Busta Rhymes Bio - The Hip Hop Insider (2024)

“And I gotta cut all through this traffic

Just to be at the top of the throne. Better know I gotta have it! (Have it!)”

That, fellow hip hop fans, is all I can ever say clearly when I attemptthatinfamous Busta Rhymes verse.

Ever since Chris Brown dropped his hit single “Look at Me Now” in 2011, rapper wannabes like me have had our tongues twisted every time we try to spit Busta’s lines. Nine times out of ten, the result is the same: several botched words, a sheepish chuckle, and a fruitless return to the 1:06 mark of the song (1:31, if you’re watching the beautiful Colin Tilley-helmed video).

Busta’s verse on “Look at Me Now” is but a glimpse of the rapid-fire style that made him famous in the late ’90s and early aughts. During a particularly prolific stretch, the Brooklyn-based rapper dropped one fiery album every year from 1996 to 2002 (with the exception of 1999, because….reasons). If you were a recording artist at this time and you had the privilege of getting a Busta appearance on your album, you knew that track would be rolling in the Benjamins.

How many rappers can claim that they were active in the Golden Age of the late ’80s andthat they dropped a Billboard-charting album in 2020? For these and all his other accomplishments, Busta Rhymes deserves to be properly immortalized as an elder statesman of hip hop who’s had a legendary career.

(Has anyone actually mastered that “Look at Me Now” verse? I’ll believe it when I see it.)

Quick Facts

Early Years

Trevor Smith Jr. was born on May 20, 1972 in Brooklyn, New York. Both of his parents—Trevor Smith Sr. and Geraldine Green—trace their roots to Jamaica. This Caribbean heritage would be heard loud and clear in Busta’s music, which is infused with Jamaican rhythm as well as island slang. (In a 2020 appearance on the Drink Champs podcast, Busta went as far as to claim that “hip hop was given birth to by Caribbean culture.” Bold claim? Kind of.)

As a kid, Trevor Jr. had the privilege of witnessing the fledgling years of hip hop unfolding in New York. How could a young man not develop a passion for the emerging genre after watching epic battles between The Cold Crush Brothers and Force MDs? Long before hip hop penetrated the country’s mainstream distribution, young Trevor was one of the fortunate few who saw the genre’s humble beginnings on the streets. (Busta also points to “Rapper’s Delight” by The Sugarhill Gang as a particularly influential track that fanned the flames of his passion.)

When he was 12, Trevor Jr. and his family moved to Uniondale, Long Island. In his teenage years, he went to George Westinghouse Career and Technical Education High School (which is just the type of kilometric name that Busta Rhymes would spit in his complex verses!). This Brooklyn institution also happens to be the former school of DMX and The Notorious B.I.G. Talk about hallowed ground!

But it was another student at George Westinghouse that Trevor would famously cross paths with in the lunchroom. It was only a matter of time before Trevor engaged in a rap battle with a boy named Shawn Carter—the future Jay-Z. In the end, the emcee from Marcy Projects came out on top. During his 2020 appearance on the85 South Showpodcast, Busta said that he regretted not getting his rematch with Hov at the time.

He went on to recount how he honed his abilities after the loss: “I ended up getting my skillset developed to the point where I don’t think nobody want to f*ck with a nigg* now.” That’s hip hop for you, folks: no losses, just lessons and an impending comeback.

The Birth of Busta

Trevor eventually moved to Uniondale High School, where he would meet other emcees that would be instrumental to the launch of his career. First, during his junior year, he started performing with an emcee named Bryan Higgins (who would later go by the stage name Charlie Brown). The collective act of Trevor and Bryan would soon catch the attention of Carlton “Chuck D” Ridenhour, a Long Island native who comprised one-half of the duo Public Enemy. Chuck D then took the two young rappers under his wing, mentoring them in the ways of hip hop performance.

As a matter of fact, it was Chuck D who came up with Trevor’s stage name. Apparently, Chuck thought that Trevor’s intensity as a performer was comparable to the aggression of a football player. As such, he suggested the name Busta Rhymes, inspired by Minnesota Vikings wide receiver George “Buster” Rhymes. Though Trevor hated the name at first, he warmed up to it after seeing how his audience grew comfortable with the moniker. From then on, Trevor would be—irrevocably—Busta Rhymes.

Even as Busta and Charlie Brown worked on their rhymes, they bolstered their ranks with a couple more friends that they met at Uniondale High. These were Sheldon “Cut Monitor Milo” Scott and James “Dinco D” Jackson (who also happened to be a turntablist). In 1989, the four young artists officially came together to create Leaders of the New School.

