Busta Rhymes

Busta Rhymes’ boisterous bars and uproarious flow have made him one of hip-hop’s most distinctive voices. Born Trevor George Smith Jr. in Brooklyn, New York in 1972, Busta Rhymes began his career as part of the collective Leaders of the New School in 1990. After recording their buoyant 1991 album A Future Without a Past, Busta made a name for himself, beginning with a freewheeling turn on A Tribe Called Quest’s iconic posse cut “Scenario”. His run as a first-pick feature artist throughout the early ‘90s built up to his apocalypse-fearing solo debut The Coming in 1996. Marrying his patois-infused rhymes to an epochal boom bap backdrop, the monster lead single “Woo Hah!! Got You All In Check” epitomised Busta’s controlled frenzy, amplified in his second effort When Disaster Strikes, which featured the career-defining “Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Could See”. Reaching the apogee of syllable manipulation with the minatory bounce of “Gimme Some More” from his lionised 1998 album Extinction Level Event: The Final World Front, Busta burnished his legacy with unruly post-millennium hits “Break Ya Neck” and “Pass the Courvoisier” from 2001’s Genesis. Launching into a third decade on even bolder beats, Busta certified his volcanic reputation as one of the all-time great cameo MCs with Chris Brown’s “Look At Me Now”, a legend he cemented with his full-circle appearances on A Tribe Called Quest’s 2016 final album We Got It from Here... Thank You 4 Your Service. In 2020, he dropped his first solo album in eight years, the tempestuous Extinction Level Event 2: The Wrath of God, which echoed the apocalyptic swagger of his earliest works.