charged him $250,000 for the verse he lent to the remix of Budden’s 2003 hit, “Pump It Up.” While Budden says that the unusually large fee was unrelated to any personal issues between the two artists, the comments come just days after Jay-Z told Kevin Hart that he’s never charged for a feature.

“I don’t think that was a big number, I think that was his number,” Budden explained on a recent episode of the FlipDaScript podcast. “‘That’s my number to rap on this new artist’s remix.’ It was just big in my world, but it wasn’t a big number.”

He continued to say that he didn’t know any better at the time: “Listen, I’m super young in that moment. I wasn’t in the studio when [Jay and Budden’s A&R Skane] had the conversation. I knew that they had some type of relationship. It was a Just Blaze beat, and I was green behind the ears. I just thought that it would get done.”

“I didn’t know anything about the business and how things like that are supposed to go. That was par the course…It was big to me because it was unattainable… but the blessing was that he gave a number,” Budden said.

“Pump It Up” was released on March 24, 2003, as the lead single from his self-titled debut album. The remix of the song featuring Jay-Z was included in the deluxe edition of The Hits Collection Vol. 1.

Jay-Z had remarked during an interview with Kevin Hart, last week, that he never charges for a verse and that it’s instead about “relationships.”