Busta Rhymes - The Big Bang (June 13, 2006)

How is it possible for a rap album to not only hit the top spot on the Billboard 200 in its first week of release, but to move over five hundred thousand units, earning the artist load-bearing RIAA golden plaques for their hard work, and still not become a part of the cultural conversation? For the first post of the month, may I present to you a project that did just that: the seventh full-length album from Trevor “Busta Rhymes” Smith, The Big Bang.

Busta’s prior effort, It Ain’t Safe No More…, was released four years prior, selling tons of copies off of the strength of a shitty Mariah Carey collaboration that, nevertheless, got the man onto radio playlists across the United States, if not worldwide. The thing is, though, that album sucked. Trevor sounded like he was merely going through the motions, crafting a paint-by-numbers hip hop album that checked off as many boxes as he could to guarantee a hit, what with his collaborations with Sean Paul, The Neptunes, Mr. Porter, and the aforementioned Carey. It Ain’t Safe No More… ended up being Busta’s final album released by Clive Davis’ J Records, a label home that briefly had him sharing space alongside the likes of Alicia Keys and Maroon 5, as it seemed that the man felt unfulfilled with his creative choices up to this point: shortly after the project hit store shelves and the promotional efforts were winding down, Busta Rhymes found an audience with, and ultimately signed to, Dr. Dre’s Aftermath Entertainment, as he had previously formed a working relationship with the man in the past. What’s more, Busta did what most Aftermath artists could never even dream of: he got Dre to actually release his seventh album, The Big Bang.

(Sad side effect: this business move on Trevor’s part caused J Records to flat-out cancel the then-in-progress sophomore album from his Flipmode Squad crew, either called The Rulership Movement or Rulership depending on which source you believe, even though promotional singles had already been sent to radio and mixtape deejays. The Squad would later disband and Trevor would form a different collective called The Conglomerate. However, the man did recently release a song titled “Flipmode Squad Meets The Conglomerate” (produced by DJ Scratch, who has so much going on that the whole EPMD thing probably doesn’t faze him that much) that features Rampage, Rah Digga, Baby Sham, and Spliff Starr (Lord Have Mercy has long since moved on) alongside his present-day charges, so at least he hasn’t about forgotten his non-Leaders Of The New School past, even if he pushed them all toward the end of the posse cut. Also, bonus points for evoking the song “Flipmode Squad Meets Def Squad” from his solo debut, The Coming.)

Anyway, The Big Bang had a gestation period of at least three years, as Dr. Dre’s perfectionist tendencies caused him to walk away from the project several times before finally helping complete it. (Dre didn’t handle all of the beats on The Big Bang, but he did write Trevor five prescriptions, provided additional production on three more, mixed the majority of the project, and executive-produced the motherfucker, so it’s safe to say he wielded a lot of influence over what ultimately hit store shelves.) As with every Busta Rhymes project post-It Ain’t Safe No More..., sadly, our host had some initial trouble selling the hip hop audience on the idea of a new album: a leaked early promotional single featuring the late Ol’ Dirty Bastard, “Where’s Your Money?”, tanked at the box office, which doomed it to spend the rest of its days in one of Dre’s vaults underneath a volcano built atop another volcano. A separate attempt, the Scott Storch-produced “I’ll Hurt You”, also fumbled the bag, despite a guest appearance by Dre’s cash cow Eminem. It took Swizz Beatz sampling Daft Punk in order for Busta Rhymes to reach a mainstream audience again, the lesson here being that appealing to just the hip hop heads doesn’t work all that much for Trevor anymore, as his days as the cameo king of the 1990’s and early 2000’s had come to an end. However, Busta has always been good at crafting singles for the club, so this latest attempt wasn’t unwelcome.

