Saigon Speaks On Budden Beef, "Pain In His Life", Who's Better & More

What’s your current situation with you and Joe Budden?

We were sparring. We were sparring and I think people forgot what I could do on the mic because I don’t be putting out songs every day. Sometimes people get in a comfort zone and they are rudely awakened.

Did you and Joe Budden really speak on the phone to squash everything?

No. I keep hearing shit. I think Just Blaze put that out there I expect another Joe Budden record by the weekend and then we'll see what happens from there.

Will “Pushing Buddens” be your last diss record to Joe Budden?

Yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely. Battle rap shit ain’t my thing even though I can obviously do it. But I don’t think that God gave me this gift, this gift that I got from God, to sit here and try to insult somebody and make them look bad. I think my calling is much, much bigger than that. I will not continue to spend time, energy, focus and effort to create music or songs just to insult people.

It sounded like you were much more focused on “Pushing Buddens” than you were on “No Problemz.”

I was playing his game. He thought he was actually beating me but I’m not going to show my hand. You showed your hand. I’m not going to show my hand. You feel me? It was a situation where it was like, ‘Okay, he threw out some weak shit. I ain’t gonna throw out the strongest shit but I’m going to make sure that it’s better than yours.’ I wasn’t going to go in there and just try to use all of my ammunition in the first round. You don’t do that. That was round one. You don’t shoot yourself in the foot.

How did you feel when you first heard Joe Budden’s diss to you “Pain in his Life”?

When I heard “Pain in his Life,” I couldn’t eat. I couldn’t eat for that night, I swear to God. I ain’t lying. Woo. That’s one of the illest diss records I’ve ever heard, man.

Did you ever feel like this situation could turn violent?

Yeah, I did think it was going to turn violent, absolutely. You don’t understand. I didn’t want to battle this nigga, B. I knew he did this battle shit and I didn’t want my first battle to be with a nigga like Joe Budden. This nigga battled everybody and I can’t remember him ever losing. I can’t recall him taking an L so now it was a situation with me where it was like, ‘Oh shit. Damn.’ He called me out. Once he called me out I had to say something. Of course I was thinking if I could catch him it would be a little easier for me to just fight him and we could spar. (laughs) But I did my thing.

Joe Budden has a boxing background. How do you think a fight between the two of you would turn out?

I don’t know. I’m a hard guy to beat in a fight, man. I’m pretty hard to beat in a fight, man, one on one, because I’m a pitbull. I have a high tolerance for pain so unless you knock me out cold, I’m in the fight.

Who do you think is the better battle rapper, you or Joe Budden?

The better battle rapper? Overall?

Overall.

Probably him. I don’t know, man. I don’t know now because I never pushed myself. I never pushed myself in that realm. Who knows? If I did that I might end up being the best fucking battle rapper ever but I don’t spend that much time on that.

Do you think you crossed the line when you talked about Joe Budden’s son being gay?

Um, yes and no. Yes and no. Personally, when I was writing the shit, I was thinking it was some crazy shit to say about an innocent child but at the same time all is fair in love and war and it was verbal and it was war. When America goes to war, they bomb shit. They don’t go, ‘Oh no, don’t bomb that shit because there’s a kid in there.’ That’s unfortunate but that’s the world we live in. I felt I went overboard but he went overboard as well. Fight fire with fire.

Joe Budden claimed that you weren’t taking care of your baby and that you begged the girl to get an abortion. Is there any truth to that?

That’s what made me say what I said. He was just popping off, man. My daughter is two months old, man. How am I gonna be a deadbeat dad already? Two months old? What the fuck? Two months old. Two months old. Literally. I don’t even know how the nigga knew about my baby’s mother. She’s in California. This nigga had some inside information. I was going off of the shit that I was hearing and the he say-she say. That’s what gave him the advantage. He was kicking some personal shit. How did he know her name?

How do you think he got that information?

I have no clue. That I can’t tell you. (laughs) That’s beyond me. That’s still a mystery that I’m trying to figure out. I still got some issues to deal with that. That was information that you can’t find on my MySpace and Wikipedia. That was a lot more shit. A lot more. It wasn’t nothing crazy but pretty much my baby’s mama. My daughter’s two months. My daughter’s two months in this world. My daughter’s brand new in this world. That’s why I think it offended me. That’s why I started in on his kid so hard. My daughter’s a newborn. She’s innocent. I took that one a little personal.

Where do you and Joe go from here?

Whatever, man. Whatever. Whatever. It’s whatever. I wish everybody the best, you know. I wish everybody love, peace and prosperity. Every man on this earth, if you’re not a fucking child molester or a rapist or just somebody who’s just a foul person then I wish you peace and blessings, man. I got a lot of enemies and I don’t want no more.

Are there any parts of this last week going back and forth with Joe Budden that you regret?

I don’t even look at this shit as beef. It came and happened so fast. Even though me and him, we didn’t get along for about a year ever since he said that line about me but for the most part, this whole little thing started two weeks ago. I’m glad to know that if a nigga comes at me the wrong way I know I could bite his fucking head off. I don’t care who it is. If I can go toe to toe with that nigga, I can go toe to toe with anybody. That’s his lane right there. That’s one of those niggas that loves to battle.

When you think about Joe Budden’s punchline about you, do you think you misconstrued that as a diss or do you think he was baiting you?

Nah, I didn’t misconstrue that. I feel that anybody who knows me knows that I’m not a fucked up individual. I’m a good-hearted person. Certain things you wouldn’t say about somebody and then at the same time they know I’m hot-headed. Anybody that’s been in the game knows that that’s the aura I got around me. They know I got a temper so why would you do that? It’s like poking an alligator with a stick. You know not to do that. He might be minding his business and if he turns around and bites your ass that’s no one’s fault but yours. I wasn’t trying to hurt him.

I don’t know why he did that, man, and I don’t think I got out of line. I was just like, ‘Damn, that’s some fucked up shit.’

Switching up, how far along are you on Warning Shots 2?

Oh, that should be out in late March or early April. And it’s fire, man. I should be putting out the single, not even putting out the single, but leaking records. I’m not trying to work the shit traditionally like I would a regular record.

See this is the type of beef that's GOOD for hip hop, 2 great emcees battling for respect and what not. But what confuses me is that just 2 days ago Saigon was talking about smacking Joey's head off and all that but now sai seems to have calmed down and taken the beef for what it its.

Interview done by HipHopGame, read the whole thing Here.