Joe Budden quotes:

Mixtapes are extremely important, especially for New York or North East artists. They allow you to be creative, to get feedback and criticism, but most of all, it gets your name out there. I would say about 90-100% of my success was down to the mixtapes.

I get a lot of support from the West Coast. But I think that's beginning to change. I think, as the awareness goes up, and as I continue to be consistent, more people from my area come around, and they're converted into Joe Budden fans.

It is a different world, the underground. When you hit mainstream, you hit a saturation level and that turns some people off. When you are on more low-key stuff, it works to your advantage and it creates a buzz on the streets. At that point, the sky is the limit.

Up late talking to the fans on a website, That's the only thing that send ya man off to bed right

Sometimes you gotta stand by your failures to recognize your success

Destiny made a mistake and gave my fate to someone else.

In this day and age, you gotta be a profiler to really know who people are, which most of us are not. So, we need time and life to start happening for people to really show their trust colors.

Don't ask for a cig' - I'm so self-centered, I won't even share this cancer.

Look, sometimes the truth could hurt you so I blow my cig smoke right at the truth commercial.

I loved love til' it resented me, and if it's still a stranger then I love who it pretends to be.

Maybe I'm regular and the world needs to adjust?

Why try to fit in when you a stand out?

Music kept me sane. I love music too much. I'm too passionate about music to let anything or anyone come in between me and my love.

I always call niggas fools for wanting to learn the hard way. When I'm really the fool for tryna teach 'em. When the blinds leading the blind. You can't reach 'em. If niggas ain't as hungry as you then why feed 'em? Niggas ain't tryna be lead then why lead 'em? Having big problems with your dogs, why breed em?

Leave the past in the past, tomorrows not promised and Todays just a gift i guess thats why its the present

They say I'm difficult, so to put it simply....tell the world I never cared it was against me

Whatever you goin' through, could always be much worse, Don't make a mistake, mistakin' your blessings for a curse.

In my world, even sure bets are not certain; 'Cause you'll get the picture, then find out it's the cropped version.

I never cared, I was careless, Fear bein afraid or maybe I'm afraid to be fearless. Or fear bein' fearless but fearful, So even in my carelessness...gotta be careful.

I could've never envisioned things goin' this way in a million years. But, I'm a firm believer in my higher power havin' a plan, and he's never wrong, and he's not open to suggestions. I'm sure that everything [has] happened for a reason.

Like I said, as long as I'm consistent and I try to put my best foot forward, and work as hard as I possibly can, everything else will fall into place - God'll take care of everything.

I believe that life is meaningless without hope, which is really what that line is about. Without hope, what are we living for? I wouldn't wanna see where exactly I'd be in five years. I wouldn't wanna know my exact date of death. I wouldn't want to know my exact cause of death. Certain things I just want to allow to take place rather than just have the knowledge beforehand.

You'll never progress if you never try

And I'll never let myself down..How so? I don't expect too much from me.

God I hear you giving me an earfull but I'm gonna cruise in 5th gear until I'm near you.

It's hard - it's difficult to tell when your buzz is at its peak.

When you're young and you're comin' up, and you dream of gettin' this record deal, and then you actually get it, and, you know, its apples and oranges from everything that you pictured. The line was pretty self-explanatory to me: once I got in my major label agreement, I definitely couldn't deal with it. It was drivin' me crazy, givin' me gray hairs at an early age.

Success to me is self-determined, the life I live today, to come from a kid strung out on angel dust, homeless, at some points sleeping in the street. No money, not knowing where the next meal was coming from. No sex, no relationships, people that didn't love me, didn't care about me, to where I am today... that's successful. When I signed my record deal I always wanted to be respected by my peers for my ability and my skill level.

Technology being the way it is, and record sales being the way it is, there are not too many things that you need to depend on a label for that you can't go out and do yourself.

It's one of my short-term goals, to be able to actually record music and release it simultaneously and not just hold on to it.

Even at my lowest I was sittin on my high stool.

You take music out of life and love. I don't want to be on a planet without music.

I'm lookin' forward to doin' a lot of big things. I've been doin' a lot of big things: a lot of traveling, a lot of recording - I'm excited.

I know that I'm kind of a big deal online, but I think that some of that is starting to seep into the streets, and you want to kind of continue to make sure it does that.

Life is like a beach chair when you can afford one

I'm not in a competition with any other artist, anything that's goin' on - I'm strictly competing with myself.

Project X now, but it started as a Hunger Game.

I came up in battling and just wanting to compete. Even if you had no real problem with someone, you just wanted to compete.

Where I'm at physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually usually dictates where my music goes.

I think Def Jam happened to be one of the labels that really didn't have a good grip on things that were going on. I'll say that - that's my political answer.

Joe Budden TV is life through the eyes of Joe Budden. You've gotta go check it out - it's pretty fun.

For Joe Budden fans, and for Joe Budden, I like to focus on the creative side, and havin' a thought and bein' able to execute it in the booth. I think that song best displays me being able to do that.

I'm a firm believer in everything going digital, in a matter of years. I wanted to kind of be one of the pioneers, one of the people that jump on that bandwagon early.

Certain majors [lables] just know what they're doin', and got a good grip on the dynamic of what's happening, and some don't.

I have some things that I've been workin' on, such as delivery, wordplay, breath control, just a lot of other things that artists work on, that the listener may not be listening for.

If I'm trading bars with somebody, it certainly is not because I have a release coming. Joe Budden prides himself on the music and not the sales aspect.

I read every fan forum and every blog, and every message board, and every chat room. I read it all. There's nothing online that I'm not aware of.

Take away what we love, wed all be Joe Paterno.

I remember a day and time when the streets indicated what was hot online, and now I think it's starting to reverse a little bit.

I don't wanna join the Hair Club For Men or anything.

I think the time in between albums, as much as it was not anticipated, it was much-needed, and very helpful, very useful. I've done nothing but hone my craft, and get better, and learn, and gather information in the process. So I'm grateful for it in retrospect.

A few more albums, a few more years, I'll be like Peter Petrelli in Heroes. I'll be some type of rap super-monster or something.

I'm proud to say I'm the only Slaughterhouse member who has not rewritten a verse yet, and that's the ongoing joke in the group, 'cause everybody has rewrote their sh*t except for me.

If I were to go the major route, again, attention would probably be the first and foremost. You want attention, you want support, you want to be treated properly, and I don't wanna have to go anywhere and teach people how to treat me. As far as money, acclaim and fame, those things are a plus - accolades - they're all great.

I think, it's so difficult to create a buzz anywhere, whether it be online, the streets, radio, anywhere, that if you are able to create a buzz somewhere, it definitely means something.

Most important to me is being able to release music and have an astounding relationship with whoever would be distributing the music.

I tried to make the best music that I could possibly make, and then nothing was ever good enough.

It sometimes becomes difficult to tell when you're even creating a buzz. You know, everything in this game, it so relies on timing that that part is really important, and it's something that everyone tries to pay a lot of attention to.

I was fortunate enough to have gone through the major label process and kind of have the inside scoop on some things, some information I wouldn't have normally had. To go from a major to an independent, I don't think it's an easy transition.

I would have had a clause in my contract; I would've definitely put some fine print in my contract that said, "If the president leaves, I'm leaving." That'd be the bottom line.

I chose the name "Padded Room," because, when I'm in the booth, it would be the padded room. When I'm in the booth, I can say a lot of things and speak about a lot of things that normally I wouldn't be able to speak about to a friend or to family or to a crowd. A lot of times, the things that I say, if you had to categorize it, they would probably call me nuts or crazy. So, you add that aspect of "The Padded Room," which would be almost like an insane asylum.