Longetivity in Hip-Hop is pretty much unheard of unless you possess the true talent and heart of spitting. But 16 years and counting… That’s approaching living icon status and is a very short list alongside the likes of LL Cool J and Ice-Cube. Recently releasing his eighth album, Back On My B.S., Busta Rhymes shares with Hip-Hop Wired what keeps his fire burning and never being comfortable sitting atop Hip-Hop Mount Rushmore.
HipHopWired: Your new album, Back On My B.S, what does this album mean to you at this point and time?
Busta Rhymes: It doesn’t mean anything different from any other album. I love all of my albums a lot because they document moments in time for me. I guess this is the album that really is the first album in a long time that let me be able to control Shyte the way I’m used to controlling it. I’m feeling like I’m used to sitting behind a wheel and controlling my destiny again. This album documents this moment in time for me. I was at another situation for five years where I didn’t feel like I was able to do Shyte the way I’m used to doing Shyte and now I’m doing Shyte the way I’m used to doing Shyte and it feels good.
HipHopWired: So your label situation wasn’t the best for you in the past five years, you felt constrained in that particular paradigm?
Busta Rhymes: I felt stagnant. I didn’t feel like I was able to move at the pace I’m used to moving at. Now I feel like I can move at the pace I’m used to moving at.
HipHopWired: That’s a brilliant thing. So what was going through your mind when you were working on this project and what was the process like now that you were back to being able to have full control over the ship?
Busta Rhymes: It just felt like relief, that was really what it was though. This whole process it felt like relief. I’m able to do what I want. Feel how I want, express how I want, shape my album how I want, put together the thought process and thoroughly execute them by piecing my songs together the way I wanted to. I didn’t really have to answer to nothing or nobody and that was just the thought that was in my head at the time. This Shyte is relieving. This Shyte is like fun again, naw mean?
HipHopWired: You’ve been through a lot of trials and tribulations in the past couple years or so. How are you able to get through those difficult times?
Busta Rhymes: The easiest thing was dealing with it directly and dealing with it while it was going on. I don’t think I really had a choice to be perfectly honest with you but there really wasn’t no bobbing and weaving, ducking and dodging the situation. Everything had to be addressed head on and I think that’s the best way to deal with anything, just dealing with it. Whatever you get to when you cross them roads you deal with it whenever you reach them cross roads. All of them situations when I had to encounter them when they had to be encountered, they had to be dealt with whenever they had to be dealt with and that was pretty much it. I think a lot of that had to do with the support of my family. My family definitely rode through this Shyte regardless of what was going on. They never ever once fluctuated when it came to how they stood their ground for me. That was the best part of the whole Shyte.
HipHopWired: In performing, now a days how is it to be able to perform and have so many hits? I saw you out in Newark at the Metro PCS thing and you were just up there and they only did like 2 seconds of each song because you had so many hits. What’s it like performing now after all these years?
Busta Rhymes: It’s always been the best part of this whole Shyte for me. Being in the studio is my favorite but bringing the idea to the stage is even more so of a favorite for me. I just love to do what I do, to get on that stage and ride for the people at all times. I think that’s the most powerful component to this whole Shyte, when you can get on that stage and make believers out of people that probably didn’t believe initially.
HipHopWired: This is my next to last question. You’ve worked with some of the biggest names in Hip-Hop, R&B, even on the movie screen, having acting roles. Is there anything that you haven’t accomplished that want to get done? Or have you pretty much got your bucket list done?
Busta Rhymes: Naw, there’s a couple things that I wanna start doing. I’ve done a lot of things but I haven’t done them at the level that I wanna do them. There’s certain things that I definitely wanna take to a level that I haven’t taken it to yet. I wanna start doing them movies for $10, $15 million dollars. Know what I’m saying? Standing next to mahfu**ing Tom Cruise and Denzel Washington and them type of people like Will Smith. I wanna do that. I wanna be able to put some records out, you know we all wanna sell 10 million scan an album. So whatever destiny has ahead, we’ll see it when we get to it. In the meantime, I definitely feel like my blessings came ten times fold and they continue to come. You know as long as I can continue to do what I’m doing, at this point this Shyte is all for fun for me because I done did a whole lot and done did a whole lot in a number of ways and I continue to benefit, so it’s a beautiful thing and I’m just gonna ride this Shyte out till the wheels fall off and at that point, I think I’mma screw em’ back on and keep riding.
HipHopWired: Last question I have for you. This album, what do you have planned now? A tour? Lots more videos? What can we expect from Back On My B.S.?
Busta Rhymes: Well the album just came out so you gotta whole lot to look forward to. You gonna see more videos, we going on this Roc-a-fella tour, we gonna do this Back On My B.S tour too and we gonna really pop this Shyte off. I’m probably gonna be on the road for the rest of the year with this album because it’s a whole lot of excitement coming from the momentum and the campaign of this project and the way people is embracing this whole Shyte. We gone have a great, great ’09 with this
