Busta Rhymes
rocketed to superstardom in an alarmingly short time, simply because there was no other rapper quite like him. Nobody else in his position had his wild sense of humor, reckless fashion sense, and, most importantly, willingness to take risks. Yes, underground rappers like
the Jurassic Five
and the entire
Wu
clan relentlessly pushed the boundaries of
hip-hop
, but they operated at the fringes of pop culture.
Busta
placed himself smack in the middle of middle America, gleefully taking cameos on
Cosby
and recruiting both
Janet Jackson
and
Ozzy Osbourne
to appear on his third album,
Extinction Level Event (The Final World Front)
. Where this could seem like pandering by some artists, there's no condescension or crass commercialism in his approach.
's party is careening out of control because he doesn't see a reason to exclude anybody. That's the reason why
Executive Level
is a richer listen than most contemporary
records -- it has hard beats, weird samples, unpredictable musical juxtapositions and collaborations, and sharp, intelligent rhymes. Like any artist who attempts so much,
occasionally falls flat (the rewrite of
"Iron Man"
wasn't a great idea), but there's so much happening on
that the missteps don't really matter -- especially since
has come up with a party record that doesn't just sound the end of the millennium, it feels like it. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine