Following month of delays, lots of re-namings and numerous track listings, Busta Rhymes finally dropped his eighth album, "Back On My B.S." in May 2009. It sees the Long Island, New Yorker follow on from a highly-successfully chart-topping 2006 album "The Big Bang", which saw the artist (who has been in the game since the early nineties) showing how he has managed to remain relevant up to this point.
1. “Wheel of Fortune” (Intro)
2. “Give ‘Em What They Askin’ For”
To get things going on the 2009 album from Bussa Bust, you get him getting right down to a hardcore track in which you find that he gets down to something hardcore as he delivers exactly what his fans desire with a contemporary track, which finds in with the modern trends as he gets on some booming production from Ron Browz to guide him through while he flows in the way we have known him for since he broke through.
**Five Stars**
3. “Respect My Conglomerate”
This is one which finds Busta getting down to material which appears to take it towards the Mafioso style of rapping, but unlike the nineties style, this sounds to be greatly improved and a lot more appealing as he works with another act from that period of East coast rap in The L.O.X.’s Jadakiss, and someone who represents the younger generation of this as Lil’ Wayne drops his interpretation of it too on this one.
**Five Stars**
4. “Shoot For The Moon”
This was the only track on the album which I couldn’t say wasn’t
quite as strong as the rest, and this isn’t to say that it was all that weak, its just that in comparison to what else you get, it just doesn’t quite live up to the same standard as you see that he makes the focus of the material about him striving for greatness and reaching out to above. It is a decent one, but holds it back slightly.
**Four Stars**
5. “Hustler’s Anthem ‘09”
This was one of the big single to the album and it gets Busta Rhymes performing one which was made exclusively for the clubs as he teams up with T-Pain, one act known mostly for his work in this field, getting down to a a fly one which all listeners can get down to as it finds that the things which come through with it are pretty open to all people (no matter what they tend to be into. I can’t see where anyone can fault this one as it gets you every time it is played.
**Five Stars**
6. “Kill Dem”
This is a a typical link-up between The Neptunes and Busta as with this one have him backed by Pharrell singing the part of the hook to this track which has him returning to his Jamaican roots. The whole of this recording in performed in Jamaican patois and sees him perfuming some Gangsta Rap in this style rather effectively although it doesn’t quite get to the standards of proper Dancehall, it is a fair one, and shows the strengths of all the people involved.
**Five Stars**
7. “Arab Money”
This was one of the best singles to come off the album and it gets him working with Ron Browz for one which has things taken directly to the clubs (in the way that Browz did for his own “pop champagne” track on so on his heavy-auto-tuning, you get the two doing one which deals with the massive amounts of money they are raking in; deeming it Arab money, since Dubai seems to be the place to be at the time and where all the money lies.
**Five Stars**
8. “I’m A Go And Get My…”
DJ Scratch comes to bring something hardcore for this one, and you get that for the tune the main drive of it is Busta delivering the more Gangsta Rap side of his material which he hasn’t really had that much in recent times. The beats in it are great, and the overall sound shows the diversity of Scratch’s work, even being about twenty years since breaking through with EPMD with a unique use of samples making it what it is.
**Five Stars**
9. “We Want In”
Here is the final appearance by the EtherBoy, Ron Browz for production, and in this one he is part of the hook too in a track which finds that the drive of it concerns them just wanting to be in with whatever is popular at the time. It is a freaky one, and if you enjoyed other material in that particular style (where it is taken to the clubs) you are bound to get down with this kind of things too.
**Five Stars**
10. “We Miss You”
Here you have one which has them artist altering the way in which he goes about constructing his material as he modifies the focus of the material and instead of doing tunes which have him getting down to the general feel-good kind of thing, it is seen that here he decides to do one where he gets into how he expects this time away to be perceived, and the reaction he deserves to get from it as he bounces back whilst taking the basis structure of a Dancehall song by the Dancehall singer DeMarco (who sings the chorus) to once again bring in his aspect of his material.
**Five Stars**
11. “Sugar”
This is one which once again has him making big things happen as the direction of the music is twisted towards something which hasn’t really come out of his music much as he performs a rather seductive one on some deep production from Jelly Roll (a producer known mostly for work with some of the biggest West Coast rap names there are). It took me by surprise, and it was done well by him whilst still bringing in newer styles with it.
**Five Stars**
12. “Don’t Believe ‘Em”
Although Akon is part of this one, it seemed as though his role in it all was overshadowed to the degree that I really wasn’t affected by the annoyance which typically comes up when he sings, as for this one you here that the music takes a great turn with Cool & Dre on the beats and drilling something which reminded me of the kind of things that DJ Toomp produced for the guest rapper (T.I.) around 2006. It is a motivational one, and sees him doing some up-lifting raps here.
**Five Stars**
13. “Decision”
So many come top aid the artist on this one that it’s hard to keep up and I felt that with all of this assistance from many artist from the Hip Hop world, in addition to R&B and Neo-Soul, that he brought something which listeners simply cannot feel negatively towards in any way. The melody of the hook reminds me of Musiq Soulchild’s “Just Friends” before breaking out into something completely original as it deals with decisions in relationships and how they can drastically effect the way it goes.
Ending the album off you find a track which bring out further variety in his work as Jelly Roll comes up with another fresh cut in which he makes the focus of the project to make a club banger for all to enjoy, and so by taking it I to the House scene with some pounding bass and additional vocals from the UK’s Estelle, he shows he’s not bad at this either I t is completely unlike him, but by building it up off a few lines from Eric B. & Rakim’s “I Know You Got Soul”, it brings all the Hip Hop heads in from the get-go.
**Five Stars**
As the rapper removed two of the biggest singles (“Don’t Touch Me Now” and “We Made It”) from the main body of the album, I knew that he had to be confident that the rest of the release would make up for this loss by having him take things further to the sound of 2009, and so by getting rid of single which dropped long before the album, he’s showing progression, and he backed this up with all of the track which he brought here. It is a killer album and one of the best Hip Hop cuts of 2009.
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