Busta Rhymes: The AllHipHop Interview, Pt. 2

Busta Rhymes: The AllHipHop Interview, Pt. 1AllHipHop.com: How much of  Blessed is going to be carried over to B.O.M.B.?

 

Busta Rhymes: Probably about 20% ,when I got my

new situation with Sylvia, the queen, I was so inspired to make new heat for

her, and for myself because I was just so inspired. The new situation was sexy,

the deal was sexy, the money was sexy.  The whole spirit of the situation felt

good I was living in that studio like I had no family to come home to. And a

lot of great things came out of that energy and there was no reason to not

display it on this project.  Especially if she is the one responsible for this project being

able to happen.  So I wanted

to make sure that I put my best foot forward for Sylvia Rhone cause she was the

one who was making this all become a reality.

 

AllHipHop.com: Now “Arab Money” is becoming another big Busta Rhymes hit but it’s not the most politically correct

title. Have you felt any type of backlash from that at all?

 

Busta Rhymes: Nah I mean I been hearing little salt and pepper sprinkles

about concern for some people.  But

obviously that concern is not stopping the growth of the record.  And I really only respect the concern

of the Arab culture.  You know I ain’t really trying to pay no

attention to people in these positions of political positions, and executive

positions that ain’t Arab culture oriented

people.  Because, a lot of the

times you know, What are you really showing all this

concern for? Is it concern for the people or concern for your job? A lot of

people feel like, something, things that may be risqué in their opinion, is in

these times not the thing to be doing. Because the most

irrelevant thing can be justified as a reason to fire somebody nowadays.

Nobody is safe, this recession has f**ked the whole game up and everybody is on

they eggshells when they walk around. So I just feel like that’s really more so

what it’s about than anything  and until I get some direct  awareness of the Arab culture having an issue, we’re going

to continue to move forward with our campaign.

 Busta Rhymes “I Got Bass” Video

AllHipHop.com: There aren’t many top notch

producers that you haven’t worked with. Are there any two or three that you

wish you have or are looking forward to work with?

 

Busta Rhymes: Premo, never worked with him. Always

wanted to work with Primo.  I just recently

got some beats from Premo that I’m starting to really

feel after waiting for years to just get a beat from Premo

‘cause Premo’s book was always so locked in with

projects that he was working on that he would schedule you months down the

line.  And by the time he’s ready

for you if you ain’t sitting

around and waiting your project is done by the time he’s available. So that has

happened with me and him for like the last four albums.

I never worked with Kanye he never produced a track

for me I always liked Kanye’s production. I think

that’s it, for right now.

 

AllHipHop.com: Of those you have worked with who

were the most special?

 

Busta Rhymes: J Dilla, Dr. Dre,

Nottz, Dj Scratch, Pharrell, Cool & Dre.

 

AllHipHop.com: What was working with Dilla

like?

 

Busta Rhymes: Dilla was just…perfection to me

cause he always made s**t that you knew you needed without telling him what you

needed. He knew what I needed and he just knew how to do it.  And then if he ever asked me what I

needed I couldn’t tell him cause the words couldn’t describe what he gave me. I

wish I could tell somebody what he gave me so I could try to get it from

somebody else. But I couldn’t even tell him and he still knew what I needed;

gave it to me every time. That’s why he’s been on every solo album I’ve ever

made from day one.  I never

finished an album without Dilla.  So you know, he’s “one” on my list of

favorite producers of all time.

AllHipHop.com: Now looking at the Busta

Rhymes catalogue and looking at the discography of what you’ve done, whenever

there is a top five discussion your name should be in there. But at times your

name doesn’t come up. How do you feel about that?

 

Busta Rhymes: I don’t feel anything about it. I never really concerned

myself with s**t like that cause, what you gonna do? 

All I know how to do is what I been doing, and at the end of the day,

that’s smashing mothaf**kas

in every way across the board. A n***a could never

really say he bust my ass on a record. 

N***a can never say you bust my ass in a stage show.  So as far as I’m concerned I don’t need

to say anything about any of these things when the fact of the truth is

undisputed. ‘Cause people may not put me in they top five but whenever you ask

them who’s nicer than me? 

 

When it comes to the records

that be rhymed on together if you hear me on “Flava

in Ya Ear (Remix),”  or “Scenario” or whatever

records you want to pull up and see me collaborate with mothaf**kas.  How many

times you hearing a mothaf**ka really saying, “Yo Bust got his ass whooped on this record.”? I don’t think you ever heard that in your life.  And when it comes to these stage shows

whoever you gonna hear say, “Yo

this n***a bust Busta Rhymes and them n****s on the

stage.”  I don’t think you ever heard

that neither.

