Rap Radar<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
AS TOLD TO: ELLIOTT WILSON<\/p>\n
Although he\u2019s embraced the hip-hop blogs and has a heavy presence on Twitter, Busta Rhymes still has a love-hate relationship with technology. He\u2019s a phone person by nature. He\u2019ll send you a text that simply tells you to call him. Interaction is key. Trevor Smith loves to talk and he loves to listen.<\/p>\n
A wise man who enjoys sharing his views and is a storyteller to his soul, Busta sipped some ros\u00e9 Champagne on the rooftop of Miami\u2019s Gansevoort Hotel and took me through his life in hip-hop\u2019s spotlight. The road wasn\u2019t always smooth, and Rhymes insists he\u2019s got more goals to reach. A recent guest appearance for Chris Brown (\u201cLook at Me Now\u201d), a fiery freestyle over Nicki Minaj\u2019s \u201cRoman\u2019s Revenge\u201d and several songs with his young prot\u00e9g\u00e9, Reek Da Villian, prove testament. This legend has at least one more act.<\/p>\n
IT STARTED LAST year with [DJ Khaled\u2019s] \u201cAll I Do Is Win (Remix)\u201d\u2014just seeing the reviews from that and how niggas were really in love with the antics in the song. When I saw that, I was like, Damn. Niggas really do miss the old Bussa Bus.<\/p>\n
\u201cDungeon Dragon.\u201d Bringing that whole character back. You know, the bullshit that went down [in 2006]. I was getting locked up a lot. That shit had me in a space where I wasn\u2019t in the mood. I wasn\u2019t smiling every day like I used to smile.<\/p>\n
But being Five Percent, you know I got knowledge of self. When I was about 12, one of the things that the Gods used to always tell me at the corner store was, \u201cYou gotta be swift and changeable but always remainable.\u201d That just stuck with me. I gotta adjust to things, but most important, I gotta be able to remain in anything that I\u2019m involving myself with until I choose to bow out of it gracefully. I applied that shit to everything in life.<\/p>\n
I never really wanted to do the solo shit. But Charlie Brown had it in his head that he was the leader of the group. The way the group dynamic was\u2014every decision was collective. The Leaders of the New School was owned 25 percent times four. We functioned and operated as a corporation. Everybody had to make decisions collectively, so there wasn\u2019t no boss shit. Even creatively, when we were doing songs, we voted. The majority rule was the way we went with it, even if you ain\u2019t like it.<\/p>\n
But then when we started to put the records out, and the consumer started to pick who their favorite was, that\u2019s when the bullshit started. Me and Brown had the outspoken personalities, and it made it seem like we were competing for the shine. It got to the point where me and this dude were bloodying up each other\u2019s shit before the shows.<\/p>\n
The defining moment was when we had to do this Yo! MTV Raps special with Fab 5 Freddy. When we\u2019d introduce ourselves, we\u2019d say a name and then, \u201cWe rep Leaders of the New School.\u201d When it came to Brown, he was like, \u201cI\u2019m C. Brown and I represent myself.\u201d<\/p>\n
Everybody was kinda feeling cranky about it. So everybody stepped to Brown with some beef shit, ready to kill this nigga. He ended up bouncing, went to his crib. We went to his crib after\u2014the nigga was basically on some \u201cI don\u2019t wanna be down with Busta Rhymes no more; it ain\u2019t no problem with the rest of y\u2019all, I just don\u2019t like this nigga no more.\u201d I guess he just got to a point where he was fed up with what was happening.<\/p>\n
And the thing that was happening was that destiny was coming into fruition for a nigga. Because when [A Tribe Called Quest\u2019s] \u201cThe Scenario\u201d happened\u2014I mean, we was getting opportunities. I get an opportunity and I come to them and ask if I should do it. Them niggas up front, like, \u201cYeah, it\u2019s cool, go ahead.\u201d But then when I\u2019m going to do it the next day, niggas is mad. I used to say, \u201cListen, Brown, you ain\u2019t got no child, nigga. And Dinco, you ain\u2019t got no fuckin\u2019 child neither.\u201d And at the time Milo ain\u2019t have a child. My son was coming. And my baby\u2019s mom, the mother of my three boys\u2014her mom, she wasn\u2019t fuckin\u2019 with me. So when she got pregnant, [her mom] put her out.<\/p>\n
