Busta Rhymes

Woo-hah! Busta Rhymes is hip-hop's Godzilla, a fire-breathing giant whose marketable cuddly side has kept him perpetually serialized in apocalyptic-themed blockbuster albums; no matter their overblown conceits, they always deliver a few of the spine-tingling moments that had attracted you in the first place. Rhymes was still a teenager when he moved from his Flatbush, Brooklyn, birthplace to Long Island, where he formed the group Leaders of the New School with high school chums Dinco D, Charlie Brown, and Cut Monitor Milo. The group delivered two albums: the exuberant A Future Without a Past... (Elektra, 1991), which featured Busta's pillowy ode "Feminine Fatt," and T.I.M.E. (Elektra, 1993), the darker, semi-sci-fi brainfreaker. Public Enemy's Chuck D was the one who gave Busta Rhymes the handle, and Busta's energetic rhyming and wacky chuckle were obviously inspired by Flavor Flav. When Busta stole the show with his dragon impersonation on A Tribe Called Quest's "Scenario" in 1993, solo stardom was a given.

With his Cheshire cat perma-grin and medusa head of dreads, Busta's manic microphone antics have proved impressively durable. Each of his albums spawned at least one hit single (though often more), from "Who-hah!! Got You All in Check" off The Coming, straight through to the ridiculous, lascivious "Make It Clap," from It Ain't Safe No More. His singles, which function like memorable action sequences from Hollywood blockbusters, burst with sonic special effects layered over classic grids of funky drums and tight bass loops. And then there's Busta, a sex-craved comedian nearly hyperventilating as he finds yet another catchy way of saying not much at all ("Hit you with no delayin' so what you sayin', yo? Silly with my nine milly, what the dilly yo?" from the 1997's "Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Could See"). An absolute master of the club-bangin' anthem (often to an absurd degree; the P. Diddy party jam "Pass the Courvoisier" took things to a new level of decadent product placement), Busta has stayed in microwave rotation on TV and radio for nearly a decade. As he once rapped, "Gotta listen to how radio be playin' us/30 times a day make you delirious." The Flipmode majordomo's presence was definitively captured in Hype Williams' clip for the Janet Jackson duet "What's It Gonna Be?" None of Busta's albums are essential, and while Rhino's 18-cut best-of is superior (it includes two Leaders of the New School tracks), his recent releases have rendered it out-of-date. (PETER RELIC)

From 2004's The New Rolling Stone Album Guide