Joe Budden, the widely followed independent podcaster and rapper, is launching his first move into true-crime storytelling. Budden, host of The Joe Budden Podcast, built his career first as a Grammy-nominated recording artist before moving into media, eventually turning The Joe Budden Podcast into the flagship of the Joe Budden Network and growing an engaged audience across audio, video, and Patreon.   

Now, his upcoming series marks another major expansion for Budden beyond podcasting, reflecting the growing crossover between creator-led media and traditional television. 

Joe Budden is gearing up for the debut of Crime in America, produced with Wolf Entertainment, the company behind Law & Order and NBC's One Chicago series, along with news publisher Advance Local and its Headline Studio. The weekly video podcast premieres across major platforms on August 11. It marks the first release from Prime Crime Productions, a venture Budden set up with partner Ian Schwartzman, combining his true-crime interest with Advance Local's national journalist network. 

Budden has described the decision behind how the show came together as an intentional one, as reported by Variety. He said that he and Schwartzman made the deliberate decision to finance and build the series themselves rather than take it to a traditional buyer or platform, calling it something they are proud of. He added that Wolf Entertainment and Headline Studio stood out as natural partners because they share a similar vision for finding new ways to tell stories and reach audiences.

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By partnering with Wolf Entertainment while retaining a hands-on role in developing the project, Budden is bringing the audience-first approach that helped build his podcast empire to a new format, signaling that independent creators are increasingly shaping the future of unscripted entertainment.

Elliot Wolf, EVP of digital for Wolf Entertainment, said that local journalists have always been the first to break the country's most significant true-crime stories, and that the company is excited to partner with Budden and Headline to give that reporting a national platform. He described the goal as building a new kind of weekly series that puts audiences on the front line of stories as they break.

Headline Studio president Richard Diamond brought that idea, pointing to the combination of national reach and local reporting as what sets the partnership apart. He noted that Advance Local's network of news organizations and community-embedded journalists allows Crime in America to bring audiences closer to unfolding stories, grounded in original reporting, trusted sourcing, and deep local knowledge and framed the series as a chance to highlight the role journalism plays in helping people understand issues affecting their own communities.

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Can Joe Budden bring a fresh perspective to the true-crime genre? Share your opinion in the comments below.