Born to parents Geraldine Green (1947) and Trevor George Smith Sr, and he has a younger brother, Paul Smith. His parents divorced when he 10 years old. Busta’s time during the year of 1983 was that of change, his parents got divorced and his way of thinking was altered, during that year he also changed his religious beliefs and re-named himself ‘Born Justice God Allah’ because of the supreme sorts of names that he now believed in and looked up to. He discovered hip hop music through listening to the Zulu Beats Radio Show, something influenced him from that show and three years later he would form a group. Busta also went to school in the United Kingdom, where he lived in Blackpool, Preston and Morecambe. Ended up graduating from George Westinghouse High School in downtown Brooklyn.
As a youngster he played basketball, football and soccer.
His Panamanian baby-sitter, Aunt Mitzi, made him listen to all the rap radio stations. So, He would sit there at 2 in the morning rapping when he was supposed to be sleeping. I just couldn't be too loud or Mitzi's poodle would start dancing around and barking. One night, the poodle barked and Mitzi took my radio away. So he said, "I don't need that radio. I'll write my own rap songs." Busta Rhymes later became part of a B-Boy crew with mainly latinos, a couple of white kids, and Busta, the only black one. When he was about 10 years old after he moved from Brooklyn to Long Island, where he became a member of the crew when it was a big contest happening which the leader of the crew, Johnny Juice watched. Busta just came up to him like, "Are you Johnny Juice?" and Johnny answered like "Yeah." and he said he wanted to be down with this crew. He started poppin' and Johnny said he was dope so he said "We're about to do this contest" and they wanted to put him down with them, but he didn't know the routines. But they put him down anyways and they lost the contest because they didn't know where to put him in the routine. The next contest they had was more of a battle, for the crown of best b-boys in Long Island and they had their crew there and they won. Busta destroyed these other guys, when he was poppin. Johnny Juice says "even if you listen to his rhymes now, you can tell by the way he rhymes and the way he moves around he's really dope on the popping shit".
Before his leap to stardom, Rhymes, was a rambunctious middle-class kid from Long Island who wrote "rap poetry" and dropped out of high school to pursue a music career. "I really thought he'd be a dancer," says his mother, Geraldine Green. "At family cookouts he would win all the dance contests. He was always a showman." He reminds his worst job: “I used to work as a stock boy at a department store called Cheap John’s,” he says. “I knew that I couldn’t really wrap my head around doing that kind of work. Even if your heart is not in something, your mind has to at least be able to be willing to do it. So, I took the job and I worked for about two weeks, and then I quit.” Why?
“They just had me doing too much. I had to line up the roach sprays on the shelves and make sure they were all in order, facing the same way, with the logos facing the front. The dishwashing liquids, the detergents, the boxes that they came in when they came from the actual shipping companies that they were manufactured at. After I lined them up on the shelves, I had to cut up the cardboard boxes, fold them up neatly and tie them up so that they could do the recycling thing with them. After a couple paper cuts too many, and hands that were calloused and ashy and bruised, I said ‘this is definitely not the thing for me to continue to be doing.’”
Busta adds, “I used that as inspiration to go into the studio all the time when I had a free moment. After work, during my lunch break, traveling back and forth to work … to just apply myself creatively, and the opportunity finally came one day when I was downtown.” At 17, Rhymes landed a six-figure record deal.
LONS signing with Elektra
His first name as a rapper was Chill-o-ski, but he thought it was a corny name, and Chuck D from Public Enemy gave him a new name, Busta Rhymes. He got the name from an american football player from the eighties, George "Buster" Rhymes, and people always asked him to "Bust-a-rhyme", so the choice was easy. In the end of the eighties he met Charlie Brown at Turtlehook Middle School and they formed Leaders of the New School with Dinco "The rhyme scientist" D and Milo In De Dance (aka The Cut Monitor). They were on Rush Management. They was signed to Elektra Records December 12th 1989. First Recorded Appearance: “Mt. Airy Groove” from the Rubaiyat compilation, Elektra 1990. A&R Dante Ross heard about Leaders of the New School from Hank Shocklee [Bomb Squad] and Chuck D [Public Enemy] and them.He says "I knew they were one of their burgeoning groups and I also knew they didn't have a record deal. I heard they were performing and I went to check them out. I had just got my A&R gig at Elektra. I went there, saw them perform, grabbed them right after the performance and told them they had a record deal if they wanted one. LONS released 2 albums, "A future without a past" in 1991, and "T.I.M.E." in 1993. In 1992 Busta's girl was pregnant, but the baby died right after he was born, and Busta had big personal problems after that, but he got great support from his group members. In 93 they where divided because of ego in the group.