The Big Bang is Trevor’s attempt at a no-bullshit rap album, consisting of fifteen tracks featuring and produced by top-of-the-line collaborators all recruited to aid our host with reaffirming his dominance within our chosen genre. You can tell he’s trying to be serious on the album cover, as he chopped off the dreadlocks that were once one of his defining features: without them, his tone shifts automatically from “animated” to “you can’t and/or shouldn't fuck with me”. Musically, Dre signed up the likes of Timbaland, Jellyroll, the aforementioned Swizz Beatz, frequent collaborator DJ Scratch, Mr. Porter, and the late J. Dilla, among others, while on-mic cameos were granted to big names such as Raekwon, Kelis, Nas (yeah, I know, awkward), Missy Elliott, his old friend Q-Tip, the late Rick James (the hell?), and motherfucking Stevie motherfucking Wonder (I know, right?). Conspicuous in their absence are any members of Busta’s Flipmode Squad: I can only assume that Andre was trying to rebrand Busta Rhymes as a viable (and volatile) solo artist and didn’t want any of his B-list friends there to act as distractions. Which, if true, sucks for Rah Digga, as she absolutely could hang with any of those bigger acts I listed above. And so.

The Big Bang getting buried within the annals of hip hop history despite its high sales numbers may have something to do with Jimmy Iovine, the fabled head of Interscope Records (Aftermath’s parent company), with whom Trevor got into an altercation shortly after the release of his album. As Iovine is known to be Dr. Dre’s BFF and business partner, Andre was never going to take Busta’s side, and so Trevor left the label in 2008, taking the seeds of his eighth album, Back On My Bullshit, with him. Iovine has a lot of pull in the music industry even today, so it’s probably a miracle that Busta Rhymes wasn’t just erased from hip hop history entirely at this point.

1. GET YOU SOME (FEAT. Q-TIP & MARSHA AMBROSIUS)

Dr. Dre’s influence is felt almost immediately, as The Big Bang eschews Trevor’s usual penchant for ridiculous rap album intros in favor of just getting on with it already. (Indeed, as of this writing, none of Busta’s proper albums from The Big Bang forward feature isolated introductory tracks.) And “Get You Some” is a better way to kick off the project anyway, as our host sounds more focused during his two verses than he has in fucking years. His flow is aggressive, but measured, as he spits matter-of-fact boasts while praising his new label home over Dre’s thumping prescription, which is simplistic, but will bang in your car speakers. (Which makes me sad that The Big Bang was the only album Busta ever managed to release on Aftermath, but he really brought it upon himself.) The hook, performed by both guest stars, is catchy and weird, specifically Q-Tip’s portion, but somehow all of this ends up working. Certainly makes this project seem promising as hell, anyway.

2. TOUCH IT

Daft Punk samples in rap songs existed before Kanye West’s monster hit single “Stronger”: take, for example, “Touch It”, which borrows some vocals from “Technologic”, specifically the section that gives this song, and its many many remixes, its title. As Trevor is obsessed with chasing his next club banger at all times, it isn’t surprising that “Touch It” was released as a single, with its minimalist Swizz Beatz drum pattern-and-handclaps-as-instrumental acting as the foundation for Busta Rhymes to offer both calm and animated sexual come-ons-as-lyrics like a pornographic version of Nas’ “One Mic”. This all somehow still works today, though: Swizzy turns in some admirable work and doesn’t fuck it all up with unnecessary ad-libs. As, um, touched upon above, “Touch It” was one of those songs that inspired a slew of remixes featuring a host of Trevor’s friends, including Rah Digga (the only Flipmode Squad affiliate to have anything to do with The Big Bang because of this technicality) and fellow 1990's cameo king contender DMX. Why none of these remakes ended up on the proper album is a mystery, especially as official videos were released, but whatever.

3. HOW WE DO IT OVER HERE (FEAT. MISSY ELLIOTT)

Dr. Dre returns behind the boards for a darker, earworm-ier club joint with a bit of Middle Eastern flair and wearing an onion in its belt, as was the style at the time, and also what sounds like a slowed-down air horn throughout. I truly do love this beat, and not just because it sounds nothing like a Dr. Dre production, and it propels a calm, relaxed Busta Rhymes performance filled with horrible come-ons and hilarious lines (not purposely hilarious, mind you), coupled with a Missy Elliott hook that weaves its way around the instrumental so well that you’ll forget “How We Do It Over Here” is not, in fact, credited to Timbaland. The groove is hypnotic, kind of a natural extension of When Disaster Strikes’ hit single “Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Could See”, except the orgy’s already started. Enjoyably trashy.

