Busta Rhymes: the James Brown of hip-hop, there's no use coming on stage after him

August 22, 2012 7:04 AM

Busta Rhymes is back with his 9th studio album, Year of the Dragon. It's free* for a limited time from Google Play, and also available to stream and download from DatPiff**. If that wasn't enough, Google Play put together a 21 minute biographical documentary on Busta Rhymes, with Busta and some close collaborators talking about his last 20 years.

* Free from Google Play to stream, or free to download with an account, which requires you to enter a credit/debit card.
** Free stream, and free to download with an account, which doesn't require credit card info.

If that's still not enough, there's a lot of streaming media, like the full hour-long set from 2012 Brooklyn Hip Hop Festival (YT HD; alt: Vimeo HD), which was featured throughout the 21 minute documentary.

10 years ago: Busta Rhymes & Spliff Star Live in Germany (22 minutes on YouTube)

And if you just want a bunch of music, here are a the full albums on YouTube: The Coming (1996, single video), and When Disaster Strikes... (1997, single video); E.L.E. (Extinction Level Event): The Final World Front (1998, playlist), and Anarchy, Genesis, and some best of comps (2000, 2001, etc, tracks from a YouTube user).

posted by filthy light thief (33 comments total)

WOO-HA!!! HE'S GOT YOU ALL IN CHECK
posted by the painkiller at 7:12 AM on August 22, 2012 [4 favorites]

I GOT THAT HEAD NOD SH**T THAT'LL BREAK YO NECK!
posted by NiteMayr at 7:16 AM on August 22, 2012 [2 favorites]

WOO-HA!!! HE'S GOT YOU ALL IN CHECK

Several months ago I was pleased to find this phrase is older than I'd previously thought.
posted by The Great Big Mulp at 7:23 AM on August 22, 2012 [1 favorite]

Obligatory clip of his appearance with Martha Stewart at the 2010 MTV VMAs
posted by argonauta at 7:35 AM on August 22, 2012 [1 favorite]

google play seems to be truncating the tracks
posted by idiopath at 7:36 AM on August 22, 2012

google play seems to be truncating the tracks

You need to add the album to your account (click the Free Album button where the Purchase button would normally be on the bottom)
posted by sparklemotion at 7:39 AM on August 22, 2012

Free on Google Play for a time... to Americans.
posted by opsin at 7:52 AM on August 22, 2012 [1 favorite]

I've been following Busta Rhymes since he was in LONS, and own a bunch of his albums. I liked his stuff a lot more when it seemed like he was having fun and went to the gym less often. Can anyone imagine today's Busta doing the ODB remix of Woo-ha!! ?
posted by 1adam12 at 7:58 AM on August 22, 2012

WOO-HA!!! HE'S GOT YOU ALL IN CHECK

Several months ago I was pleased to find this phrase is older than I'd previously thought.

It was originally used by Russian Tsar Nicholas II referring to Emanuel Lasker, after he won the St. Petersburg 1914 chess tournament. Emanuel Lasker was also named the first Grandmaster by Nicholas II, setting up a series of tournaments and title changes that led to the eventual rise of Grandmaster Flash in the 80s.

I hope this has enlightened you.
posted by jaduncan at 8:04 AM on August 22, 2012 [9 favorites]

Of course, the lower ranked Master Gee is where your link comes in.
posted by jaduncan at 8:05 AM on August 22, 2012 [1 favorite]

Flipmode is the greatest
posted by 0bvious at 8:07 AM on August 22, 2012 [1 favorite]

opsin: Free on Google Play for a time... to Americans.

DatPiff seems more open, and I don't think they'll pull the album after Google Play starts charging for it, though I could be wrong. You can stream the whole thing there without signing in, though that site uses a pop-up for the audio. Mtv Rap Fix has an embedded album streaming widget from DatPiff, if you want to keep the player in a separate tab. There are also some blogs that have the album as a direct-download zip, if you want to skip all the log-in stuff.


1adam12: I liked his stuff a lot more when it seemed like he was having fun and went to the gym less often.

Yeah, this album isn't as much boisterous fun as some of his past work, but I still dig it. And hey, it's (mostly) free.
posted by filthy light thief at 8:12 AM on August 22, 2012

Sorry! Music on Google Play is not available in your country yet.
We're working to bring the content you love to more countries as quickly as possible.
Please check back again soon.
posted by Shepherd at 8:38 AM on August 22, 2012

Free on Google Play for a time... to Americans.

Free on Google Play for a time... to people who can use an open US proxy from a handy list on the internet.

As a to-be-lawyer, I wouldn't be able to recommend doing that from the UK due to copyright restrictions, and nor would I be bobbing my head as Mr. Rhymes keeps both me and surrounding people in check.

