Busta Rhymes

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Busta Rhymes

Rap musician

Without undue humility, Busta Rhymes told the Los Angeles Times, "There's no bounds to rap music, and there's no limits to what Busta Rhymes can express." The unpredictable rapper—who first achieved fame as a teenager in the group Leaders of the New School—leapt into the first rank of hip-hop with his 1996 solo debut, The Coming, and its lead single "Woo hah!! Got You All in Check." Busta's frantic delivery, explosive energy and outrageous attire cut through hip-hop's cool demeanor like a hot knife through butter. And unlike the gangsta-leaning MCs who dominated the first half of the 1990s, he expressed impatience with street credibility. "I don't want to hear about this issue of keeping it real no more," he asserted in a record company biography. "It's all hype. It's time we all saw through it." He later commented to Los Angeles Times writer Cheo Hodari Coker, "I don't just represent a 20-block radius known as my 'hood. I represent the universe."

Busta was born Trevor Smith to a Jamaican mother and U.S.-born father in Brooklyn, New York. He moved with his family to the suburbs of Long Island during his adolescence. While his deep, booming voice comes from his father, the rapper reported to Coker, "When it came down to discipline in my family, the true barker was Moms. That's where my real energetic side comes from." Only after he arrived in "Strong Island," as fellow natives and rappers Public Enemy called the borough, did Busta began to dream of rhyming. "I was mad small," he recollected in Elektra Records press materials, "but I would start entering rap contests, lip synch contests, anything to show my skills." Fortunately, he claimed, hailing from Brooklyn stood him in good stead, since "Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens was where all the good hip-hop was coming from at that time."

Busta was still in junior high school when he hooked up with another rapper, Charlie Brown. The pair eventually caught the attention of Public Enemy leader Chuck D., as well as the group's producers, Eric Sadler and Hank Shocklee. Sadler and Shocklee, known in the rap world as The Bomb Squad, helped the young Busta and his friends to refine their approach. As Busta noted in his bio, "Eric used to repeat this phrase to remind us what to concentrate on: C.L.A.M.P., which stood for Concept-Lyrics-Attitude-Music and Performance. He used to say when you get that down to a science, then you'll be there."

Refining this blend took some time, but Busta, Charlie, and their friend Dinco D. worked hard on their unison raps and choreography. After adding Busta's cousin Custmaster Milo as a DJ, they found their identity as Leaders of the New School (LONS). With the assistance of Chuck D., the quartet landed a deal with Elektra in 1989. The group's debut album, A Future Without a Past…, appeared in 1991 and was hailed by Spin magazine as "high-energy hip hop" that "recap- tures some of the giddy joys of rap." Their 1993 follow-up, T.I.M.E., also enjoyed critical raves. The hip-hop magazine The Source deemed it "a rarity in hip-hop: a sophomore album that's better than the debut," and singled out Busta's work for special praise. "Busta get[s] buttnaked and wild," the magazine proclaimed. "He growls, grunts, chants and basically continues to break all musical rules." According to Coker, "The group brought a lively energy to its shows and recordings by performing singsong routines in unison rather than the normal rap pattern of just one or two main voices. The music was accompanied by lively choreographed stomps." The group also appeared as guests on an album by "Godfather of Soul" James Brown.

Busta has cited as his influences not only old-school funk master George Clinton and rock guitar legend Jimi Hendrix, but some other figures that are, if anything, even more animated. "Secret Squirrel, Tom and Jerry, Courageous Cat," he enumerated in Spin, also adding other cartoon favorites such as Popeye and Mighty Mouse. He was able to demonstrate the range of his own cartoonish funkateer persona after Leaders took a hiatus in 1993. He put in guest appearances with R&B hitmakers Boyz II Men, hip-hop explorers A Tribe Called Quest, and many others. "The rapper has proved virtual nitroglycerin as a guest star," noted Spin writer Chris Norris. Busta also lent his presence to several films, including John Singleton's university drama Higher Learning and the rap comedy Who's the Man.

