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Busta Rhymes - Back On My B.S.
| Rapreviews |
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After another long hiatus between albums - this time, three years since "The Big Bang" - Busta Rhymes is finally able to drop his latest long play, "Back On My B.S." which shall be henceforth be referred to as BOMBS (ooh, clever). "The Big Bang" shot to the top of the charts, helped in part by the monster single "Touch It" and being "supported" by Dr Dre's Aftermath label. Yet the sales hit a plateau, and, somewhat predictably, being signed to Dre proved pointless (if your name isn't Eminem or 50 Cent). Can Busta confound the low expectations and drop a great album? By now you should be aware of the usual smash Busta single in support of the LP... Oh, there doesn't appear to be one. Whilst "Arab Money" provided a good bit of fun, it certainly wasn't the universal club banger that he always drops. Put simply, there genuinely isn't one. If that wasn't shocking enough, it also turns out that Busta Bust has dropped an album that is seriously enjoyable to listen to, over and over again. BOMBS proves to be more even, more consistent than "The Big Bang" - even if it contains no palpable hit singles. There is the right mix of street anthems, humour, self-awareness and, well, bullshit. The production is a cut above solid throughout, and whilst the album is surely destined to fail commercially, BOMBS proves to be one of his best musical albums, easily. Ron Browz seems reinvigorated by the invention of Autotune and isn't even that annoying. The Neptunes drop the interesting uptempo ragga-infused "Kill Dem" (with Busta's patois deserving PROPS); Danja's beat for "Shoot for the Moon" is almost other-worldly, yet familiar enough to be immediately identifiable; Focus provides the superbly sinister "Respect My Conglomerate" featuring solid guest verses from Jadakiss and Lil Wayne....full text |
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| Allmusic |
| Following up his troubled 2006 release The Big Bang, Back on My B.S. -- or B.O.M.B.S. -- is guided by the "return to form" template, sometimes to a fault. "Give Em What They Askin For" is an exercise in yelling, kicking, and screaming "I'm back" as loud as you can, and while fans will likely cheer, Busta and producer Ron Brownz are just preaching to the converted and should have left this hookless monster on a mixtape. A handful of similar tracks suffer from this same problem of ambition over inspiration, but for every miss, there's a hit, and you don't have to look any further than the other Busta and Brownz team-up, "Arab Money," which acts as an Arabic-sampling alternative to its equally infectious older brother, "Mundian to Bach Ke." The Jelly Roll production "Sugar" is the wild sound of Kraftwerk with an Isley Brother in their ranks, while Pharrell gives "Kill Dem" a Neptunes-styled version of dancehall, allowing Busta to turn on the patois and let his Jamaican heritage take control. Odd that a comeback album would put unsurprising Akon and John Legend collaborations in the fourth quarter, but even odder is the successful closing bit of Euro-disco called "World Go Round" which falls somewhere between a Flo Rida single and a new wave club classic. That's more highlights than last time out, and even if B.O.M.B.S. fails to put Busta back on top, it is certainly a step in the right direction....full text |
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| Vibe |
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Back on My Bullshit. Busta Rhymes couldn’t have described his career any better. Ever since fleeing his Leaders of the New School for solo superstardom, Bus-A-Bus has been an impressively efficient hitmaker, sparking signatures—from the dungeon dragon growls of 1996’s “Woo-Hah!! Got You All in Check” to the Daft Punk-sampling theatrics of 2007’s “Touch It”—as easily as he once destroyed A Tribe Called Quest’s classic “Scenario” cipher. But it’s his boisterous, unforgettable charisma, and that “Do the Bus-A-Bus” swagger that has carried him through a career spanning nearly two decades. On his last effort, 2006’s The Big Bang (Aftermath/Interscope), Busta seemed to forget his sharp commercial instincts, transforming from a dreadlocked prankster to an angry, muscle-bound thug. In spite of several underrated joints (check his slept-on single “In the Ghetto”), The Big Bang alienated much of Busta’s audience. Back on My B.S.—arriving after numerous delays owing to a label switch from Dr. Dre’s Aftermath/Interscope imprint to Universal Motown—promises a return to the Busta we all know and love. It begins promisingly with an intro that mimics Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5, as he interpolates the famous “dun-dun-dun-dun” arpeggio with “Back-on-my-bull-shit!” The opener is followed by Ron Browz’s keyboard-driven clarion call “Give ’Em What We Askin’ For.” “They say we make the greatest hits,” Busta boasts. “Who am I to disagree?”...full text |
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