I didn\u2019t have my own crib. So now I gotta go to my moms, \u201cYo, can I move baby moms in the crib?\u201d She was on her Christian thing: \u201cAin\u2019t no bastard child living in my house. You got to engage that.\u201d So now I\u2019m forced to engage a woman I wasn\u2019t even emotionally\u2014I loved her\u2014but I didn\u2019t love her in that way to wanna be engaged. I can\u2019t leave my kid in the street; I can\u2019t leave her in the street. I put the ring on her hand.<\/p>\n
Eventually I tried to go to Brown, have a one-on-one, like, \u201cWe spent a lot of years sacrificing to build this shit. Come back. Let\u2019s work this shit out.\u201d He wasn\u2019t trying to hear that. He was like, \u201cNigga, I ain\u2019t fuckin\u2019 with you. As a matter of fact, get out my crib.\u201d I left it alone. I was nervous because I\u2019d never had the responsibility of writing a full song on an album level.<\/p>\n
[Linebreak]<\/p>\n
I was confused about how to approach the solo album. And at the time, I think Low End Theory was screaming in the streets. Q-Tip came to L.A. and was whippin\u2019 around in a 300 CE coupe, white with tan ragtop, convertible. He was like, \u201cBook a studio, get the SP12 and a keyboard, and I\u2019m-a come in there and make some beats, and we gonna create something.\u201d And I\u2019m telling him, \u201cI don\u2019t know what the fuck we gonna create. I ain\u2019t got shit written.\u201d He was like, \u201cDon\u2019t worry about it. Just go in the booth and whatever come off your head, we\u2019ll try to figure it out.\u201d<\/p>\n
I get in the booth and I\u2019m like, \u201cYo, yo, yo, yo, Busta Rhymes flipping, niggas must be tripping, people do not understand, yo, yo, yo, craps in the ground, more and more sound, oh, oh, sh-sh-shit natural disasters, yes, I got too old with my masters.\u201d That was the freestyle randomly. The reason I kept it as a skit on The Coming was because that was my defining moment. It gave me confidence\u2014knowing I was going into a situation for the first time in total control.<\/p>\n
The \u201cWoo Hah!!\u201d record came out and that was it. The tax bracket changed. Living conditions changed. The kids were good. It was the happiest thing in the world. The first thing I did with my bread was tell my mother she ain\u2019t gotta work for nobody anymore. I also wanted my mother to supervise my business. My mom signed my deal! When I was 17! If she ain\u2019t sign it, you know the opportunity for me to be Busta Rhymes the next year probably never would have came. I owed my whole shit to my mother. Word.<\/p>\n
[Linebreak]<\/p>\n
From the success of The Coming, I had hardware on my wall. I was coming home looking at a platinum album and a platinum single. Seven-figure money was starting to hit the account, constantly. And then When Disaster Strikes was done, and I had \u201cPut Your Hands Where My Eyes Could See.\u201d I was like, Jesus.<\/p>\n
We were at the Roxy, and Kid Capri was DJing. I came in there with one of my mans, and Kid Capri played the shit for the third time, for the fourth time, for the fifth time, for the sixth time, for the seventh time, for the eighth time. By the eleventh time straight, no other song in between, I damn near started crying in the club, because I couldn\u2019t believe that I\u2019d done something that was so compelling that warranted that kind of love from the DJ. And the club was demanding that he keep playing it.<\/p>\n
Roc-a-fella and Terror Squad crossed paths in that spot that night, and you just started seeing bottles wildin\u2019. Capri stopped the music: \u201cYo, y\u2019all niggas chill the fuck out, man. Don\u2019t fuck up the party.\u201d Niggas still wildin\u2019. He was like, \u201cI know what\u2019s gonna stop y\u2019all from beefing\u201d\u2014[makes beat noises] for the twelfth time. That song stopped the beef.<\/p>\n
I said, \u201cOh, my God.\u201d I was like, What am I gonna make to follow up that record? And if niggas was gonna want this all the time, I just hoped I could meet that standard, meet that demand. And after that, the \u201cDangerous\u201d record came, and that shit took on a life of its own. The video budgets went from $200,000 and $300,000 to 500-something thousand and 700-something thousand, to $1 million, to $2.4 million by the time we got the Janet Jackson video on Extinction Level Event. Money wasn\u2019t a factor no more.<\/p>\n