Shortly after LONS took a break, Busta—a member of the Five Percent sect of Islam—saw the birth of his son, T'ziah. He dedicated his album to the memory of another, now deceased, son, Tahiem Jr., but has not discussed this loss in the press. He spent the next few years in Brooklyn, experiencing what he described to Norris as "normal, middle-class, standard-living s-t like how I came up." By the time he'd completed his solo album, The Coming, T'ziah was three years old and, according to his proud papa, a delight. "That's the coolest age to be around kids," he told Norris. "They don't bicker, they're not looking for their moms, they just want to chill." It was the arrival of T'ziah, he insisted to Coker, that made his solo project possible. "I would never have done a solo record voluntarily," he claimed. "I love the group, and we're still gonna record albums. But now that I've had the chance to flourish and to blossom, I'm gonna capitalize on the best of both worlds."

Vocal Skills Recognized

Working with a variety of producers, Busta was able to expand his range on The Coming. In addition to the massive hit "Woo hah!!," which was complemented by a frenetic, stylized video that earned heavy rotation on MTV, the album featured "It's a Party," a duet with female soul diva Zhane. Reviews of the album were mixed from a musical standpoint, but tended to celebrate Busta's vocal skills. Rolling Stone magazine complained that "the mixes are simple, droopy and slow," but added that the rapper's "quavering rips and verbal acrobatics liven up the joint." The article concluded, "Despite his musical shortcomings, Busta Rhymes is a master MC and one of hip-hop's most jovial and vivid personalities, whose creativity on the mike may give rap a much needed shot in the arm." Coker found the album "short on deep themes but long on dazzling displays of rhyme skill." He cited the recording as proof "that there are still compelling hip-hop records to be made without dramatic narratives or weighty social politics."

Busta toured behind The Coming in an omnibus rap show that also boasted the Fugees, Cypress Hill, and A Tribe Called Quest. He promised a reunion with his LONS mates before long, but in the short term expressed nothing but gratitude. "Every time my voice is recorded," he told Coker, "I'm extremely happy. Hip-hop is paying my bills and feeding my family."

For the Record …

Born Trevor Smith c. 1972 in Brooklyn, NY; children: T'ziah.

Cofounded rap group Leaders of the New School and released Elektra Records debut, A Future Without a Past…, 1991; appeared in films Higher Learning, Who's the Man, and Strapped, 1992-94; made guest appearances on recordings by A Tribe Called Quest, Boyz II Men, Craig Mack, Bounty Killer and others, 1993-96; released solo debut, The Coming, 1996; appeared on Smokin' Grooves concert tour, 1996.

Addresses: Record company—Elektra Records, 75 Rockefeller Plaza, New York, NY 10019; 345 N. Maple Dr., Ste. 123, Beverly Hills, CA 90210.

In 1998 Busta Rhymes issued his solo debut follow-up, When Disaster Strikes. The album fared well, reaching number three on the pop charts and number one on the rhythm and blues charts. A concept loosely "framed as a pre-millennium party spinning out of control, sort of like the dark side of Prince's ‘1999,’" according to All Music Guide critic Steve Huey, the album yielded several hit singles, including "Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Can See" and "Dangerous." Guest artists on the album included Sean "Puff Daddy" Combs and Erykah Badu. Extinction Level Event (The Final World Front) was released in 1998, and featured a guest appearance by Ozzy Osbourne on a remake of the Black Sabbath heavy metal chestnut "Iron Man." In 2000 Busta released Anarchy, which appeared to some critics as a sequel or second disc of material from Extinction Level Event. Whether this assessment was fair or not, such criticism must have stung, leading Busta to veer widely from his previous sound to the uncharted territory of 2001's Genesis. For this album he enlisted the resources of Kelis, Mary J. Blidge, and P. Diddy (nee Puff Daddy), as well as production assistance from Dr. Dre and Pete Rock.

It Ain't Safe No More, released in 2002, was another solid effort, featuring such critically acclaimed songs as "Call the Ambulance" and "What Up." Despite the positive feedback, the album failed to reach the Top 40 of the Billboard album charts, prompting Busta to switch labels for his next effort, The Big Bang, which mostly displayed the artist marking time until his next creative inspiration.