Budden was born to Joseph Budden and Fay Southerland on August 31, 1980, in the East Harlem neighborhood of Upper Manhattan, New York City, New York. He moved to Jersey City, New Jersey, at the age of thirteen with his mother and older brother, where he attended Lincoln High School.McCall, Tris. "Joe Budden to headline rare Stone Pony hip-hop show", The Star-Ledger, May 10, 2010. Accessed September 2, 2019. "'Even if I didn't try to make the music personal, emotional, if I started out trying to write something that wasn't like that, the pen would go in a totally different direction,' says Budden, who attended Lincoln High School in Jersey City." Budden's father was absent from his life during his childhood, a subject he would later address in his music.
