Busta Rhymes - The Big Bang

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Ever since exploding on the scene on A Tribe Called Quest's posse cut "Scenario", Busta Rhymes had a knack for stealing the show through his sheer manical energy. In recent efforts, however, we all became accustomed to it. Suddenly, his unmatched voice felt tired. The relatively low sales of his last album, "It Ain't Safe No More" furthered this point.

At the same time, New York, the birthplace of hip-hop and it's most dominant city commercially has been experiencing a slow decline. Currently, Southern hip-hop is reigning, at least in terms of sales. Busta Rhymes has envisioned a comeback - not only for him, but for the whole New York scene. His album titles have a tendency towards hyperbole (example: "Extinction Level Event (Final World Front)") and irrelevancy ("Anarchy") but "The Big Bang" is neither. It's exactly the kind of impact he wants to make.

Now signed to Dr. Dre's Aftermath label, he has the monetary and artistic backing to attempt such an important record. From the opener, "Get You Some", there is a wealth of talent working together. Not only is it produced by Dr. Dre, it features Q-Tip (ex-ATCQ) and Marsha from Floetry (no, not the one with the fucked up teeth. The fat mannish-looking one.) Dre's production has weird keyboard work and booming drums, and it wouldn't have sounded that out of place on a 50 Cent album. Busta uses it as an expression of purpose. In the end, it's alright, but it's no big bang.

The big single, "Touch It" is produced by Swizz Beatz and samples Daft Punk. Busta does an admirable effort, switching from a relaxed rap to the full madman shouting in seconds. Unfortunatly, the chorus is annoying and it doesn't have much musically going on. However, credit must be given for not including any of the 87 "Touch It" remixes that have popped up randomly here and there.

"New York Shit" is an attempt at an accompanying anthem to Busta's planned New York revitalization. Swizz handles the chorus, but it's produced by DJ Scratch who takes from a Diamond D beat pretty much entirely.

In case you're missing the trend, there's an average of more than one guest star per song. "Been through the Storm" even brings in Stevie Wonder, but only to sing. It's a wasted shot however - not only because of the generic (although not bad) production (courtesy of Sha Money XL and Dr. Dre) but because he sings generic lyrcs in manner like he's imitating Wyclef Jean imitating Bob Marley.

To further prove the point, not only does he bring in Stevie, he brings in Rick James back from the dead on THE NEXT TRACK (by heavily sampling "Ghetto Life"). The song ("In the Ghetto") is produced by DJ Green Lantern with help from Dr. Dre, and it works for the most part except for the alternatively super high pitched and super low pitched voices that sing "In the Ghetto", which come off as either laughable or irritating or laughably irritating.

I actually enjoyed the next 3 songs (to varying degrees) - "Cocaina" (featuring Marsha, produced by Dr. Dre), "Goldmine" (featuring Raekwon, produced by Erick Sermon) and especially "You Can't Hold a Torch" (featuring Q-Tip and Chauncey Black, produced by the late J-Dilla). "Torch" has a throwback vibe, accentuated by a nice guest appearance from Q-Tip.

The roll is interrupted by the cliche of "I Love my Bitch" featuring Kelis and Black Eyed Peas frontman will.i.am. Thankfully, the album returns to better songs with "Don't Get Carried Away" featuring a pretty good guest shot from Nas and a somewhat over the top but still entertaing beat from Dr. Dre.

The next song is "They're Out to Get Me", produced by "Mr." Denaun Porter (member of D-12, or is it D-10 now?), who has been playing keyboards all throughout the album, and it actually works pretty well. He also sings (perhaps deliberatly) off-key, which should have been re-thought. After the kinda meh "Get Down" (produced by Timbaland), we end on 2 odd songs. First, there's "I'll do it All", (featuring Laitoya Jackson), with all sorts of weird keyboard work and no bassdrum. Lastly, there is "Legend of the Fall Offs", an utterly bleak end to the album with a weird sound effect for a snare and some crickets chirping. It also kinda works for what it is.

To Busta's credit, he delivers pretty well and manages to shine through the slew of guest stars. It's weird when Busta has to steal even his *own* show, but it shows how good he can be that he's mostly successful at it.

Inexplicably, 3 songs which are better than most of what's on here that had already been released are not present. First, there is "Rough around the Edges", featuring Nas over a haunting choir-based beat. It's slightly better than the Nas featured song on the actual album. Then there's "I'll Hurt You", a song that features Eminem and a stop-and-start violin-based beat courtesy of Scott Storch. Lastly, there is "Where's Your Money?", another beat supplied by the late J-Dilla featuring the late Ol' Dirty Bastard working his usual genius. Those last 2 songs are better than anything on the actual album, so I have no idea why they were cut.

Ultimatley, for all the lofty goals and the amount of money funneled into this project, "The Big Bang" is mostly a disappointment. Loyal Busta fans won't be all that dissapointed, since he brings his usual style with enough twists to not sound too tired, but the rest of us won't find much to like. My advice: run your Soulseek or your Limewire or whatever it is you have (and I know you have it, you internets pirates), and get "You Can't Hold a Torch", "I'll Hurt You" and "Where's Your Money?". 'Cause a "Big Bang" this is not.

- Luis