Busta Rhymes, without a doubt is one of the most enthusiastic/lively rappers to ever grace the hip hop scene. This large man, with long thick dreadlocks flowing out of his head always seems to be dancing, running around or changing his facial expression to impress the crowds, media, people surrounding him etc. And guess what....it works !
Busta Rhymes most crucial year regarding his career was in 1983. Unfortunately, at this time the 12 year old boy that was Busta Rhymes was experiencing the trials and tribulations of his parents going through a divorce. He discovered hip hop music through listening to the Zulu Beats Radio Show, something influenced him from that show and three years later he would form a group.
Busta’s time during the year of 1983 was that of change, his parents got divorced and his way of thinking was altered, during that year he also changed his religious beliefs and re-named himself ‘Born Justice God Allah’ because of the supreme sorts of names that he now believed in and looked up to.
Anyway, Busta’s first trip into the world of hip hop was when he went to Turtlehook Junior High School, Uniondale, Long Island. In 1986, he, along with a man named Charlie Brown, another guy named Dinco D and Bustas cousin Milo formed the ‘Leaders Of The New School.’
In 1989, ‘Leaders Of The New School’ or ‘LONS’ signed a record deal with Elektra Records and within two years the group had their first album out, ‘Future Without A Past.’ The first single off of that album was the wacky ‘Case Of The PTA.’
Problems arose with the group though, because all the members were very competitive with one another. Busta being the most competitive and always trying to outshine the rest of the group, in-between their first album and their second album Busta was chucked out of the group twice.
1993 saw the disappointing second album by the LONS released ; ‘T.I.M.E.’ the main reason that this album was disappointing was because the amount of competition within the group showed on the album. A few months after the release of the second album the group broke up and Busta started his quest to become a successful solo artist by featuring madly with guest appearances on tracks by Heavy D, Big Daddy Kane, Artifacts, Craig Mack and more.
Three years later, Busta re-signed with Elektra and released the gold-selling album ‘The Coming.’ The first single off of this album was another weird but good track ‘Woo Hah !’ in which Busta just went crazy on.
Busta became a success and shortly after introduced his new crew, the crew were soon to be known as the ‘Flipmode Squad’ the group consisted of Busta, Rampage (Busta’s cousin), Lord Have Mercy (a man with a Nate Dogg/DV alias Khrist sort of voice), Serious, Spliff Star, Baby Cham, Rah Digga and their DJ, DJ Skratch-A-Tour. Busta has also had a film career, he started in HBO’s ’Strapped’ in 1993, along with the epic film ’Who’s The Man ?’ and a hard hitting racially orientated drama, John Singletons ’Higher Learning.’
There was a short gap between the release of Busta’s first album and his second album, but it came sooner than people imagined it to. Busta was sceptical about bootleggers copying the new album so for reviewing purposes he only sent out album samplers. In September, 1997, ‘When Disaster Strikes’ struck the world. The album was amazing and European heads had a better experience than the US ones. They had the extra, sexually detailed track ‘It’s All Good’ which was banned by the US government for release in the US. The single for ‘When Disaster Strikes’ was also a smash hit ; ‘Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Could See’ blew up fully, but once again Europeans managed to receive the best track, the Desert Eagle Discs remix of ‘Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Could See’ was phenomenal, it was much better than the original but the original was my no means a bad track.
Busta and the Flipmode Squad recently created their own line in designer clothing, ‘Bushi’ which for some reason is short for bullshit. Why call your own clothing label bullshit. In September of 1998, the Flipmode Squad dropped their dope debut album ’The Imperial’ closely followed by Bustas third ’E.L.E.’(Extinction Level Event) which featured various artists including Ozzy Osbourne and the one and only Janet Jackson !
Busta has said he’ll drop another LP in ’99, he’s dropping albums very frequently because he believes that in 2000 the world will end.
Each of Busta’s subsequent albums, 1997’s "When Disaster Strikes...," 1998’s "E.L.E. : Extinction Level Event : The Final World Front," 2000’s "Anarchy" and 2001’s "Genesis," was certified platinum and demonstrated that the wiry rapper was a pillar of consistency in a genre in which heroes are discarded as quickly as they are crowned.
