Hip Hop legend Busta Rhymes made his long-awaited return as a recording artist on October 30. Extinction Level Event 2: The Wrath of God was the Brooklynite’s first official studio LP in 11 years.
ELE 2 made its entrance on the Billboard 200 chart at #7 with 38,000 first-week units. This marks the seventh project by Busta Rhymes to make it into the Top 10 of the tally.
Busta’s first album, 1996’s The Coming, peaked at #6 in 1996. His discography also includes the Top 5 sets When Disaster Strikes… in 1997 (#1), Anarchy in 2000 (#4), The Big Bang in 2006 (#1), and Back on My B.S. in 2009 (#5).
Extinction Level Event 2 was filled with high-profile guest features. Kendrick Lamar provided a rare verse for the track “Look Over Your Shoulder.” Rakim, Pete Rock, M.O.P., Bell Biv Devoe, Q-Tip, Rick Ross, Rapsody, Mariah Carey, Mary J. Blige, Chris Rock, and others made appearances as well.
Elsewhere on the most recent Billboard 200 rankings, Trippie Redd’s Pegasus debuted at #2. Pop Smoke’s Shoot for the Stars, Aim for the Moon remained at #3. Juice WRLD’s Legends Never Die slipped from #6 to #5. Lil Baby’s My Turn dropped one rung to #8.
Queen Naija’s debut studio album, Missunderstood, started off at #9. The YouTuber-turned-signed artist previously dropped a self-titled EP in 2018 which hosted the Platinum-certified singles “Medicine,” “Karma,” and “Butterflies.”