4. NEW YORK SHIT (FEAT. SWIZZ BEATZ)

It being far too much for us to ask to bypass Swizz Beatz’s vocals entirely on any project, Mr. Alicia Keys performs the hook and provides his typical ad-libs on the DJ Scratch-produced “New York Shit”, Trevor’s ode to his hometown and the rather large shadow it casts over our chosen genre. (Well, maybe not so much here in 2018, but it was birthed there, which still counts for something.) His verses are bland at best, nearly every line punctuated with the titular phrase: Swizzy actually comes across as (slightly) more interesting in this regard. Busta’s vocals never elevate past “serviceable” until the end of the song, at which point he throws out roughly nine hundred and three shout-outs to his fellow New York rap artists, producers, and pioneers, which is the most excitable he’s sounded on The Big Bang thus far. Scratch’s beat is shockingly detrimental to the cause: it doesn’t sound particularly New York-ish, and is too smooth to carry the concept thoroughly. “New York Shit” is exactly the type of rap song that would inspire the multi-artist remixes that “Touch It” gave way to, but other than a KRS-One-featuring take allegedly produced by Marley Marl, I couldn’t find any officially sanctioned mixes, just mixtape shit and terrible remakes by unknown producers trying to make a name for themselves. Feel free to correct me in the comments if I’m wrong here.

5. BEEN THROUGH THE STORM (FEAT. STEVIE WONDER)

And just like that, we’ve hit the part of The Big Bang that I know I’ve listened to at least once, but cannot remember for the goddamn life of me. (Apparently I never made it very far in my repeat listens before getting bored and switching to something else, which doesn’t bode well for the rest of this write-up, now, does it? Unless it turns out that past Max was wrong. Stay tuned to find out!) And where else better to start than “Been Through The Storm”, a Sha Money XL / Black Jeruz production featuring Stevie motherfucking Wonder, right? Trevor uses his two verses to describe his teenage hustling years, throwing in some backstory about his parents for good measure, while Wonder croons the chorus in a manner that, well, let’s just say he sounds fine, but there’s no reason this couldn’t have been performed by, say, Carl Thomas, or someone far cheaper. Then again, Trevor wouldn’t have been able to market The Big Bang with a Stevie Wonder guest appearance otherwise, so. The music is okay, if repetitive, and our host’s delivery is concise and direct, but the track as a whole was lacking for me.

6. IN THE GHETTO (FEAT. RICK JAMES)

Rick James, bitch, passed away in 2004, which means Trevor has been sitting on this collaboration for quite a while, and with the extended wait, one would think that he would have used the time to tighten up the track. Alas, no. The DJ Green Lantern instrumental isn’t bad, but, weirdly, Busta Rhymes himself doesn’t seem comfortable over it, and he can typically spit over anything. The vocals from Rick James, bitch, are the most memorable aspect of “In The Ghetto”, which is otherwise a stale examination into life growing up in the ghetto, a topic that absolutely doesn’t get talked about enough within our chosen genre. You can listen to the guest vocals if you wish, but you certainly wouldn’t be missing out on anything if you just skipped ahead to…

7. COCAINA (FEAT. MARSHA AMBROSIUS)

The instrumental, credited to Dr. Dre and Mark Batson, resembles Dre’s work on Jay-Z’s “30 Something”, another prescription that was fine, not good, not terrible, just fine. Trevor sounds out of his depth, though: for a guy who constantly chases the next big club hit, he keeps selecting Dre beats that wouldn’t play well in that type of environment. “Cocaina”, not a typo, is a boasts-n-bullshit session from our host, who sounds so disinterested in the proceedings (with the exception of when he recites the name of the song during his overlong hook) that he may as well have recorded it after having taken several Valiums. Marsha Ambrosius, hip hop’s go-to hook songstress whose own duo, Floetry, was winding down around the time The Big Bang was recorded, also sings a little bit, as is her way. You two can keep this shit.