A couple of other things that made him well known before his solo career was a couple of cameo performances, among them A Tribe Called Quest's remix of "Scenario" with Leaders Of The New School, and the "Flava in ya ear remix" with Craig Mack and Rampage.
It took Busta three years before he released an album for Elektra, in 1996 he released "The Coming" with the hits "Woo hah! Got you all in check" featuring Rampage and "It's a party" featuring Zhane. while recording his debut album, he left the studio to check on his new SUV. He'd recently purchased the Toyota Land Cruiser, a giant vehicle that gives the impression of driving on an elevated track, for $40,000. Rhymes took the elevator down and came out on Broadway, in lower Manhattan, at 11:30 p.m. His ride was gone. Furious, he marched back inside and closed the door in the recording booth. "There was nothing I could do at that point, so I just vented that angry energy into three songs," he says. Woo-Hah!! Got You All in Check, one of the tracks he completed by morning, went on to become a street anthem and crossover hit, his first ever.
There was a short gap between the release of Busta’s first album and his second album, but it came sooner than people imagined it to. Busta was sceptical about bootleggers copying the new album so for reviewing purposes he only sent out album samplers. In 1997 he released his second album, "When Disaster Strikes", and after that, his popularity exploded. 1998 became a very good year for Busta, he started his own clothing line, BUSHI designs, and released his third album "Extinction Level Event (The final world front)" and Flipmode Squad's debut "The Imperial". Flipmode Squad at that point included Busta Rhymes, Rah Digga, Spliff Star, Rampage, Baby Sham & Lord Have Mercy.
1999 became a year with problems for Busta, he had to visit the courthouse a couple of times because of child support, and police stopped his car and found an unregistered gun. He lost the case about child support, and he got a 5 year probation for the other case. Now Elektra started to shut him down with less studio time and promotion for his next album. Busta didn't like that, and took his squad over to J Records in 2001 after his fourth release in 2000, "Anarchy".
J Records
His first album at J was "Genesis", with the hits "What it is" featuring Kelis, "Break ya neck" & "Pass the courvoiser part 2" featuring Pharrell and P. Diddy. Now he is CEO for Flipmode Records. In november 2002 he released his most fervent album so far, "It Ain't Safe No More" with the singles "Make it clap" featuring Spliff Star, and a remix of it featuring Spliff Star and Sean Paul. Other achievements in 2002 was the movie roles he had in "Halloween: Resurrection" and "Narc". In 2003 his SUV was shot up with 6 bullets while he was in the Violator offices, that happened just a month after a couple of people shot inside their offices. The collaboration with Mariah Carey & Flipmode Squad named "I know what you want" on "It ain't safe no more" became Busta's biggest hit so far.
Aftermath
In February 2004, Flipmode Squad joined Aftermath Records, New members was added to the squad: M. Dollars, Labba and former Blackstreet Chauncey Black joined them. In March he got a six month probation sentence after pleading no contest to a charge that he assaulted a woman during a concert in Fall River, Massachusetts, in December 2002.
In November 2005 the first official single off the album "Touch it" was released to radio. The video premiered in December. He is now the father of four children (born in 93, 99, 00 and 02). In February, while making the second video for "The Big Bang"- the "Touch it remix" ft. Mary J. Blige, Missy, Rah Digga, Lloyd Banks, Papoose and DMX, one of his bodyguards, Israel Ramirez, who recently started working security for Busta as his jewelry handler, was shot and killed shortly after midnight outside of the Kiss The Cactus Production studio in the Greenpoint section of Brooklyn, NY. According to eyewitnesses, the shooting was a result of an argument that began inside the studio and continued outside.
