In the wake of Busta Rhymes' huge new single with Eminem, "Calm Down," hip-hop publications have been scrambling to interview him, and most of the resulting articles have produced headlines that are quite eye-catching. Following stories about Bussa Bus battling Eminem and breaking a windshield with his face, we now have one about his relative dissatisfaction with the state of modern hip-hop.
Busta was recently interviewed by XXL, and among discussions about his upcoming album and working with Eminem, he voiced his opinion on the lack of diversity in today's hip-hop climate. Starting by saying that "Calm Down" was made to be a "friendly reminder to the motherfuckers what the fundamentals of hip-hop was based on," Busta elaborated:
"I just feel like balance is always necessary and I think that’s part of the reason why a lot of the way the climate shift happens. I think there’s balance that is needed. If we had a little more balance, the way the shit would feel overall would be a lot different. For me, I come from a time when balance was primary in the 1990s. I’m not trying to live in the past 'cause I’m not about that. It just seems to me that the past was a lot more forward-thinking. Everybody is trying to make it a primary respective law to not copy each other’s shit and not try to sound like each other’s shit. Everybody put time into thinking what is the next new way you do things so you stand alone and you stand out. That’s the way the balance was maintained, upheld and upkept. Everybody had their own lane and everybody stayed in it. And if you tried to evolve, you evolved in your own way and in your own lane of doing you. Today, when you go in the club, eight different motherfuckers' shit sound like one long record to me."
Read the full interview here, and let us know your thoughts on Busta's opinion in the comments section.