I'm writing a track by track review like Brock used to do. Are you excited?
‘E.L.E. 2 Intro’ Feat. Chris Rock, Rakim, Pete Rock
Suitably epic intro with classical Busta style Nottz production, a dope Nas sample and a Rakim verse!
‘The Purge’
Short and sweet Swizz beat with a rap about the race riots.
‘Strap Yourself Down’
Busta rappity rapping his way over Dilla with a beat switch into a Pete Rock joint. Fire!
‘Czar’ Feat. M.O.P.
Simple but hard AF beat from Rockwilder which Busta destroys, with some 'Ante Up' samples. They should do a remix with MOP verses.
‘Outta My Mind’ Feat. Bell Biv Devoe
Haha, this would have been a big hit single if it was released 20 years ago with that 'Poison' sample. Nice upbeat track and old school vibe. I like that a lot of this album sticks to the classic late 90s Busta sound.
‘E.L.E. 2 The Wrath of God’ Feat. Minister Louis Farrakhan
Skip the first 2 and a half minutes of Farrakhan babble, into a solid track with Busta railing against injustice and modernity.
‘Slow Flow’ Feat. Ol’ Dirty Bastard
Nice electro beat along the lines of 'Where We About To Take It' with an ODB sample. Busta's flow is relentless.
‘Don’t Go’ Feat. Q-Tip
A rare chilled out moment on the record with a very mellow sub Dr Dre beat by Focus. This is kind of meh to me for a Tip/Busta collab.
‘Boomp!’
Haunted house style DJ Scratch beat with Busta reviving his old school delivery. Banger.
‘True Indeed’
Busta drops a crazy flow over a funky DJ Premier beat. Pure 90s vibes here.
‘Master Fard Muhammad’ Feat. Rick Ross
Rick Ross is usually boring to me, but this is dope, Ross and Rhymes mesh well together. The beat is jazzy and lush.
‘YUUUU’ Feat. Anderson .Paak
The sudden change into modern production is jarring. It basically just sounds like an Anderson Paak b-side.
‘Oh No’
Busta sounds natural doing a quick flow over a trap beat, but the beat is generic and boring.
‘The Don and The Boss’ Feat. Vybz Kartel
Another misstep, outdated, overblown trap beat and cheesy reggae hook.
‘Best I Can’ Feat. Rapsody
And back into the killer material. Beautiful soul beat with Rapsody and Bus dropping some heartfelt insights into relationships. Really fantastic Busta song.
‘Where I Belong’ Feat. Mariah Carey
This basically sounds like a remake of 'I Know What You Want', it's not terrible but I could live without it.
‘Deep Thought’
Busta resurrects the 'Ghetto: Misfortune's Wealth' sample for a meditation on life and death. It's cool to hear Busta making a few more serious songs on this album.
‘The Young God Speaks’
Dope Jacksons transition into the next song.
‘Look Over Your Shoulder’ Feat. Kendrick Lamar
Crazy Kendrick verse, and really epic, uplfting sound to the track. Busta sounds like the old Bus here.
‘You Will Never Find Another Me’ Feat. Mary J Blige
Really soulful track with big Mary vocals and a catchy Busta flow.
‘Freedom?’ Feat. Nikki Grier
Nottz brought some serious heat to the table on this record, Busta kills the track.
‘Satanic’
Busta gets on his customary apocalyptic shit here, spitting about devil worship. Very Moody.
I think this is a dope album. He could have cut off 4-5 tracks and had a pretty much perfect boom bap Hip Hop album to rival the original ELE, but that's a small complaint given how banging most of the record is. Just cut those few tracks out and it can easily stand next to anything in Busta's discography.
^thanks!
I changed the tracklist around some, grouped all the more mellow songs together on the second half on the album, got rid of 'YUUU' and 'The Don & The Boss'. Works well.
also put together a longer version w/ some singles added from the last few years, harder tracks to go w/ the first half of the album, like 'Broad Daylight' & 'Calm Down'
Retired.
Album is pretty bad imo. Why so many tracks?! Could have shaved a good 5-6 tracks off this to make it tighter. Busta still living in the CD era, feeling like he's gotta use up the entire 80 minutes!
You can tell he's been working on this album for years... you can actually hear the change in his voice from track to track.
The first two tracks sound like Busta from a few years ago, then straight in to track 3 which must have been recorded more recently because his voice sounds completely fucked, like Fatboy Busta ate the old Busta.
Peace!
I listened to the first 8 or 9 tracks earlier and I'm very surprised...the beginning of the album is pretty damn good
^Bump to continue to overhype and overrate this album.
Watched half of the drink champs podcast. Some great stories about Janet, Hype Williams etc. Of course they get sidetracked a lot but Nore was cracking me up with some of the shit he was saying.
Haven’t listened yet. I have no problem with long albums though. Never understood y that is generally considered a negative. Sure if there’s 20 songs and u wanna cut 5 trash tracks then I can see what u mean. But everyone has different taste. So those trash 5 might be liked by others. Especially with Busta since he appeals to a wide range of fans. Ton of people call Cuban Linx 2 too long but those same Wu Stans complain about Wu tracks they can’t hear in the vault. So which is it? Peace
https://linktr.ee/Graveyardshifter
ALBUM OUT NOW! >here https://graveyardshifter.bandcamp.co...piscean-knight
After giving this album another spin, I take back what i said Back on my BS is still his worst album.
N.I.
Ol' Dirty Bastard vs Busta Rhymes 1994 RAP BATTLE CLASSIC
"You step to bat man I turn to the riddler
You try to jew me for a rhyme I turn to Hitler" - ODB
Last edited by Sense-A; 11-11-2020 at 06:07 PM.
New bonus track with Rampage, Rah Digga, Spliff Star.
Supposedly a Flipmode album is coming next year.
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