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— by Shaheem Reid, with additional reporting by Rahman Dukes and Frank
Artist: Busta Rhymes
Representing: Flipmode
Mixtapes: The Crown and Point of No Return
411: For once in his career, Busta Rhymes doesn't have much to say. As you may know, violence erupted outside the video set for his "Touch It" remix earlier this month and his security guard, Israel Ramirez, was shot dead (see "Busta Rhymes Issues Statement On Bodyguard Shooting" ).
Investigations are ongoing and police say they want to talk to Busta, but he has refused to speak. In fact, Busta hasn't done any interviews since the shooting and his only public appearance was at Ramirez's wake.
Although Rhymes has publicly expressed his sorrow and condolences over the loss of his friend, he is carrying on with his career, and this week sees the release of two mixtapes. The first is released in conjunction with the Aphilliates and is called The Crown. It's basically Busta's offering for down South, as he collaborates with the likes of Bun B, Paul Wall, Mike Jones, T.I., Lil Wayne and Slim Thug.
The Point of No Return, done in conjunction with DJ Kay Slay, is more of a traditional New York mixtape and also highlights members of his Flipmode Squad, like Labba and Spliff Star.
On both mixtapes, Busta focuses on proving his assertion that he is still the leader of the new school and can crush any MC out there, whether legend or new jack. He does briefly address the recent deaths of Ramirez and another friend of his, producer Jay Dee, a.k.a. J Dilla (see "Jay Dee — Producer For Common, Busta And Tribe — Dies"), during the intro to both mixtapes.
"Everything that I do from this day moving forward will be thoroughly representing the loving memory of Israel 'Izzy' Ramirez and J Dilla," he says at the beginning of Point of No Return. May your souls forever rest in peace. Love y'all." (He begins The Crown with similar words.)
Joints To Check For
- "Peel the Money" (featuring Paul Wall; from The Crown). Busta sounds as if he wants to say "it's too easy" on every rhyme: His flow is so fluent that he can get just as busy over a down-bottom beat as he does over a track cooked up by an NYC producer like Swizz Beatz.
- "Psycho" (featuring Cassidy and Papoose; from Point of No Return). If there's any question why Bus is considered a hip-hop legend, just listen to the first verse of the record. Still, Cass may have the show-stealing line: "I keep the steel in my hand like Wolverine." Or maybe it's Pap with "I bag dad like Iraq."
- "I Know Y'all Mad" (featuring Mike Jones; from The Crown). Believe it or not, Twista actually uses this same string-laden Pharrell Williams bounce beat on "Lavish" from The Day After. How he slept on that song and didn't make it a single is still a wonder. The beautiful strings ironically match up perfectly with Jones' arrogant yelling and Busta's cocky growls.
Don't Sleep: Other Notable Selections This Week
- Icarus' IC Iz the Future
- Fabolous' Loso Way: The Rise to Power
- Mobb Deep's The Best in the Bizness
- Dilated People's 20/20 (independent release)
- DJ Mello's Tupac Duets: From New York to Cali
- Jail Break Recordz & DJ Fade's King of the Yard
- DJ Exclusive's Getting Up
- DJ Don Demarco's Memphis Bleek IMI mixtape
- DJ Sho-Tyme & Paris Diamond's Ears to the Street
'Hood's Heavy Rotation: Bubbling Below The Radar
- Too $hort - "Blow Your Whistle"
- Cam'ron - "Wet Wipes"
- Ice Cube - "Why We Thugs" and "Race Card"
- Labba (featuring Bun B) - "Uptown Bounce"
- Pimp C - "Cadillac"
Celebrity Favs
Producer Scott Storch, who's adding Hulk Hogan's teenage daughter Brooke to his never-ending list of collaborators, says he's digging fellow Miami music man Rick Ross' hustle game. "Rick is dope," Storch proclaimed at his MIA studio. "He's on top of the game right now with that 'Hustlin' '[single]. I think he's got a really promising future. I'm going to actually work with him in the next few days."
The Streets Is Talking: News & Notes From The Underground
Allow him to re-introduce himself. His name is E-40 and he sure knows how to start off an interview. "I'm E-Fizzel, the best thing since ice cream. The king of slang, talk to me and I talk back. What is it, though, pimp?"
