KXNG Crooked Details Joe Budden’s Role In Slaughterhouse’s Downfall

Slaughterhouse became a hot topic in the past few weeks following the announcement of Joell Ortiz and KXNG Crooked’s The Rise & Fall Of Slaughterhouse. As fans were excited to hear another EP from the two former Slaughterhouse members, their ex-groupmates were not as ecstatic. Both Joe Budden and Royce expressed their disdain for the project before they got into it with Joell Ortiz on Instagram Live. Then, they countered Ortiz’s claim that KXNG Crooked brought a deal to the table for a new Slaughterhouse album in 2021.


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Ahead of the project’s release, Crooked sat down with Bootleg Kev where he got in-depth about the issues he had to face during Slaughterhouse’s tenure with Shady. He explained that fans have waited a decade for new music, and within that time, he’s had meetings with Eminem, Paul Rosenberg, and even Royce Da 5’9″ in an attempt to bring the boys together.

“It’s not happened in 10 years. So you’re telling me you want me to wait again and then I saw something where Royce said that we weren’t waiting on anybody… that’s a lie,” he said before addressing the need to kill any speculation that The Rise & Fall Of Slaughterhouse is simply a money-grab.

This wouldn’t be the first time that Slaughterhouse would have to practice patience for the release of new music. Crooked explained that Joe Budden was actually signed to a label when Slaughterhouse, as a group, inked a deal with Shady records. Because of conflicting contractual agreements, his obligations to Slaughterhouse were put on the back burner until the situation was figured out. Crook explained the label issues is why Joe didn’t appear on “Session One.” 

“Joe was signed to another label and caught up in some paperwork. They called over to Shady like, ‘Hey we have him under contract. You have to get a clearance from us to have him appear on the song,’” he said, explaining that everyone was under the impression they were free agents before signing to Shady. “Come to find out Joe was on the paperwork, he said that they forged his signature and that it wasn’t him. And the group was put on the shelf for a minute while he was fighting Amalgam Digital in court, and we were waiting on Joe because we couldn’t move forward.”

Check out the full clip below.