The group’s ties to Chuck D proved to be pivotal on two fronts. First, Public Enemy made Leaders of the New School their opening act, allowing Busta and the rest of the boys to gain valuable experience on a bigger stage than any of them had ever graced before. Second, it was Chuck D who helped the quartet secure a deal with Elektra Records in 1989. (I guess this proves the old adage right: it’s not about what you know, it’s about whomyou know. Yes, it’s whom, not who.)

Leaders of the New School made their official debut with the track “Mt. Airy Groove,” which appeared on the 1990 compilation album Rubáiyát (which commemorated Elektra Records’ 40th anniversary). The Leaders went on to release two studio albums: 1991’sA Future without a Pastand 1993’sT.I.M.E.In between these album releases, they also appeared on the 1992 EPScenario by A Tribe Called Quest.

The Leaders Part Ways

However, it appeared that the group already showed signs of fracturing even before their first album came out. In a later interview, Busta used an example to prove that the writing was on the wall as early as 1991: “That’s why, if you go to the first Leaders album [and] you hear ‘Too Much on My Mind,’ I don’t got a verse on it.”

Of course, the most publicized episode of in-fighting among the Leaders was their 1993 appearance onYo! MTV Raps.The cameras captured a verbal altercation between Busta Rhymes and Charlie Brown, who didn’t seem particularly enthused by his long-time buddy’s impending solo run. Throw in the fact that Busta—and none of the other Leaders—had shot scenes for the 1993 comedyWho’s the Man?shortly before theirMTV Rapsappearance, and you have all the makings of an implosion.

In the end, who was to blame for the Leaders’ break-up? Was it Busta, who wasn’t exactly shy about stealing the show every time the group performed? Was it Charlie Brown or any of the other members, who could have handled Busta’s solo run more gracefully?

For what it’s worth, Dinco D later claimed that music executives (especially Elektra’s Dante Ross) were mainly responsible for the Leaders’ implosion. In a 2014 interview withThe Real Hip-Hop,Dinco D said, “They don’t really care about groups and the essence of it as long as they got a hand in it and they’re controlling something…They take the key element out, or what’s hot right now, and get rich off of it.”

A Sensational Solo Debut

Starting in the early ’90s, Busta made several guest appearances on other artists’ tracks. When he was still a member of the Leaders, he was featured on songs by musical acts like Big Daddy Kane and Mary J. Blige. The collaborations continued to pile up after Busta left his group; KRS-One, TLC, Coolio, and Bone Thugs-n-Harmony were among the artists that he teamed up with at the onset of his solo career.

My favorite Busta feature from this time was his appearance on the 1994 remix of the Craig Mack track “Flava in Ya Ear.” Look, I’m not going to pretend that Busta had the best verse among the five emcees on this remix, as that distinction belongs to The Notorious B.I.G. But I do think that Busta’s verse on “Flava in Ya Ear” clearly showcases his personality as a rapper: frenetic, technically sound, and wildly entertaining.

In 1994, Busta opened his own record label called Flipmode Records (which would be renamed to Conglomerate in 2010). The following year, Busta was already putting together his first record as a solo artist. On March 26, 1996, he finally released his debut album, The Coming, under the imprint of Elektra Records.

On The Coming, an album filled with plodding, Wu-Tang-esque beats, Busta unleashes his arsenal of word-bending lines and relentless flows (all sprinkled with an irresistible Caribbean twang). The single “Woo Hah!! Got You All in Check” peaked at number eight on the Billboard 200 that year; and bagged Busta his first Grammy nomination (Best Rap Solo Performance). The Comingwent on to be certified platinum.

To put things in perspective, The Comingdroppedin the same year as Tupac‘sAll Eyez on Me(my personal favorite from Pac), Nas‘It Was Written, Mobb Deep’sHell on Earth, and Outkast’sATLiens. Despite the fact that Busta’s solo debut came amidst releases from established hip hop acts, his music managed to stand out and to garner commercial success.

(Of course, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that, three months after Busta dropped The Coming, his old lunchroom rival Jay-Z cemented his own place in the industry with Reasonable Doubt.)

Busta Goes on a Rampage

Over the next six years, Busta hardly ever took his foot off the gas. He closed out the ’90s with two more platinum-certified projects.

In 1997, Busta dropped his second studio album, When Disaster Strikes…Continuing the apocalyptic themes ofThe Coming,When Disaster Strikes…channels Busta’s intense energy as though he were partying before the world’s impending destruction. Two of its singles (“Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Could See” and “Dangerous”) received Grammy nods for Best Rap Solo Performance, though neither brought home the bacon. (As a matter of fact, Busta hasneverwon a Grammy in his career! That’s just bizarre.)