The Aftermath chief Dr. Dre said before the release of The Big Bang that ”All of sudden I’m hearing people in the streets talking about hos Busta’s back. In my mind, he never left, and that’s why I wanted to fuck with in the first place. He’s got that drive, and he never stops trying to top himself. Anybody who knows Busta knows that he’s always gonna come with heat." His third video from "The Big Bang" was released 10th May, "I love my bitch". The video features actress Gabrielle Union and the Black Eyed Peas' Will.i.am, who produced the song, but Kelis who is featured on the song, was not in the video. The single also features Kelis, but she's not featured in the video. Also changed is his appearance, as he has cut off his trademark dreadlocks as part of a personal renewal. "Eight years of court appearances later and I was awarded custody of my children," he explained. "My hair was remindful of the unnecessary rocks in my career and life. So it was time to shed the locks... I've got my career and family right." "The Big Bang" was released 13th June. The fourth video was released in July, "New York shit" and the fitth video came out in August, "In the ghetto". The album was certified Gold in that month too. This month he was also charged with an assault after the Amsterjam Music Festival on Randalls Island, and he was ticketed after police saw him talking on his mobile while driving past a Manhattan police station.
On January 3rd 2007 he turned himself in to police custody after he allegedly attacking someone on Boxing Day. Lt. John Grimpel said a man told police that Rhymes, had punched and kicked him repeatedly after an argument over money. On May 3rd was arrested on a drunk driving charge by police in New York City. Officers stopped Rhymes at about 12:40 a.m. because the sport utility vehicle he was driving had overly tinted windows, officers then smelled alcohol on the rapper's breath and he was subsequently arrested. was released on $7,500 bail, set by Judge Tanya Kennedy. After a 8th May court appearance, he was free to drive. Rhymes' lawyer said a judge ruled against a prosecution motion to suspend the rapper's license following the driving-while-intoxicated arrest. He also turned down a plea deal that day that would have sent him to jail for one year, the Manhattan district attorney's office said.
Bus appeared in a Super Bowl finale commercial for Pepsi Max Diet in February. Busta Rhymes pleaded guilty on 23rd January to assault, two driving infractions and weapons possession, avoiding a trial and the yearlong prison sentence recommended by prosecutors. But Judge Larry Stevens disagreed with prosecutors that Rhymes deserved time behind bars. Instead, he sentenced him to three years' probation and 10 days of community service for beating a fan who reportedly spat on his car in August 2006, and then assaulting his driver, Larry Hackett, that December. Rhymes was also fined $1,250 for driving with a suspended license in 2006 and driving while intoxicated in 2007. "I just want to say that I'm very grateful to the judge, I'm very grateful to the system. I believe in the system. It hasn't failed me personally yet," Rhymes, dressed in a crisp black pinstripe suit, said outside the courtroom.
"I'm just glad that all of this is finally behind me and I can go back to doing what I do best - making great music and great films and being a people person," he said.
His 8th solo album "Blessed" was set for a release in July 2008. First he called it "When Hell Freeze Over" then he changed it to "Back On My B.S.", a title Pharrell helped him come up with, last it was changed to "Blessed" in April 08. Rhymes was added to Projekt Revolution 2008 (summer tour), He was joining Linkin Park, Chris Cornell, The Bravery, and Ashes Divide on the main stage. After the first week of touring he had to leave the tour because of business matters; Late July he left Interscope, because they couldn't agree with Busta how to handle the final version of the album.
Motown
In September 08 he his new deal was announced, with Motown/Universal. He then re-titled his album to "Back On My B.S." The first single was released in October 2008, called "Arab Money" featuring Ron Browz. 2 remix videos with different guests were later releases in February 09. The second single, "Hustler's Anthem 09" was released in Febuary too. The third single's video "Respect My Conglomerate" was released in March. "Back On My B.S." was released May 19th 09, and entered the Billboard chart at #5, after a lot of delays; 1st July 08, 9th Dec. 08, 10th Feb. 09, 24th March 09). In June, the video for "If you don't know" was released. The video for "World Go Round" will be released soon.
