FFWD Weekly
Copyright © 1999. All Rights Reserved
| CD Review by Frank Litorco BUSTA RHYMES • Third album for one of rap’s most unique and recognizable characters. • Guest appearances from Janet Jackson, Ozzy Osbourne, and the Flipmode Squad. Got to give the man a round of applause. One minute he’s bouncing off rubber walls in a straightjacket, matching wits with Ol’ Dirty Bastard in his video for "Woo Hah!", the next minute he’s dressed as some mariachi/ flamenco dancer presenting an award on some show and talking about how too many rappers aren’t keepin’ it real. Only Busta is crazy enough to pull both stunts off and at the same time garner as much respect from his peers as anyone else in the business. So here he is again, bringing it on his latest release, Extinction Level Event – an album so hype on the end of civilization, it makes Method Man’s Tical 2000 look like some high schooler just worried about getting a big, fat nose zit right before prom night. Starting with the intro, "There’s Only One Year Left!", you can envision Busta Rhymes ringing the bell with both hands, wearing one of those sandwich boards proclaiming "Fuck The World – Save Yourselves!" It sets the stage for the rest of the album, and apart from the tracks of typical rapper misogyny, Extinction Level Event shows Busta at his most serious. Unfortunately, this is also Busta at his most restrained and most uninspired to date. This NY rapper is full-on when he’s over-the-top and off-the-wall because no can do it like he can. But those elements are found in short supply on ELE, and the album devolves into regular rap fare. Even his take on Black Sabbath’s "Iron Man" (complete with Ozzy Osbourne) falls on this side of "why bother?" That’s not to say that the album has no interesting tracks – it’s just that there are not enough of them. Where his previous album, When Disaster Strikes, funked it up like there was no tomorrow, ELE simply states it. Better luck next time, Busta – if you still believe there is one. 3/5 |
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