8. YOU CAN’T HOLD THE TORCH (FEAT. Q-TIP & CHAUNCEY BLACK)

Busta Rhymes shoehorns a beat from the late Dilla onto The Big Bang (a trait he’s exhibited since he released his first solo album, The Coming, to be fair), and to Dr. Dre's credit, it doesn't sound out of place on this project in the least bit. This donut sounds like an Ummah leftover from A Tribe Called Quest’s The Love Movement recording sessions, and not just because Q-Tip performs the opening verse. Tip also shared the third stanza with our host, attempting a showcase of the chemistry he shares with longtime collaborator Trevor. “You Can’t Hold The Torch” doesn’t make much of an argument for the pair, though: Q-Tip sounds robotic and lifeless, while Busta’s rhymes are lean and relaxed, so about half of this track works overall. Still, it's always nice to hear these old friends collaborate.

9. GOLDMINE (FEAT. RAEKWON)

Almost certainly recorded at the same time as “About Me”, Raekwon’s Dr. Dre-produced team-up with Busta Rhymes that appeared on 2009’s Only Built 4 Cuban Linx… Pt. II (which, curiously, originally featured The Game in Trevor’s place before Rae thought better of it), and fairly similar in the way that our host’s bars are delivered in a subdued manner, forcing the listener to sit up and pay attention to every syllable. It isn’t as successful as that later effort, however: the instrumental, for one, is an Erick Sermon production (Andre only snags an additional production credit here) that could have been sold to absolutely anybody, and guest Chef Raekwon isn’t very compelling during his one-and-a-half verse contribution, spitting drug game platitudes and unverifiable boasts in a disinterested cadence, which was his jam at the time, if you’ll recall. Busta himself sounded pretty fucking good, though: he should have kept this one all to himself. Sigh. (“Goldmine” also reminded me of that time when we all thought Rae was signing with Dr. Dre. Ah, the salad days.)

10. I LOVE MY BITCH (FEAT. WILL.I.AM & KELIS)

Abso-fucking-lutely not.

11. DON’T GET CARRIED AWAY (FEAT. NAS)

“I Love My Bitch”, which was inconceivably released as a single, was a Neptunes track recorded without the involvement of the Neptunes: producer will.i.am channeled the spirit of Pharrell Williams so brazenly that I heard he also told Jive Records that he refused to work with Justin Timberlake again until the label released the Clipse from their contract. To correct that egregious error, “Don’t Get Carried Away” features both a Dr. Dre instrumental and a guest cameo from Nas, who hadn’t yet married Kelis (this song’s placement in the tracklist just got cringe-y, sorry), nor had he yet released the album that sorta-maybe inspired the name of this very blog. Dre’s prescription is booming, if not quite the “monster” Nasir refers to it as, and both Busta and Esco deliver entertaining boasts-n-bullshit, Nas stealing the show with an effortless performance that kind of sounds like he may have been enjoying himself just a tiny little bit. A nice late-game gem.

12. THEY’RE OUT TO GET ME (FEAT. MR. PORTER)

A standard-issue “I’m popular and rich, so I’m wary of every single human interaction I experience now” track, a trope prevalent among successful major-label rappers, although Busta Rhymes, eschewing the cliché, claims to “keep [his] enemies close and [his] friends even closer”. Mr. Porter’s musical backing is pretty catchy: it kind of sounds like Rick Rock, but with heart. His sung chorus, however, is some bullshit, as Denaun somehow hits notes that don’t even exist in order to further the track’s agenda. Trevor is alright, though: he sticks to the theme admirably, riding that fine line between exasperated and exhausted while relaying the typical trust issues we’ve all heard about in many other ways. The hook should have been outsourced: only then could I ever truly see myself recommending Busta’s rhymes on here.

