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Rory and Mal Ends Strike Returns To The Joe Budden Podcast

Following a spat between Rory, Mal, and Joe Budden, it looks like the dream team is getting back together.

The Joe Budden Podcast became a much spoken about topic on social media sites, especially Twitter, in late March after the two co-hosts of the show said they were going “on strike.” They made the decision following an argument that led to some sort of showdown. Joe Budden remained confident that his co-hosts would come back to the show but admitted he had no idea of what the timeline for that would be.

Things look like they may be back to normal for the podcast after its official Twitter account featured the latest episode and included a photo of the recently reunited trio. The post, which was put up earlier today, April 28, was titled “Shaking The Tree.” The episode gives a glimpse of Rory and Mal’s time off and their collective soul searching on a way forward. The pair who were off for roughly two months also share how they found a way to appease all parties involved.

In the episode, Mal explains that to them, it was merely a difference in approaches, but he was shocked to learn how many people were actually rooting for the pair to fail.

“To see how certain people were reacting from that, things that they were saying, I was like, ‘Oh yeah. This is why I don’t f#ck with people. This is why I stay to myself a lot I don’t really be in the mix because y’all sit here and act like you f#ck with us and the first sign of turmoil, it’s like, ‘I knew that wasn’t going to work. I knew them n-ggas was finished’” he shared.

Rory agreed and added that he believed that many people wanted the podcast to fail for some reason. Mal admitted that he was aware of that all along but that he was still perturbed at just how many haters came forward. An experience that has opened his eyes, he continued.

“Absolutely. But I knew that. But to see it from certain people, to me, was like, ‘Damn, you too?’ Like I actually give you dap in conversation when I see you. It’s like, ‘Oh OK.’ So now I really gotta become the n***a that walk in the room and make it awkward and don’t talk to nobody because all y’all is fake and all y’all are secretly getting on your hands and knees praying sh*t don’t work out,” he continued.

Further down in the podcast, Mal added that he was not amused that Budden decided to replace them with Ice and Savon, but he was able to put that behind him and find a way to move forward with both his and Joe Budden’s friendship as well as business.

“When we had a conversation at Joe’s house, it was like, the business is the business. We can fix that, or we can’t. But as long as respect is still in play, me personally, I feel like anything can be solved … That was part of the conversation Joe and I had when I left.”

He went on to say that was a big part of the reason that he left the show. “I felt like there wasn’t any respect. So let me remove myself, cause I don’t know what this is anymore. I don’t know if I’m talking to my n-gga or a n-gga I just met. The more important thing as men is to sit down and get your feelings out,” he added.

Budden addressed their departure in Episode 425 of the podcast, which was called “Tea Leaves.”

“I’ll eliminate some of the suspense,” he said around the 16-minute mark. “Rory and Mal aren’t here, but this is Rory’s seat — this is not Ice’s seat — and this is Mal’s seat. Whenever they feel like returning to their seats, then they’ll return to their seats, then I can go back to work. And then what will happen is the same thing when your star player comes back to the team.”

He added, “Sometimes in friendship and business, everyone needs to take a step back and go to their respective corners. Sometimes everyone’s perspective and perception on how to go about that and how it should be executed is different.”