Busta ramped up the doomsday theme in his third album, Extinction Level Event: The Final World Front. This album dropped in 1998 when the disaster films Armageddon andDeep Impact depicted the cataclysmic effect of sizable asteroids colliding with the planet.E.L.E.spawned four singles, including the gold-certified “What’s It Gonna Be?!” (which featured an appearance from Janet Jackson).

The 2000s: A Roller Coaster

After a relatively quiet 1999, Busta commenced his 2000s run with another prolific streak. In the year 2000 (which, thankfully, did not mark the world’s end), Busta dropped his fourth album, Anarchy. Peaking at number four on the Billboard 200,Anarchyturned out to be Busta’s last album with Elektra, as he would leave the record label shortly thereafter.

As far as record labels go, Busta’s departure from Elektra would be the first of multiple moves that he would make in the 2000s. After leaving Elektra, Busta would sign with the fledgling label J Records, which was established by Arista Records founder Clive Owens. Under the J imprint, Busta released two albums: 2001’s Genesis (which continued the Biblical themes that resonated in his previous albums) and 2002’sIt Ain’t Safe No More… (which featured the platinum-certified single “I Know What You Want,” a Mariah Carey-assisted track).

Though both albums became huge hits—Genesiswent platinum whileIt Ain’t Safe No More…went gold—Busta ended up leaving J Records after the release of his sixth album. His next stop was Aftermath Entertainment, where legendary producer Dr. Dre would help him reach a new milestone. In 2006, under the Aftermath imprint, Busta released his seventh album, The Big Bang. With an all-star production team (which included Dre, Timbaland, Swizz Beatz, and will.i.am), as well as features from Stevie Wonder and Missy Elliott,The Big Bangdebuted at number 1 on the Billboard 200—a first for Busta.

However, a long-term partnership with Aftermath was not in the cards for him. After he left the record label in 2008, rumors started to swirl about a heated exchange between Busta and Jimmy Iovine, the head of Aftermath’s parent label Interscope. In a 2009Complexinterview, Busta debunked these rumors. According to Busta, he and Iovine had a sit-down conversation in which Busta openly expressed his concerns about Aftermath and Interscope not doing enough to facilitate his growth “as an artist and as a businessman.” He and Iovine then came to a “mutual understanding,” which then led to Busta’s departure.

Busta’s last stop that decade was Universal Motown, which released his eighth studio album, Back on My B.S., in 2009. The album, however, was prohibited from being sold as a CD in the United Arab Emirates, as that country’s National Media Council deemed the track “Arab Money” to be “offensive to Arabs and to Islam.” For his part, Busta claimed in an MTV interview that people just “misunderstood” the intent of the song.

This, however, was not the biggest controversy that Busta got involved in within that decade. On February 5, 2006, his bodyguard and friend Israel Ramirez was shot on the set of his “Touch It (Remix)” music video. In the aftermath of the shooting, Busta apparently refused to cooperate with the police. Though there is apparently an audio recording that captures the verbal altercation prior to Ramirez’s shooting, police were unable to identify the gunman. The final version of the “Touch It (Remix)” video went on to include a slideshow featuring Ramirez, along with a heartfelt message from Busta.

The 2010s Onwards: Busta Keeps Going

From the standpoint of studio album releases, the 2010s were the antithesis of Busta’s 1996-2002. During that particular decade, he dropped just one album: 2012’sYear of the Dragon.(And guess what—this 14-track record was released on Google Play for free!) I suppose even machine guns run low on ammunition, and even Busta Rhymes slows down in terms of putting out major projects.

That doesn’t mean that he went into cryosleep, though. Much like the aftermath of the Leaders of the New School break-up, Busta stayed busy with his sought-after features. Aside from that notoriously difficult “Look at Me Now” verse that he did for Chris Brown, Busta appeared on tracks by hip hop peers like Tech N9ne, Fat Joe, and Rapsody; singers like Ashanti, Jodie Connor, and the puss*cat Dolls; and even reggae artist Stephen Marley.

I have a special place in my heart for Busta’s appearance on “My Shot (Rise Up Remix).” This track appeared on 2016’s The Hamilton Mixtape, which featured covers and remixes of songs from the Lin Manuel-Miranda musical. As a fan ofHamilton, I love how Miranda actually based the Hercules Mulligan character (played by Okieriete Onaodowan in the original Broadway version) on none other than Busta Rhymes! (In his verse on the “My Shot” remix, Busta namedrops both Hamilton and Mulligan.)

