Album Review: Joe Budden- Escape Route

15 years ago view-show 1,269,972

joe-2_phixrAs Joe Budden continues to become a hot Internet topic, thanks to his most recent beef with Raekwon, [Click for Raekwon interview] he fuels his self-promoted PR machine with his latest solo album, Escape Route courtesy of Amalgam Digital.

Riding his own coattail with the success of the Slaughterhouse [Click for review] project, Escape Route was released on the same day as the highly regarded album by the supergroup that he’s also a part of.

It’s supposed to be a prelude to his Great Escape album, which is scheduled to be released in October of this year.

With that said, album features his  Slaughterhouse brethren (of course), along with a bonus song with only Royce da 5’9” [Click for Royce interview] taking part.

Besides his band mates, other guest come in the form of Wale and Young Chris, (which can be considered ironic since Young Chris is in cahoots with Joe’s eternal nemesis, Jay-Z).

On the production side, boardsmen like 9th Wonder, StreetRunner, Bink!, and J. Cardim [Click for Cardim video interview] do their best to help bring Joe’s vision to light.

Joe then plans his escape with lyrical tidbits like ‘Anti,the guitar-riddled ‘Never Again, and ‘Forgive Me,where he ushers out lines like:

“I’m only human, ain’t to be worth sh*t/I’m only human, I ain’t perfect/I might say some things, and re-word it/blame it on my roots, deep Jerz sh*t/bet some things will never instill/I might, make threats I will never fulfill.”

The whole Slaughterhouse gang joins in ‘We Outta Here,’ equipped with an Auto-Tune hook and all. Other note-worthy songs that assist Joe in his lyrical journey to escapism is the 9th Wonder-produced ‘Tito Santana’ featuring Wale, ‘No Comment,’ the Bink!-produced ‘For You’ featuring Royce da 5’9″, ‘Connect 4’ featuring Young Chris, and ‘Clothes On A Mannequin.’

Joe Budden’s Escape Route is good collection of music worth checking out; the only problem is that it might fall below the waistline due the fact of  Slaughterhouse’s self-titled album picking up steam by the second.

His decision to release it on the same day might prove to be a genius move, or that of a dunce—only time will tell. But one thing that is for certain, whether Escape Route moves units or not, you’re going to be sure to hear about it either way, on one of his many video blog broadcasts…

Rating: 3.5

35mics_phixr2