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Now that Joe Budden announced his show’s departure from Spotify, Charlamagne Tha God couldn’t help but offer his professional, but possibly blind assessment of what went wrong behind the scenes during the former rapper’s contract renewal with the streaming service. According to his calculations, Budden more than likely has trash negotiation skills.
“It sounds to me like Joe Budden is a person who knows his worth but doesn’t know how to properly negotiate it,” Charlamagne said on The Breakfast Club. “‘Cause if you keep doing deals with various corporations and you keep getting trash-ass deals, that’s on you. Things like vacation days, bonuses, all of that has to be negotiated in your contract from the beginning.”
On the topic of leverage, Charlamagne suggested Budden erroneously overvalued his show against the podcasting networks Spotify signed over the last two years.
“When I heard Joe comparing his show to like Spotify signing Gimlet [Media] for hundreds of millions and The Ringer for hundreds of millions and Parcast for hundreds of millions, I think it’s very important to note that they got that money from Spotify because they are actual networks with tons of IP,” he explained. “Those networks have a bunch of shows and other content, a bunch of staff that knows how to make those shows. You can’t compare your one show to a whole network.”
To make sure his criticism wasn’t mistaken for hate, Charlamagne clarified why one podcast show’s value can’t measure up against an entire network’s roster of shows.
“I’m not saying he shouldn’t be getting a lot of money,” Charlamagne stated. “What I’m simply saying is you can have the No. 1 show on Spotify, but one of those networks might have six shows in the Top 10, 10 shows in the Top 20. You have one hit show.”
He finally sealed off his thoughts suggesting the “Pump It Up” rapper should manage his underlying issues before placing blame elsewhere.
“If you keep having the same issues at various companies, because it was the same issue at Complex, it’s probably not them,” Charlamagne declared. “It’s probably you, Joe. So, lesson to all the kids out there: you may know your worth, but you have to know how to properly negotiate it.”
Budden caught wind of the lispy radio personality’s hot takes and responded succinctly over Twitter.
The rapper wasn’t too pleased to read Spotify’s statement where they responded to accusations of the company “pillaging” his audience, amongst other things.
“As Joe referenced on his show, we made him a considerable offer — one that was significantly larger and many times the value of the existing agreement and reflective of the current market and size of his audience. Unfortunately, we could not come to terms, and we respect his wishes to find a new home for his show.”