Google have a blog with free music every day, by the way.
posted by jaduncan at 8:41 AM on August 22, 2012 [1 favorite]

This is awesome! Just yesterday I was thinking of starting an Ask thread for Mefi's best Busta recommendations. I've never been a rap fan until the last several years but I've been really impressed with the little I've heard of him on guest tracks.
posted by something something at 9:22 AM on August 22, 2012

A real Busta Rhymes fan knows what rhyme to quote when speaking of Busta Rhymes
posted by Rocket Surgeon at 10:01 AM on August 22, 2012 [4 favorites]

so bad it's AMAZING: Busta Rhymes - Arab Money
posted by raihan_ at 10:12 AM on August 22, 2012

Arab Money (Remix), part 1, part 2, and part 3 (audio only). Yes, the track was extended for three move tracks, and two more videos. Better yet, it sampled actual Arabic, but someone decided sampling the Quran was a good idea in the first Remix part. The Narcicyst responded with The Real Arab Money, and Busta actually called The Narcicyst and apologized.
posted by filthy light thief at 10:43 AM on August 22, 2012

this is awesome! Just yesterday I was thinking of starting an Ask thread for Mefi's best Busta recommendations.

Good luck finding it, but there is a track from a decade ago called "So Gutta" with Busta and Sonja Blade that is so good. Him and Blade trade rhymes back and forth the whole track, coming in and out. Busta's rhymes mostly end with 'yall', but his delivery makes it work and his energy on the track is so perfect.
posted by cashman at 10:56 AM on August 22, 2012

Looks like the only reference on Discogs is this unofficial single, where she's listed as Sonya instead of Sonja. It's track 10 on this mixtape on Mixcloud, starting at 19 minutes in or so.
posted by filthy light thief at 11:36 AM on August 22, 2012

"You wanna climb up in it? You tryin'a make it yours? Ass so big, chewin' on my drawls.."

Yup, Busta is back. Fun album. Nothing masterly.. will definitely throw it on next time I'm blazin'
posted by ReeMonster at 11:59 AM on August 22, 2012

So is there a term for Busta Rhymes' flow when he's "rappin' fast"? It strikes me odd I've never seen it discussed, since it's (to my ears) one of the most distinctive things about his performance.
posted by therealadam at 12:21 PM on August 22, 2012

therealadamb, in the 21 minute docu, he just calls it "fast rapping," and notes that there are a lot of young folks covering his style.
posted by filthy light thief at 1:22 PM on August 22, 2012

That fast style was popular in the early to mid nineties. You can hear it in groups like Das EFX, Fu Schnickens, and Lords of the Underground
posted by Rocket Surgeon at 2:31 PM on August 22, 2012 [2 favorites]

It always shocks me how young he is. I was like a teenager when Woo-Ha got big, and he wasn't much older than me at the time.
posted by smoke at 7:03 PM on August 22, 2012 [1 favorite]

Has he ever properly addressed the possibility that his more-recent gangster posturing schtick got one of his bodyguards/friends killed?

Unless I am misremembering, there was a lot of unsavory stuff relating to that incident.
posted by broadway bill at 8:02 PM on August 22, 2012

THERE'S ONLY -12 YEARS LEFT!
posted by Theta States at 9:53 PM on August 23, 2012 [2 favorites]

I'm pretty sure "fast rapping" grew out of Kool Moe Dee's "speed rapping", of which you can hear a brief example at about 4:05 in this rap battle from 1981.
posted by The Great Big Mulp at 9:41 AM on August 24, 2012

Mulp, did you see that bit Moe Dee behind the scenes story that TVONE did a few weeks ago?
posted by cashman at 9:51 AM on August 24, 2012

No, I didn't! I should try and find it somewhere.
posted by The Great Big Mulp at 10:34 AM on August 24, 2012

Somewhere. And funny enough, within the first 5 seconds, they say "Moe was the fast rhyme innovator." I watched 3/4ths of it (and of course remember the battles between him and LL), but somehow I'd never located him as the originator of fast rhyming. There is a good section on it in there about half way through though.
posted by cashman at 11:38 AM on August 24, 2012 [2 favorites]

I'm sure fast rapping came along as soon as MCs started rapping along to the DJ, but it really wasn't a popular style outside of a few MCs. Leaders of the New School came along in the early 90's as part of Native Tongue, right in the midst of when that style was really big. That trend mostly died out in the mid nineties and others become favorable; Biggie probably had a little something to do with that. As a matter of fact if you listen to what type of style Jay-Z was using early on, it is quite faster than what he relied on just a short while later when he really got big.
posted by Rocket Surgeon at 11:45 AM on August 24, 2012

Thanks, cashman! Now that I'm home from work, I'll give it a watch. But, yeah, I think I got that about Kool Moe Dee being credited for the fast rapping style from Yes Yes Y'all. (I think -- I've done a lot of reading about hip hop in the 70's and early 80's over the past year, so I could be wrong about where I got that.)
posted by The Great Big Mulp at 3:54 PM on August 24, 2012