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Joe says he wants to see the footage, but until then he thinks there is another side to this story—the “truth”.

Now, Joe Budden is known to be controversial and he even touches on that during his commentary but he is standing by his statement, and says he personally doesn’t believe Jussie’s story. On this week’s State Of the culture, the cast doesn’t shy away from discussing the details around last week’s reportedly hate fueled attack against Empire actor Jussie Smollett.

Basically Joe says that the story has changed a few times and its just not adding up to him. “I’m going to always have questions when a black man says that he gets a noose around his neck and then he tells me that he left it there for 45 minutes. See I’m going to always have questions about that. That sounds a little funny.” These comments start at the 11:39 minute mark.

Budden continues, “I’m not saying he wasn’t attacked. He was certainly attacked.” he clarifies. “This is record industry 101 bullsh**. Do not play with the fears of oppressed people—because that’s what this sounds like to me. I want to make sure I’m not being as insensitive as I’m known to be, because he got his a** beat. But n****s get they a** beat all time. Now, our heart goes out when you start talking about hate crime, and..uh..gay crime..because c’mon.”

The rest of the cast, especially Scottie Beam seem to disagree with his comments. She even goes as far to ask why when it comes to black pain, in Jussie’s case, a gay black man, why are we so quick to dismiss his story? She asks again, why his voice doesn’t deserve to be heard. Joe then responds, “I’m waiting to see footage. Just show me footage and I’ll shut the f*** up.” All in all, though there were differences in opinion, it was a healthy conversation and is definitely worth the watch. The entire conversation surrounding the topic hapens from 4:49-16:50.

Watch the full episode of State of the Culture below: