What It Is

Busta Rhymes

By Natalie Silver

In the same way that a perfect rhyme requires a brilliant casting of words, brilliance in hip hop production demands a sharp ear for the way different music—and artists—could potentially sound mixed together. For it to really work—that is, for a song to be successful in featuring or sampling someone from the outside—the producer must have foresight of how a particular artist’s energy will enhance the song, and how the song, in return, will elevate the artist. 

Welcome to the business mind of Busta Rhymes—the ultimate musical matchmaker, the mediator between song and artist.

While highly esteemed as a rapper, songwriter, record executive and actor, Busta’s true brilliance lies in his ability to produce—and in the process scout talent and pair it with his original song blueprints, thus forging symbiotic relationships between artist and song. 

He’ll put in DMX and Jay-Z when he wants celebratory fatalism, or Eminem when he wants the song to induce feelings of vertigo, panic and schizophrenia. 

He features Nicki Minaj when he wants it dirty, and when he needs it less feisty but still dripping in sex he’ll collaborate with Janet Jackson—or Lenny Kravitz if he wants it electric and wild, too.

He calls Kanye West, Lil Wayne and Q-Tip when he wants to bring his music a suave, self-aggrandizing smile, just as he’ll hit up Mary J. Blige and Missy Franklin when he needs girls who can hold their own and deliver rich combination of aggression and delicacy all in one punch. When his song calls for shy, titillating falsetto he calls Mariah Carey and when he wants to effect a sultry, authority-challenging confidence, he calls up the Pussycat Dolls.

For his 2001 song “What It Is,” off the same album, Genesis, that also brought us “Break Ya Neck,” he teams up with Kelis and her own unapologetic version of soul. Her self-assurance complements the matter-of-fact tone of the lyrics, and her smokey falsetto brings an elegance to an otherwise boyish enunciation. 

Both Kelis’ voice and style are super versatile and lend themselves to R&B, electronic music, funk and hip-hop, among other genres, and has parlayed seamlessly into more contemporary hip hop sounds as rap and EDM have begun to crossbreed more and more. 

She has a modulated and singsong-y voice, which, combined with her inquisitive and confrontational delivery accomplishes a style of storytelling that is both vulnerable and audacious. She is assertive in the midst of chaos—always—and especially within Busta Rhymes’ supersonic flow and lyrical contortionism. 

Together, they riff off of, provoke and inspire the other. They are true creative others, and in “What It Is,” they get down with it.  It’s a party song; it’s a state of the union cry. It’s a declaration of loudness, rowdiness and defiance. They’re daring you to define it, because only they know what it is. 

October 25, 2019