40 is enjoying having his biggest club record in many moons with "Tell Me When to Go." The Lil Jon-produced hyphy anthem is the most beloved song in the San Francisco Bay area right now, and as 40 says, "It's been spreading like the bird flu.
"We pushing this hyphy movement in the Bay and I'm quarterbacking the whole situation," he crowed. "We ain't playing, it's a whole bunch of energy. The single is out of here. I'm the best thing out there. I'm way ahead of my time, you hear what I'm saying?"
40's Ghetto Report Card comes out on March 14, and he's dropping the album Soil Savvy by the Mossie on his Sic Wit It records within the next few weeks. ...
Even though all of the major artists from Houston partook in the festivities during NBA All-Star Weekend, Mike Jones, Slim Thug and Paul Wall had to jump on a private plane from H-Town to L.A. for a few hours to participate in a car show put on by Dub magazine.
In between showing love for fans, they all talked about their upcoming projects. Wall is working on a group project with former Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker called Expensive Taste and Jones and Thug are dropping LPs as well.
"I got a album I'm set to drop around the fourth quarter [of '06]," said Slim, while standing next to Jones. "I got the Boyz N Blue's 2 Serve and Collect album this spring. Then Killa Kyleon, that's my new artist on [Slim's Boss Hog Outlawz] label, I'mma put him out in September.
"We working on the album called Welcome Back to the Hood," Killa said. "Dropping on Boss Hog Outlawz/ Geffen. The first street single might be 'Back to the Front' with me and Slim, featuring Bun B on the hook."
"He's big man," Slim interjected. "Killa Kyleon is the future of Houston. A lot of people ain't really heard of him from out of town, but in H-Town it's already known who it is next."
Jones said his American Dream LP is coming sometimes this year, but he doesn't have a solid release date yet.
"It's a lot of songs I'm using to touch the world. Slim tells me I'm doing R&B; now," Mike Jones said before he and Thugger started cracking up.
In March, you'll see Jones back on TV's "Prison Break" series. "They liked it so much they brought me back," he said.
"Holly-wooooood," Thug jokingly jumped in.
"I already been back and done the whole second season [of the show]," Jones added. "I got a new movie now I'm doing with Eva Mendes and Samuel L. Jackson. And there's some stuff coming from Bruce Willis, so I'm really on my grind right now. I got my own shoe — so be on the look out for the Reebok shoe deal. This year and next year, they messed up by giving us the torch because we ain't letting it go. We the tag-team champions of this thing." ...
Littles has finally gotten a major label to pay him for his independent grind. He still doesn't have a record deal (which he says he's in no hurry to sign anyway), but Universal has enlisted his Best of the Block production crew to produce, direct and edit DVDs for several of their artists.
"Basically, the first person I got is Chamillionaire," said Littles, who was down in Houston filming Cham over All-Star weekend. "To me he is the new Houston problem. This is a kid who sold 500,000 albums with no East Coast support at all. He's doing his grind."
Littles says he was brought in on the project to help Cham with his East Coast exposure. So he drove a 35-foot mobile home equipped with editing machines and cameras from New York to Houston.
"When this new DVD drops, everyone on the East Coast is going to know who Chamillionaire is. It comes out at the end of March or end of April — that's really up to the label. I'm thinking about naming the DVD 'From the Bottom to the Top' because he's from the bottom and he's about to get to the top."
Littles says although he's still considers himself a rapper first, he fell totally in love with directing and producing DVDs. Besides his business venture with Universal, he's still releasing his own DVDs like the "Best of the Block" series, where artists like Beanie Sigel and Jadakiss give their takes on breaking into the industry. There's also a project in the final stages called "Reloaded 2: From Queensbridge to Paris" where Littles covers the 2005 Paris riots and the rough treatment some black citizens aboard have received.
Littles will also release a mixtape called Reloaded 2 at around the same time.
For more on the role of mixtapes in the music industry, check out the feature "Mixtapes: The Other Music Industry."
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Photo: MTV News
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MTV Overdrive
