Rapper Joe Budden Won’t Apologize for Pro-Violence Usher Remix Song

National   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Jul 8, 2004   |   9:00AM   |   WASHINGTON, DC

Rapper Joe Budden Won’t Apologize for Pro-Violence Usher Remix Song

by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
July 8, 2004

New York, NY (LifeNews.com) — Rap artist Joe Budden isn’t apologizing for his tweaking of a hit song from acclaimed R&B artist Usher that advocates abortion and violence against pregnant woman. The Budden song, which is receiving radio airplay, has drawn criticism from African-American and women’s groups following its release.

"Pray that she abort that, If she’s talkin’ ’bout keepin’ it / One hit to the stomach, She’s leakin’ it," Budden sings in a remix of an Usher song currently number two on the Billboard charts.

"Its some mixtape s*** that didn’t even travel too far," Budden told AllHipHop.com about the song. "Everybody’s heard the original Usher song and I’m just saying what a guy’s mindstate is when he’s put in that situation. Like it or not, that’s a guy’s mind state. That’s how it can be when you are put in a powerless situation."

Usher’s latest album, Confessions, has topped the sales charts, selling more than four million copies in only 11 weeks after its release.

However Budden’s remix of the hit song, "Confessions, Part II" is drawing complaints.

In the original, currently number two on Billboard’s pop charts, Usher’s "confession" is that he has had an illicit relationship with another woman. The mistress reveals she is three months pregnant and plans to keep the baby.

However, Budden adds additional lyrics to the song, not found in the original on Usher’s album, saying he hopes she will abort the baby and, if not, he will beat her to cause the baby’s death.

But Budden denies he is advocating violence against pregnant women.

"Its real funny how these people grab what they want to grab," he told the rap news web site. "The lyrics don’t support beating on women. I don’t even say that I am beating on women."

But Day Gardner, director of Black Americans for Life, an African-American pro-life group, says the lyrics are "demeaning and outright violent toward both women and unborn children."

"It is appalling to suggest that a man attack a woman to cause the death of her unborn child," Gardner said. "As women and as mothers, we simply cannot allow ourselves or our unborn children to be treated as objects of such abuse."

Ironically, Budden himself was a victim of domestic violence when a former girlfriend stabbed him, nearly killing him in the process.

Still, Budden won’t back down from the additional lyrics he added to the song.

"When you get somebody pregnant, you can make suggestions, but the bottom line is they [women] have the end say-so," Budden told AllHipHop.com. "As a guy, you wonder ‘What can I do to take that power away?’ As negative as it is, that’s what comes to mind. That still doesn’t make [violence against women] alright and I don’t support that. In Hip-Hop, we talk about reality and what is the truth and that is the truth. I might stir up a lot of confusion, but if you don’t like it, turn it off."

When news of the song broke, Melissa Ashley, a spokeswoman for Usher’s publicist, told LifeNews.com she had no comment. She said she had not heard Budden’s remix version.

Usher’s label LaFace/Zomba records, and its parent, BMG Entertainment, referred requests for comment back to Usher’s publicist.

Calls from LifeNews.com to Budden’s label, Island/Def Jam Records, were not returned.

Gardner’s group is asking for calls to Usher’s label and for R&B radio stations to pull the remix from their playlists. Some stations have already added the Budden version to their rotation.

Usher recently set a record for the most weeks in a year spent at the top of the Billboard Hot 100 pop chart since it was unveiled in 1958.