New Music Review: There Will Never Be Another Busta Rhymes
Issue # 010 (the A-Side): "Extinction Level Event 2: The Wrath of God" Album Review
A-Side
Patience is a virtue, one that Busta Rhymes knows well. The veteran rapper started working on what would become the 2020 album Extinction Level Event 2: The Wrath of God in 2009 as he shopped himself around to different labels, he revealed to Variety. From Motown to Cash Money and then to Atlantic, Epic, and finally Empire, he watched, with a critical eye, to see how the labels handled his other releases, hesitant to fork over what would become the follow-up to Extinction Level Event: The Final World Front (ELE). ELE2 picks up where the 1998 ELE drops off—a sequel to the end-of-the-world theories he posited at the turn of the millennium.
On ELE2, Busta Rhymes, along with new friends (Kendrick Lamar, Anderson .Paak, Terrace Martin) and old ones (Mary J. Blige, Mariah Carey, ODB (RIP), Q-Tip, plus producers J. Dilla (RIP), Nottz, Rockwilder) travel 22 years back in time to ELE not to recreate it for nostalgia’s sake, but to revisit those apocalyptic themes, anxiety-ridden questions, and even a 22-year-old unused beat, while looking to the many troubles currently plaguing our world. Still, Busta’s first album in over a decade is direct without being overly preachy. He just speaks his piece.
His effort at this sequel, following Raekwon’s Only Built 4 Cuban Linx...Pt. II, which he executive-produced in 2009, is beyond successful. ELE2 is a timely dispatch, just as ELE was in ’98. Busta expresses an eloquent rage as he explores our current end of the world on songs like “The Purge.” But on “Best I Can,” he gets introspective with Rapsody, detailing his fight to be the best father to his children despite the battle with his kids’ mother— his personal, challenging hell. “Freedom?,” written in September, sees the 48-year-old artist and Nikki Grier asking, “do you really believe that we’re free?” as they contemplate Black lives that are stolen. My favorites include the Rick Ross-assisted/The Blue Notes sampled “Master Fard Muhammad” produced by Terrace Martin and Hi-Tek, “Where I Belong” featuring Mariah Carey, and “Look Over Your Shoulder,” the first Kendrick Lamar feature in 2020.
Chris Rock, featured on “E.L.E. 2 Intro” (with Rakim and a Pete Rock sample) and throughout the album’s transitions, reminds us that if this is really the end of the world, “lucky you, on your last day / You gon’ hear the Busta Rhymes album, you lucky b*tch.” Extinction Level Event 2 is a testament to Busta’s unmatched patience with his music and longevity in hip-hop. He once again proves that there will never be another Busta Rhymes.
“Listen, while I exemplify the spirit that they wanna be again, there will never be another me again.” — Busta Rhymes, You Will Never Find Another Me (feat. Mary J. Blige)