 

I really think at the end of

the day, a lot of the peoples top five are the people that they are told on a

regular basis are top five.  It’s

kind of like a symptom out of sight of mind. So if you hearing Jay-Z, Nas, Biggie all the time, that’s what’s going to come out

of everybody’s mouth just like you hear a record on the radio all the time, it

don’t matter if it’s not hot, it becomes a hit. So it becomes

conditioning.  How your train of

thought has been conditioned to function and over the years that’s what you

hear. 

 

Even nowadays, as hard as

Wayne has been going in for four or five years, how many times do you hear him

in n****s top 5’s?  That’s some

recent s**t now that you’re starting to hear him in n****s top 5’s.  I wasn’t hearing this three years ago and

he was going just as crazy three years ago.  For the last three years he’s actually been putting in more

work than anybody as far producing material from mixtapes

to cameos to features. But again it’s like you gotta condition these people. How you campaign, that

helps to change the dynamic of what you hear out of people’s mouths.  I never made it my business to campaign

being in n****s top 5’s.  I never

felt that I needed to and that’s just the kinda

cloth that I was cut from.  We

don’t’ self proclaim our hotness. 

You let the people do that. You put the work in and let the people do

that.  

Leaders of the New School “The International Zone Coaster” Video

AllHipHop.com:

You got your first deal at 17. You’re still here, an elder

statesmen doing his thing. If you wrote a manual how would

you explain to these up and coming MCs how not to fall off? 

Busta Rhymes: By having they concept,

lyrics, music, attitude and performance together, and that’s it in a

nutshell.  I was taught that by

Chuck D, the acronym is C.L.A.M.P. 

If you got a clamp on your package as a well-rounded artist you gon’ have a clamp and a lock on the game. So I always

applied that to my own s**t. Concepts,

that’s why from the first album with Leaders of The New School, you look at the

back [of the album] and you see the first couple tracks is “homeroom” and the

next couple songs is “lunchroom.” Lunchtime and the last couple songs was “afterschool.”

We had to draw the whole album package on notebook paper and come to the label

like, “This is what we want to do, Leaders of The New School is the name, and

we want to do this school s**t.” You know the afterschool fights so we would

have “Show Me a Hero” which is me beefing with a bully in school and songs like

that.  Lunchroom would be “Sounds

of the Zeekers” with of all of the f**kin’ n****s we

had on the record, because in the lunch room you and all your boys was in there

beat boxin’ and freestylin’

and snapping on each other and just bugging out. 

 

Lyrics

is always important because nothing was more important to garnish your

respect in being a MC. As a lyricist your attitude

got to be right because if you’re an a###### mothaf**kas won’t want to f**k with you.  Your appearance got to be right cause when you walk in a room

you got to light the room up without even talking.  You got to be able to look like a star and be the star when

you ain’t got the

microphone. Your music of course,

production always got to be the super dope hot s**t. And you performance at the end of the day is

the end all says all.  N****s come out  spending

they money to see you when they could be doing something else. You want to make

sure they getting their money’s worth. 

Leaders of the New School “Case of the P.T.A.” Video 

AllHipHop.com: Damn, that mantra you described

could be used by a gang of today’s newer artists. Even

some of the older ones.

 

Busta Rhymes: That was the grooming that we was

blessed to be around though. 

That’s the Public Enemy they was a direct, influence on everything we

did. They were our standard of approval. If we didn’t meet their standard of

approval it wasn’t gonna

happen.  So we had to work to

garnish our respect in the immediate circle before the people even had a chance

to be exposed to it.

 

AllHipHop.com:

So what’s good with the acting man?

 

Busta Rhymes: I just did a movie called Order of Redemption with Tom Beringer and Armand Asante. It’s coming out next year like

April/May. I ain’t

playin’ with [acting]. I mean I stopped doing that

for a second trying to focus on this music while I was over at Aftermath trying

to get a whole other level success acquired.  That didn’t happen based on the way things played out.  But we nose diving headfirst into the

movie world and getting it poppin’.  We just knocked down Order of Redemption and we got two more

lined up.

 

AllHipHop.com: Who is your greatest MC, and who is your favorite MC?

 

Busta Rhymes: Hmm…greatest MC and favorite MC…

 

AllHipHop.com: Got you on that one huh?

 

Busta Rhymes: Yeah that’s a hard one, my greatest MC I would have to say

it’s several of them, it’s not one.

[Big Daddy] Kane was one of ‘em,

Rakim was another one of ‘em.  Nas, BIG,

Eminem, those are my favorite MCs. 

 

Greatest MC, I would probably

have to say, between Nas and BIG.  LL Cool Jwas one of favorites too.  But I say Nas and BIG because they

was lyrically crazy…wait, I can’t forget Sick Rick yo. Slick Rick is in the favorite MC category too.  I mean greatest MC category too.  Because, he did s**t

with words and told stories at the same time. Because sometimes a mothaf**ka be a dope story teller

but it would compromise how ill they were lyrically.  Then it’ll be a ill lyrical mothaf**ka but wasn’t as crazy with the stories, but to

have the dynamic of both. I would say [it] is Nas and

Big and Slick Rick.  

