Busta Rhymes: The Biggest Bang

Just weeks before the shoot out at his video, Busta Rhymes talks about his seventh studio album, executive producing Raekwons next album and why hes still one of the hottest artists in the game.

First off, you cut off your locks.
It was time. It was a 3-4 hour process to do my hair. I was getting tired of that shit. Theres too much going on in the day for me to be losing that much time out of my business day to maintain what my hair should look like. The energy wasnt feeling right no more. I got tired. This hair is reminding me of a lot of shit that I done got past. I aint in that space no more. It was like, old skin on a fucking reptile sheds. I had to shed. I got a lot of good happening now so Id rather re-grow my shit while this good is happening so I can trap all this good energy in my head and carry that shit around. Im going to grow it back eventually. Not right now cause I like the breeze in my shit.

And youre more muscular these days.
I like the stay in shape thing which is something I always did here and there because the energy on the stage is such an intense one that your cardio got to be right. Your stamina got to be right cause I like to shit on whoever Im performing with. If were performing with somebody youre not doing a better show than me. I dont give a fuck what million dollar set you have, Im going to smash you. Thats the goal that I always try to fulfill personally. We would always work out but it was never to the intense level that I started doing it lately. I guess I had a lot of time off recording this album this time. Three years recording. Before I went crazy because I never set out the game this long and it was sort of driving me crazy. I occupy myself with enough things to do productive so I dont drive myself crazy. I always put an album out every year. I wasnt used to not having a record out for 2-3 years. Im sitting around watching motherfuckers getting money, headlining big venues, doing all these big tour dates and Im just the sideline motherfucker just looking and shit. But I was able to comfortably take the back seat, which was real good for me because financially to make money you got to spend money. So when you go and do these shows you got to pay entourages, staff members. You breaking off a lot of people while you getting your bread. In the meantime, this time around I didnt need to do that. So I was stockpiling a lot of money. I was able to be around shit that I could learn from and know how to outdo when it was my turn again. The gym was one of those things. Being able to sit back and focus and analyze how the game was transitioning was another one of them things. It helped me learn how to reapply myself when it was time for me. So now is that time. So Im going to come back and show niggas a thing or two.

Whats been going on since you left J Records and signed with Aftermath?

Ive just been making my album. I left J Records, which was one of the best things I ever did. Clive is an amazing man. His establishment is just horrible when it comes to hip hop music. Hes a genius for music but not hip hop music. I hope he can fix that because he got some incredible shit over there as far as hip hop is concerned that if he provides a little more of a nourishment and a support system and a fueling and food that people could feel good about running around championing that shit on a hip hop level, it could help a lot of dudes over there that need the help. After leaving them I just been taking time off, enjoying the family. I never had the chance to do that, rushing projects out every year. I aint never made an album and took this long to do it. I was able to experiment and try a million things that I always wanted to and couldnt. Or that I always thought about doing but was a little shook about it because I felt it was a little too left for motherfuckers or a little too weird. And really assess it fully and live with it. Im able to live with a record for two, three months and revisit it and change things and correct shit and make it better. And do as much as I feel I can do to it in 6, 7 months instead of just banging out a song in 1, 2 days and never getting to live with it because Im trying to meet a deadline. This is the first album that a deadline was never even a factor in the whole recording process. Patience was my best weapon this time around.

I heard that Dre likes an artist to come in the studio and finish the track before they leave the studio.

That aint what it is with me. But its like that with Dre. Hed rather it happen quicker than slower. If yall have a vibe and you go in there and bang out its the best shit for everybody. Because motherfuckers want to hear the idea sooner than later. When I first got with Dre and he produced Break Ya Neck and all of that on the Genesis album, we did five songs in a day and a half. The ideas were just spinning off so stupid and so quick. That was exciting to him, which connected to every other dot after that and which is why we ended up in the situation we are in now doing business together. Dre works at whatever pace you work at as long as the finished product is something were all happy with. Hes a patient motherfucker. You can see he takes 6, 7 years just to put out his own shit. You dont get a Chronic every year. You get a Chronic every 6 (or) 7years. Patience is his biggest weapon. When you get his shit nobody can fuck with it. It dont matter when he drops his shit. He knows hes dominant in that sense so he never feels threatened by the way the game changes cause hes usually the one that contributes to dictating the change. I learned that in my situation, which was something I wanted to apply by taking three years to do my album. I wanted to see how much more powerfully I could make my record by being as patient as this motherfucker. If he does this shit all the time, it doesnt matter who hes fucking with, Eminem, 50, Snoop, NWA, his own shit, Game. Its like everybody comes out and does some astronomical in their first week and at the end of the project is some unbelievable scan. That aint no scam and theres a certain method to that dudes madness and I wanted to figure that shit out. I had to do the patient thing as much as it was killing me because I knew that was a part of the science: patience. You stumble over your best shit when you take your time. There was a lot of shit that wouldnt have ended up on my album if I didnt do the patient thing.