As much as Sylvia [Rhone] was getting shit from the corporate bosses for it, me and Missy were her poster children. Still, it got to a point where we exhausted the situation so bad that not only was it creating problems with us and Sylvia, but it created major problems with Sylvia and the label. So in \u201999, when I made The Anarchy album, I ain\u2019t wanna give it to them \u2019cause I knew that they weren\u2019t gonna support me no more, because they ain\u2019t got no more albums to recoup from. I didn\u2019t like the success of Anarchy, even though it went gold. So in \u201999, after we put that album out, I was like, I wanna leave.<\/p>\n
I went to J Records. Over there with Clive [Davis], they gave me an unbelievable multimillion-dollar deal. They gave me support and excitement. We put that Genesis out, and that shit did 1.8 million at the time, ended up rounding off to 2.2 million\u2014that\u2019s where \u201cCourvoisier\u201d and all that came from.<\/p>\n
After Genesis, I went to a Grammy Awards show with my mother. Dr. Dre and [Aftermath A&R] Mike Lynn were there. I had exchanged numbers with Lynn. I was like, \u201cYo, I only got one album left over here. I\u2019m going to turn this album in, and let\u2019s start talking.\u201d Turned in the It Ain\u2019t Safe No More album\u2014Mariah Carey\u2013featured song, \u201cI Know What You Want,\u201d is still my biggest record on radio ever. So Chris Lighty and I went to Dre\u2019s crib, we played about 30 songs. I was like, \u201cI got a done album.\u201d We signed, we did the deal, everything going down right. Three years pass by, you ain\u2019t heard shit from Busta Rhymes. I was going crazy in that situation.<\/p>\n
I never had to wait that long to put out no album. But it helped me get really in shape. I got all my muscles. I had just won my court case with the mother of my three boys. We were going through family court for custody. I felt like shedding at the time. I could let go of this grief that I\u2019d been dealing with for 10 years in family court with her. I chopped my shit off, I was buffed up, I was like, \u201cI\u2019m going into this new shit as a rejuvenated nigga.\u201d<\/p>\n
We put out that \u201cTouch It,\u201d and that shit just popped off. And then the remix\u2014that popped off. Then we came with the \u201cI Love My Chick\u201d record, which wasn\u2019t necessarily my choice for that album, or for it to be a single. That started to also change the dynamic of that situation.<\/p>\n
That whole time killed my spirit for a while, but it didn\u2019t stop my drive or my desire to wanna do what I was doing. It just compromised that feel-good excitement and that energy that I was on. I caught multiple assault charges because niggas was provoking me, and my temper was short because I was frustrated all the time. I had police waiting in front of my cribs everywhere I went, but after a while, the stress [in NYC] became a little less.<\/p>\n
[Linebreak]<\/p>\n
For the next album, I put out \u201cDon\u2019t Touch Me Now (Throw Da Water on Them)\u201d and the Linkin Park record, \u201cWe Made It,\u201d but it was a little bit of confusion, and it just seemed like things couldn\u2019t be resolved. I was able to have a discussion with Jimmy Iovine, and it was worked out. I was able to take my masters. I appreciate Jimmy to this day for that. I salute him, and I salute Dre [for] giving me a shot.<\/p>\n
I learned a lot. I\u2019m grateful to Dre and the whole Aftermath. It was a cool transition. But Sylvia Rhone\u2014I loved Sylvia. As much as I said we had our little beef toward the end of our deal\u2026she went balls to the wall for me and Missy. She\u2019s a passionate person, and if she rocks with you, she\u2019ll get in trouble for you, son. I was like, \u201cYo, I miss that!\u201d She was in L.A. for one of the MTV awards, and she invited me to a dinner that she had. I went over and she was just showing off to everybody that her baby was home. That shit made a nigga feel like, Yeah, this is gonna be good.<\/p>\n