The 2010s weren’t all fun and games, though, as Busta had to deal with two more losses that shattered his heart. In 2012, he lost his long-time manager and friend, Chris Lighty, who succumbed to an apparent self-inflicted gunshot. Two years later, Busta’s father, Trevor Smith, Sr., passed away.

These losses took a toll on Busta’s psyche; he didn’t watch his diet, and he stopped working out, putting on much weight as his downward spiral went on. In 2019, he had to undergo surgery in order to rid his throat of polyps, which were disturbingly compromising his breathing.

After his surgery, Busta was determined to get his health back on the right track. Hooking up with professional bodybuilder Dexter Jackson, he committed to a strict diet, diligently performed a training routine, and cut off all the hard partying. As a result, Busta regained his fitness; he slept better and watched his weight go from a high of 340 pounds to 254 pounds.

As if to punctuate his return to form, Busta dropped his tenth studio album, Extinction Level Event 2: The Wrath of God, on October 30, 2020. With the release of this project, Busta joined a handful of hip hop artists who were able to release studio albums in four different decades. (His peers in this elite club include Snoop Dogg and Eminem.) While images of death and destruction once again pervaded his poetry, the rejuvenated Busta Rhymes—whose career started in 1989, for crying out loud—could not have been more alive.

Legacy

There is never a dull moment with Busta Rhymes. Ever since his days with the Leaders of the New School, Busta’s energy has lit up stage after stage, track after track, album after platinum-certified album. He will go down in hip hop history as an emcee whose supply of pure fun—as manifested by his spitfire rap—was inexhaustible.

Why is Busta Rhymes Influential?

Aside from his infectious enthusiasm, Busta inspired generations of emcees with his flashy style, both in his lyrical art and in his fashion choices. On the one hand, he made many rappers want to master rapid flows that would leave many tongues twisted. On the other hand, Busta’s eye-catching garb included colorful vests, fancy furs, and serious bling. (And don’t forget his signature dreads!)

FAQs

Bottom Line

For better or for worse, Busta Rhymes is the embodiment of hip hop’s ferocious energy. Ever since his hip hop career began, Busta charged full speed ahead, constantly supplying rap fans with mind-blowing verses and captivating projects. Perhaps all the apocalyptic imagery in his music is trying to clue us in on a simple truth: then, now, and till the very end of his run, Busta will rhyme like there’s no tomorrow.

Sources

• https://www.allmusic.com/artist/busta-rhymes-mn0000537548/biography
• https://rockthebells.com/articles/90s-hip-hop-and-dancehall/
• https://www.bet.com/article/oqifid/see-busta-rhymes-flashiest-moments
• https://www.gq.com/story/busta-rhymes-ele-2-interview
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• https://www.complex.com/music/2013/08/busta-rhymes-the-combat-jack-show-hustling
• https://www.mtv.com/news/p721kz/busta-rhymes-explains-why-arab-money-isnt-racist
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• https://www.mtv.com/news/r5904y/busta-rhymes-issues-statement-on-bodyguard-shooting
• https://web.archive.org/web/20090530084354/http://www.nypost.com/seven/02212007/news/regionalnews/rhymes_could_beat_the_rap_regionalnews_dareh_gregorian.htm
• https://www.thenationalnews.com/uae/busta-rhymes-album-banned-over-track-that-quotes-quran-1.538202
• https://www.allmusic.com/album/when-disaster-strikes-mw0000025964#:~:text=Busta%20Rhymes’%20second%20album%2C%20When,indulgence%20and%20right%20back%20again.
• https://www.complex.com/music/2009/01/busta-talks-jimmy-iovine-oreilly-and-arab-fanmail
• https://books.google.com.ph/books?id=6mR2DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA96&dq=leaders+of+the+new+school+busta+rhymes&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiNhY37-az5AhWTplYBHQg6CQ4Q6AF6BAgIEAI#v=onepage&q=leaders%20of%20the%20new%20school%20busta%20rhymes&f=false
• https://books.google.com.ph/books?id=Ha0PBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA21&dq=leaders+of+the+new+school+busta+rhymes+1989&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiOj8TL-az5AhX1tlYBHSRwDA0Q6AF6BAgHEAI#v=onepage&q=leaders%20of%20the%20new%20school%20busta%20rhymes%201989&f=false
• https://www.thepostgame.com/chuck-d-nicknamed-busta-rhymes-after-nfl-player
• https://www.villagevoice.com/2011/07/29/the-five-best-moments-on-yo-mtv-raps/
• https://www.billboard.com/artist/busta-rhymes/chart-history/tlp/
• https://news.yahoo.com/flipmode-dad-mode-heres-busta-182753781.html

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