 

AllHipHop.com: When listen to a Busta

Rhymes record it kind of reminds me of KRS-1 always harping on real MCs having

many styles. The way you deliver on one record may be complete different from

the flow on the next one. What you you attribute that

too?

 

Busta Rhymes: That just came about as a result of trying to marry with

whatever the beat was that I rhymed on. I never felt that it would make sense

to try and sound the same on beats. Unless you rhyming on the same type of

beat, beats vary sonically in so many ways that if you can marry with whatever

direction the beat is going sonically it’s gonna

automatically bring about just the many different styles that ultimately are

brought about.  I don’t really

think about how I’m gonna

get on a beat I just let the beat dictate it. Following the music usually is

the best way to allow the style to transition or to change or to give birth to themselves. Following the beat just helps make the rhyme

sound iller to me.  You know it’s like you play dodgeball

with the kicks and the snares and, you find pockets in the beat that your

regular cliché flow rhyme pattern ain’t gon’ maximize if you rhymes the same way on every beat. So

why won’t you adjust your s**t to fit with what the beat is doing so that you

can maximize the way your going to sound on this beat?  That’s what I always thought was the

smartest thing to do.

 Busta Rhymes “Gimme Some More” Video

AllHipHop.com: Do you always have the beat first or do you ever

have concepts for songs beforehand?

 

Busta Rhymes: I have concepts for songs before the beat, but I won’t

write to it until I get the right beat to go with the concept.  You feel what I’m saying? If I write a

certain joint or one to a beat prior to getting the beat, the way it might come

across could compromise you appreciating the concept if it ain’t being said right. If the flow ain’t right, if the way you

articulating your s**t at certain parts of what the beat is doing it’ll

compromise how you appreciate the concept. Like the grave digging joint

[“Legend of the Fall Offs”] on Big Bang,

I couldn’t rhyme how I did on “Touch It” on that beat because you wouldn’t

appreciate it in the same way. Just like with “Touch it”.  You see how the beat changes?  I had to write my rhyme to the way the

beat was changing so you could appreciate the… “TURN IT UP!!!!” and then the

drums change and s**t “GET LOW BUST!!!” (beatboxes

the track). All of that is just following what the beat is doing.  It helps you appreciate the concept

better if you going with the beat and marrying that beat the way you should.

 

AllHipHop.com: Are

you still doing business at all with Papoose and Kay Slay?

 

Busta Rhymes: Nah we’re not in business

together but you know me and Slay we’re always gonna

be peoples cause we just got a respect level with each other. Slay is a good

dude and smart dude and we just always been cool.  And like every relationship everybody go through they little

differences, and you know we wasn’t able to really get it poppin’

on the whole business level together but outside of that, we good. 

 Busta Rhymes “Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Can See” Video

AllHipHop.com: From what you told me, and correct me if I’m wrong,

but it seems like your time with Aftermath slowed you up and affected all your

other ventures, no?

 

Busta Rhymes: Indirectly, because that was a choice thing. It wasn’t

really like Aftermath caused that. I personally wanted to give my undivided

attention to the Aftermath situation so I chose to not be as active in the

films. Which probably wasn’t the smartest choice at the time but that’s just

where my heart was.  I wanted to

make sure that the dedication that I needed meet the standard, in that establishment;

it had to be focus one. I made choice and that was my choice.  Like, “Just put your all into this

album over here.” In the house with the big doctor and when he come to the

table with his s**t that’s gon’ be crazy, you want to

be able to come to the table with your s**t that’s gon

be crazy.  I didn’t want anybody to

get in the way of me being able to deliver the crazy that was expected of

me. 

 

AllHipHop.com: Last question. B.O.M.B.,

what can people expect?

 

Busta Rhymes: The most phenomenal body of work that you’ve ever gotten

from Busta Rhymes. The beauty about Busta Rhymes is I’m as great as my latest.  And if this is my latest project it got

to supersede everything that’s been done prior so you’re gonna get the most phenomenal body of work to date

that you can get from me.  And last

but not least it’s gon be that vintage Busta Rhymes feeling that people have always known to grow

and love without us trying to re-create that sonically.  So we aint

going to got try and re-create “Put Ya Hands (Where

my Eyes Can See),” and we aint trying to re-create

“Woo Haa.” 

There’s so much new s**t with the music going on with this project that people

need to be introduced to because I constantly like to grow and take to another

standard level sonically. But I definitely made sure that even thought there’s a newness with the sound, the element that you’ve known to

grow and love me for is at an abundance as far as the feeling in this album. Busta Rhymes “Don’t Touch Me (Throw Da Water On ‘Em)” Video