Busta Rhymes is a respected icon in hip-hop and has been in the mainstream since the mid-1990s. The Brooklyn emcee (real name Trevor Smith) found great success in the 2000s and collaborated with a number of artists in his career. However, he once revealed that he was eager to work with Mac Miller before he passed away in 2018.
In 2020, Smith sat down for an in-depth interview with Vulture magazine to speak about his career, who inspires him and how he is looking to progress. When asked if there were any new artists he was keen to work with, Smith brought up Miller.
Delving into the details of their friendship, Smith explained, “We never got a chance to work on any music, but we absolutely had a great friendship. That brother was full of respect and honour, and love when we first linked up. We exchanged numbers and kept in touch for a little bit.”
He continued, “We definitely had plans on working on some shit because that’s a real hip-hop motherfucker.” Smith expanded on the late artist’s knowledge of the culture and explained that he wasn’t a shallow, surface-level emcee in it for the money.
As an industry friend and mentor to Miller Smith divulged, “Mac Miller understood the fundamentals of real hip-hop. He valued boom bap. He valued slapping-ass, real filthy, under-the-nail, gritty boom bap. He loved music. He just loved good music.”
Smith was also a fan of his rhymes, declaring, “The motherfucker could rap his ass off. I miss him. I appreciate him greatly. I really wish that there was an opportunity for me and him to rock out the right way because I was also a fan.” According to the ‘Fire It Up’ lyricist, Miller even had A Tribe Called Quest tattoo.
Amazed at the appreciation Miller had for Smith’s Native Tongues friends, Busta elaborated, “I really fell in love when I saw him with the Tribe logo tattooed on his arm; that shit was just like, damn, he really fucked with what we was doing.” However, behind closed doors, the young artist struggled with substance abuse and chronic depression. The two, in conjunction, would ultimately lead to his death in 2018.