13. GET DOWN (FEAT. TIMBALAND)

Trevor finally secured a Timbaland beat of his very own for a solo album, a collaboration that should have happened far earlier in the respective careers of either artist. And it… sucks. It’s really awful, folks. Timbo gives our host an instrumental that is more experimental than what we’ve grown to expect from the man, but while Busta does his best to cater to the needs of the music, said music fails him terribly by leaving the melody behind on the train, which by now is four towns over. The production work on “Get Down” sounds like a blueprint for something that Trevor would knock out of the park later in his career: think the Grind Music-produced “Don’t Touch Me (Throw The Water On ‘Em)”, except far less energetic on here. Fuck this song.

14. I’LL DO IT ALL (FEAT. LATOIYA WILLIAMS)

The song for the ladies who felt “I Love My Bitch” was too ridiculous to be taken seriously, but just as successful, which is to say, skip this shit, please. Unless you want to hear how Jellyroll’s production takes a handful of chances you weren’t expecting, anyway.

15. LEGEND OF THE FALL OFFS

Busta Rhymes made it all the way through The Big Bang without including one of his typically asinine skits. Let that sit with you for a moment: the man actually took someone else’s input into consideration. Anyway, “Legend Of The Fall Offs” threatens to upend that accomplishment, but the sounds of a shovel hitting the dirt and Trevor playing a Grim Reaper of sorts are actually a part of this Dr. Dre production, on which Busta Rhymes appears to be talking to rappers who continue to chase relevancy within our chosen genre, but is really chastising himself in the mirror. The beat is all murk and atmosphere, so kudos, Andre, and the sung vocals aren’t intrusive. The bleakest moment comes toward the end, when Busta the reaper buries Busta the rapper and leaves him to slowly suffocate. Kind of a fascinating way to end any album, let alone a rap project, a musical genre where its artists never truly retire: indeed, the overall message here is diluted when you look at Trevor’s Wikipedia page and realize that The Big Bang isn’t his final album by any stretch. Still, I’m not mad at this dark ending: it’s probably the closest to Busta’s truth that we’ll ever hear him accept.

FINAL THOUGHTS: The Big Bang is the best Busta Rhymes album since The Coming, and a lot of its success has to do with the constant input from executive producer Dr. Dre, who knows a thing or two about crafting albums versus throwing a bunch of singles together, which most of Trevor’s projects have mostly been, let’s be real. Busta worked alongside his collaborators to help create a cohesive sound that simultaneously celebrates his standing and longevity within our chosen genre while proving that the man still could get into it with the newer generation is pressed. Thankfully, and this is where Dre is key, Busta Rhymes does this not by chasing the trends prevalent of the day, but by creating a sound that demands listeners conform to it. This may be the man's most fully realized album. Obviously, not every song on here works, but Trevor’s performances on The Big Bang mostly consistent, if not consistently engaging: for this lone project, apparently, he had abandoned his hyperactive Y2K paranoia-riddled persona in favor of just being a dude who commands attention with his still-excitable flow and mere presence. Music-wise, Busta is in good hands, as his cadre of A-list producers mostly hand over some choice beats for him to write to (except for Timbaland, weirdly, who fumbles the ball fucking terribly). I do wish he had found it in his heart to include some of his waning Flipmode Squad on The Big Bang, as it would have been an excellent showcase for what they were capable of with a larger budget, but what Busta Rhymes needed after the horseshit that was It Ain’t Safe No More… was an opportunity to prove that he hadn’t (yet) gone off the deep end, and with Dre’s guidance, dear Lord he went and fucking did that shit. The Big Bang is nice as hell, and deserves much more attention than it received upon release, if not a deluxe reissue with all of those tracks and remixes that were left in the vault. Dre, if you’re interested in making some more money off of The Big Bang, come find me. I have ideas.

BUY OR BURN? Oh, Trevor has more than earned your continued support here.

BEST TRACKS: “Get You Some”; “Don’t Get Carried Away”; “Legend Of The Fall Offs”; “Touch It”; “How We Do It Over Here”

-Max

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