Are you executive producing Raekwons Only Built 4 Cuban Link II?

Absolutely. Its going extremely phenomenal. Im Raes biggest fan. Thats my executive producer credit. Im not telling him what to do. He knows what to do. The most that I did was tell him was stop making albums and make another movie. That record, Only Built 4 Cuban Linx was a fucking movie. They started off the album fucking making vows to each other that this was the last hooray. He was the larger than life hustler. They didnt make another album like that to me. They made albums after but they wasnt movies. That shit has a theme that was sewn and knitted so tightly from beginning to end to me that it was some shit that I personally miss. I dont see that no more. Plus them two got to be some of the greatest slick talkers on the mic that I heard. Their analogies and the punch lines and the way they would compare shit to something to give you an example of what theyre talking about. Their analogies is some shit that when you get it its such a vivid picture that I think that shit is unstoppable greatness. I just want to see it. The game needs that kind of influence right now. We were blessed to get that in (the) Golden era. Now these motherfuckers, part of the reason their shit so trash, they dont get those examples to look toward to see what they need to do. You got to do that same thing your way. You got to have that significant, obscure, genuine, stand alone shit that marks a moment in time thats timeless and thats when you get that classic title over your shit. Nas did that with Illmatic. Rakim did that with Paid In Full. PE did that with It Takes A Nation... KRS with Criminal Minded. Slick Rick with The Greatest Adventures... Dre with The Chronic and Niggaz 4 Life. Snoop with Doggystyle. Cube with Amerikkas Most Wanted. Tribe with Low End Theory and Midnight Marauders. De La (Soul) with Three Feet High. None of those albums are from the now time. Thats the shit that bugs me out. These young dudes aint getting the guidance thats needed. I just think its necessary. Raekwon, stop bullshitting. Whatever you doing, whatever you feel you going through, Im offering whatever I can to offer you the inspiration needed to get back into your Cuban Linx mindstate, even if its one more time and you dont want to ever do it again. Rae knows what he got to do. RZA knows what he got to do. Im just the one that sparked the fire big enough to get everybody back on that focus to want to go there with it. Patience is your best weapon. Thats why they taking their time. Theres no reason to rush it. Motherfuckers waited this long for the Cuban Linx project, you can wait a little bit longer so you get it the right way.

You been doing any acting lately?
I aint doing nothing with movies right now. My focus was my album. This whole situation with Aftermath and this being my seventh album and I completed it in 2005 and you add them numbers together and that shit equals 7 too. And I represent the Five Percent Nation of Islam and the number 7 represents God. So it all makes sense to me why 7 was the lucky number. I felt like all that mathematical shit wasnt calculated that way by accident. I made it my business to focus primarily on that. Making it a Godly project. I wanted it to supremely supersede everything going on. Fuck being the King of New York. God creates Kings. Thats my outlook on this whole thing. Every opportunity that I got came after the music, movies, endorsements. Theres no need for me to chase that because it chased me once my records were hot. I never went to acting school and I ended up in 6 or 7 flicks. I never asked to be an actor. I made a lot of good money acting and I will continue to do that once I turn in my album. My album comes out and completely dominates every situation going on with music. Everything else spirals out of control after that, a domino effect. I want it to happen my way instead of it happening coincidentally or in a way thats out of my control. I know exactly what I need to do and how it needs to get done. Its like a reincarnation for me. When you fall off you say, I wish that I knew the shit that I know now when I first started. Motherfucker always say that when its too late. Im able to say that, like Im still growing. I havent even primed yet. Its bugged to me that 15 years later Im doing the biggest deal of my whole career on the #1 label in the game where theres no need for them to sign anything unless its the hottest shit. Which means that Im one of the hottest shits going on 14 years later. For me, Im getting the chance to do it with the 14, 15 years of know-how all over again in the best situation I could ever be in. I dont have to say I wish I knew everything I knew now then because I know it now and Im able to apply it in a new situation as if I am doing my first deal ever. This shit couldnt get no better for me. I feel like Im living a dream right now.