The whole thing seemed to boil down to a fundamental conflict over power dynamics and the line that separates what makes a creative partner, an employee, and a friend.ДЄll this, of course, was already taking place in the wake of another prominent scuffle: the one between Budden and Spotify, which resulted in Budden refusing a contract extension and blowing up his relationship with the Swedish streaming service. In a public rebuttal, Clay and Farrell painted a convincing picture of the titular host reaching the apotheosis of a long-simmering power trip.

There was a piece of leaked audio, where Budden berated his co-hosts for not sufficiently contributing to the show despite asking for more. From the outside, the story appears in bits and pieces, a mess of disputes over accounting, profits, value, respect. In the way things tend to be when two parties are intertwined with a grievance, what specifically actually remains a source of some contention. That deal was exceedingly consequential, having been apparently so effective for Spotify that CEO Daniel Ek would later remark, вЂњWe should do 1,000 of these,вЂќ which the company eventually did, reshaping the podcast world as a result.Д«ut all that came to a halt back in the summer, when Budden announced he had fired Farrell and Clay, who had been co-hosting the show from near the very beginning, because of disputes over finances. The talk-cast hosted by Budden, the former rapper turned media personality, along with Rory Farrell and Jamil вЂњMalвЂќ Clay had been an increasingly prominent concern among hip-hop circles since its launch in 2014 for its delivery of what VultureвЂ™s own Craig Jenkins described as вЂњa kind of peopleвЂ™s history of the modern hip-hop industry.вЂќ At its heights, the show achieved a level of fame to a point where the New York Times regarded Budden as the вЂњHoward Stern of Hip-Hop,вЂќ and the production also had the distinction of being SpotifyвЂ™s very first exclusive podcast deal, originally signed in 2018. The implosion of The Joe Budden Podcast happened gradually and then all at once.

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