Busta Rhymes: Genesis : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

You'd have to go way back to Screamin' Jay Hawkins to find another performer with Busta Rhymes' macabre mix of Godzilla-size theatrics, playfully demonic persona and volatile intensity. His apocalyptic update on the African-American trickster archetype nearly turned into blustering self-parody with 2000's halfhearted Anarchy, but Genesis backs up his undeniable vocal substance with beats that sustain his willfully overstated style. Since leaving Leaders of the New School, Busta has straddled hip-hop's avant-garde and its platinum elite without becoming too inaccessible or pop; his collaborations here with the Neptunes (the buzzing, ominous "As I Come Back" and the percolating "What It Is," with Kelis), Dr. Dre (the switched-on-Bach of "Truck Volume," the P-Funky "Holla" and the rapid-fire rhyming "Break Ya Neck") and Pete Rock (who revisits his monster 1991 remix of Public Enemy's "Shut 'Em Down") blend in with contributions from less-familiar producers such as Battlecat, Dilla and Michaelangelo. Genesis also boasts Mary J. Blige, whose seductive melodic authority helps turn "There's Only One" into an entrancing party jam perfect for roller-skating in a haunted house. At more than seventy-five minutes, this new beginning sometimes seems never-ending, but its peaks prove Busta ain't broken yet.