Joe Budden. You may know him from his rather infamous appearances on Love & Hip Hop. You may know him as one quarter of the Shady cosigned Slaughterhouse. You may even know him as the artist of the The Fast and the Furious made-famous Pump it Up, a track that bears some resent from Budden.
What you should know Joe Budden for is his ability to combine clever lyrics with an open diary storytelling.
Some Love Lost is the second installment, following No Love Lost (2013) and preceding All Love Lost (TBA), and it gives fans exactly what they want. Even the casual fan knows Joe Budden makes his best music after heartbreak. Hell, even Joe knows this.
That’s exactly what Joe Budden is on Some Love Lost. Heartbroken and depressed.
He laments on past loves in the song Different Love, touches on his grandfather’s cancer and impending death on Poker in the Sky, and in what might be the most potent song of the entire album, explores his suicidal thoughts and those that love him on the nine-minute track Only Human. “I ain’t tell her just the other day that that gun was in my lap/ Pen and pad in my hand, and I was writing a note/ Didn’t get far, as soon as I wrote down “mom” I just stopped/ Couldn’t lie to her, couldn’t figure out how to say bye to her/ Couldn’t explain the “why” to her/ Couldn’t picture her getting a call or somebody saying her son had died to her.”
This album isn’t for everyone. It’s a personal work. There’s no reprieve from that dark space Budden occupies. Still, for and album to explore the emotional and psychological depths as deeply as Some Love Lost does, and yet only debut at number 55 on the Billboard 200, is a shame. If you haven’t listened to his album, I’d encourage you to do so.
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