Light Your Ass On Fire )
Busta Rhymes Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
[Intro: Pharrell Williams]
Whachu say your name was?
Well um, lookin real sexy right now
You and your girls, are lookin good
Look why don't y'all take off y'all jackets
What's your name baby? word? okay
[Verse: Busta Rhymes]
Hah, I know you starving for this shit
Baby I'm feeling your hunger
I'm so clean call a nigga Felix Ungar
So what if I said it baby I'm still gon' tell ya
I hope your ass bigger than Willona and Thelma
Listen, it's Busta Rhymes bitch I ain't never fail ya
Your ass all over like paraphernalia, hmm
See the police gon jail ya
For walking around wit the kind of ass that'll kill ya now
Don't worry bout it I got money to bill ya
Shorty stacking like a mule, type of shit that'll scare ya
Headboard bang, bump the side of ya head
Watch how ya ass spread spill all off the side of the bed now, hmm
Now whachu do to the dread? baby your ass really changed
What he initially said because a nigga dead
But fuck em! cause now we vibing and talking and shit
I love to hear your ass go (ga ga goon) when you walking and shit
[Chorus: Pharrell Williams]
Move girl like your ass on fire - like your ass on fire
Move girl like your ass on fire - like your ass on fire
Move girl I'll light your ass on fire - I'll light your ass on fire
Move girl I'll light your ass on fire - Bitch I'll light that ass on fire
Move girl I'll light your ass on fire
[Verse: Busta Rhymes]
Bust it, baby I know you probably really
Need a table cloth to cover your ass
Digging in your pocket while you rubbing yo ass
Shit so big just put the club in yo ass
Prep the H2 park it right infront of yo ass
I see your little gap between your cunt and yo ass
And make you jump inside the whip and smoke a blunt wit yo ass
I'm saying hmm, the shit'll spread like a rash
The way they ass wiggles see I got the shit on a smash now listen
I light the L smell a wiff of the hash
And bag all the bitches, now watch you see me zip in a flash
I'm saying hmm, now I'm a put you on blast
Just like a tint window when you put your shit on the glass
Bust right through the window then it sit on the dash
And have a nigga driving wreckless till you making him crash
(Hah, c'mon) we making money and shit
Now pop your muffin while we be watching you shaking your shit
[Chorus]
[Bridge]
Welcome to hot in Hazyville
It make you want to dance till you break your heels
I know you love the way the God make your feel
Now watch me get deeper than a Navy Seal (Navy Seal?)
It got a crazy feel, shit feel like you in a danger field
Hypnotize, stuck it in her, daze for real
That's exactly why we call this one Hazyville (Hazyville)
[Verse: Busta Rhymes]
Baby, just shake ya ass till you spread on the floor
I noticed that your ass too big for your draws
You need a - a chiropractor just to marry yo ass
To tell the truth you need a tractor just to carry yo ass
Fo reala, you motherfuckers probably think that I'm playing
All bitches love to talk and all that other shit I be saying
And going hmm, see how you putting it down
I love the way you shake it throw it around!
[Chorus]
[Bridge]
In the lyrics to Busta Rhymes' song Light Your Ass On Fire featuring Pharrell, the two rappers are singing about their admiration for women with big butts. Pharrell, in the introductory verse, flirts with a woman and her friends, and Busta Rhymes joins in, bragging about his wealth and how it can attract women. The chorus is a repetition of the phrase "move girl like your ass on fire," which is a slang term for a type of dance where a person moves their hips and butt in a provocative way. Throughout the song, Busta Rhymes uses vivid imagery to describe the butts of various women, and he encourages them to dance for him.
The song is seen as a classic example of a "booty" song or party anthem, where the lyrics are explicitly sexual and the focus is on having fun and dancing rather than on deeper themes or intellectual analysis. The song was released in 2003 and was included on Busta Rhymes' eighth studio album, It Ain't Safe No More. The song was produced by Pharrell Williams, who is also featured on the track.