[Linebreak]<\/p>\n
\u201cArab Money,\u201d boy. That shit was major, and I didn\u2019t realize how much that song offended some people. Honestly \u201cArab Money\u201d was inspired by [Kanye West\u2019s] \u201cJesus Walks.\u201d It ruined the homecoming with Sylvia. It was a hit record, but ramifications came with it. But Sylvia, the die-hard lady that she is, she just wanted it to go away. We put out the \u201cConglomerate\u201d video, and Wayne came through and jumped on it. Me and T-Pain did \u201cHustler\u2019s Anthem\u201d and banked that shit. She definitely tried to make it sell, but the rest of the building just wasn\u2019t behind it.<\/p>\n
We got some announcements to make real soon about how this whole thing is gonna play out. Again, Sylvia\u2019s the most incredible person that I\u2019ve ever had to do business with as a boss of a record label. And I\u2019m just waiting this thing out, because there are a lot of chairs being moved around over there. We just trying to make sure that before we get caught up in a climate shift that can affect niggas in a strange way, we gonna let all that shit settle. The next four to six weeks, you gonna hear some very interesting announcements made. Who are the new chiefs and who are the new head honchos and who are the new dons of all dons. It\u2019s like a big chess game.<\/p>\n
If I don\u2019t get another thing from this business\u2014I don\u2019t lose no sleep. Because my family is so comfortable financially, stability wise, spiritually, emotionally\u2014everybody\u2019s good. That ain\u2019t never been compromised in my 20-year run. I may not put a record out for a year, and I still generate four, five, six million dollars just touring with no current records out.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve never lost, and I don\u2019t think I\u2019ll ever lose, that fire and that passion and that drive to wanna hear myself dismantle a beat. It\u2019s as simple as that. It\u2019s the biggest feeling in the world. I don\u2019t think I\u2019ve ever gotten the kind of money that could really explain how priceless that feeling is. I\u2019m cut from the cloth of that competitive shit, which was primarily the greatest reward you could get as an MC. Before money became the thing niggas was really able to capitalize on, the respect of the bars and the punchline and the metaphor was what gave you your rank in the street. And that competitive nature is what warranted and commanded whatever you could receive in return.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s definitely my primary focus to make sure that I position the Busta Rhymes legacy in music. That and my perspective of where music should be going. That\u2019s really what it is with me and this whole \u201cConglomerate\u201d thing. I\u2019d rather be part of a team than just be on my own. I\u2019m real proud of it, and I\u2019m proud of them. We can make the world proud of all of us, too. Salute.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Check the radio or the Internet and it\u2019s clear: Busta Rhymes is relevant again. The…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29459","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-interviews"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pG6fW-7F9","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blackouthiphop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29459","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blackouthiphop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blackouthiphop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blackouthiphop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blackouthiphop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29459"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blackouthiphop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29459\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blackouthiphop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blackouthiphop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blackouthiphop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blackouthiphop.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/picture-39.png?resize=449%2C526&ssl=1\" "\\"busta")
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