Brooklyn rapper Busta Rhymes is one one Hip Hop's most recognizable names but personally Ive associated him with the popular, mainstream side of the music due to his presences on MTV back in the day. With my journey through the 90s era Ive heard him appearing on many records, The Low End Theory, Project Funk Da World, Warriorz etc... changing my mind on where he stands. Looking over is list of features its clear he runs in some of the circles I'm yet to get around to but the point is hes a classic 90s era rapper and his debut record as a solo artist seemed like a great place to start.
Departing from Leaders Of The New School, Busta shows his strengths as a lone force, being the records biggest flavor, his hard hitting, energetic, charismatic flow has the rhymes spitting in an ever changing variety of styles. His words drop with texture and hype as he constantly shifts the persona and delivery. Its slightly manic, schizophrenic, his snap "ha" and crooked laughs in the backup track reinforce the mania that his flow creates. He has pace and emphasizes the mid point of longer words, bringing them into the rhyme flow, doubling up the on sentence endings. He also jumps on and off the tempo of the beat, regularly ramping up extra rhymes into the end of bars and shifting his pitch for various words and laughs. His distinct and clearly gifted style gives a lot of oomph to the record. Not many of rhymes stuck in my mind but with exception to one or two tracks Busta's flow was engaging and fun to follow for the runtime.
The albums production was handled by Busta himself and a couple other producers like DJ Scratch and Easy Mo Bee contributed tracks. The result is a rather mediocre collection of beats that don't have much of an over bearing theme or style to hold it together. Generally the beats steer to a more bombastic and darker leaning. Dub and Reggae influences emerge on some tracks but nothing defining. The album has one R&B, radio friendly song "It's A Party", which just so happened to be a single. Its a reasonable record, Busta's ability to rhyme really carries it but without him it would of been quite the lull despite quite a few big names in the features.
Favorite Tracks: Do My Thing, Everything Remains Raw, Woo Hah!
Rating: 5/10