Line by Line Meaning
Whachu say your name was?
Pharrell is asking Busta Rhymes' female companion for her name.
Look why don't y'all take off y'all jackets
Pharrell is suggesting that the women should remove their jackets.
I know you starving for this shit
Busta Rhymes believes that his female companion is eager to have sex.
Baby I'm feeling your hunger
Busta Rhymes is attracted to his female companion's desire.
I'm so clean call a nigga Felix Ungar
Busta Rhymes is well-dressed and uses a reference to a neat-freak character from The Odd Couple, Felix Ungar, to emphasize his cleanliness.
So what if I said it baby I'm still gon' tell ya
Busta Rhymes is saying that he will always speak his mind regardless of the consequences.
I hope your ass bigger than Willona and Thelma
Busta Rhymes is hoping that his female companion has a large buttocks similar to characters on the TV show Good Times.
It's Busta Rhymes bitch I ain't never fail ya
Busta Rhymes is stating that he has never disappointed anyone as a musician.
Your ass all over like paraphernalia, hmm
Busta Rhymes is comparing his female companion's buttocks to illegal items.
See the police gon jail ya
Busta Rhymes is saying that the police will arrest his female companion for having a large buttocks.
For walking around wit the kind of ass that'll kill ya now
Busta Rhymes is saying that having a large buttocks could be dangerous.
Don't worry bout it I got money to bill ya
Busta Rhymes is suggesting that he can pay for any troubles his female companion might face due to her buttocks.
Shorty stacking like a mule, type of shit that'll scare ya
Busta Rhymes is saying that his female companion's buttocks is as large as a mule, which could be intimidating.
Headboard bang, bump the side of ya head
Busta Rhymes is referencing the sound of a headboard hitting the wall during sex.
Watch how ya ass spread spill all off the side of the bed now, hmm
Busta Rhymes is saying that his female companion's buttocks is so large that it spills off the side of the bed during sex.
Now whachu do to the dread? baby your ass really changed
Busta Rhymes is questioning what his female companion did to him that made her buttocks become even larger.
What he initially said because a nigga dead
Busta Rhymes is implying that his male competition died because of his female companion's buttocks.
But fuck em! cause now we vibing and talking and shit
Busta Rhymes is saying that he is now spending time with his female companion despite any drama from his male competition.
I love to hear your ass go (ga ga goon) when you walking and shit
Busta Rhymes finds pleasure in hearing his female companion's buttocks make a sound as she walks.
Move girl like your ass on fire - like your ass on fire
Pharrell is telling the women to dance as if their buttocks are on fire.
Move girl I'll light your ass on fire - I'll light your ass on fire
Pharrell is telling the women that he will set their buttocks on fire if they don't dance.
Bitch I'll light that ass on fire
Pharrell is emphasizing that he is serious about lighting the women's buttocks on fire if they don't dance.
Baby, just shake ya ass till you spread on the floor
Busta Rhymes is telling his female companion to dance so hard that she falls on the ground.
Fo reala, you motherfuckers probably think that I'm playing
Busta Rhymes is saying that he is serious about having his female companion dance so hard that she falls on the ground.
And going hmm, see how you putting it down
Busta Rhymes is enjoying watching his female companion dance.
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Warner/Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: TREVOR SMITH, PHARRELL WILLIAMS, CHAD HUGO
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@VCthaGOATdunker
Busta Rhymes was the most hilarious bastard ever in Hiphop and yet he was so damn skilled at the same time. Amazing flow.
@38kal
2019!!!
@vengeful1joe827
Ludacris was pretty funny as well
@louisville8255
Been a fan since day 1
@maratnahimana
@@vengeful1joe827 Luda's my fav
@Joshdyisdifh
I thought ODB was the most hilarious bastard hahaha.
@jaretmane
Pharrell always manages to make beats that have the ability to stay timeless
@iminlove1056
Jaret Wood yassss
@ChromeTecNina
Everybody forgets Chad Hugo. The Neptunes were a duo
@seeboombeatzofficial6620
agree