How Busta Rhymes accidentally became a rapper: “Should I punch this dude in his face?”
Busta Rhymes‘ name instantly springs to mind when we’re talking the most technically gifted rappers. He has one of rap’s best flows and voices, and he’s responsible for some undeniable classics. Albums like The Coming, When Disaster Strikes, and Extinction Level Event: The Final World Front are ’90s staples, with the Brooklyn rapper just as capable of rapping on A Tribe Called Quest’s ‘Scenario’ as he is on The Pussycat Dolls’ ‘Don’t Cha’.
Busta might be considered a legend in the genre, but he never planned to be a rapper. His first interest in hip-hop started with a desire to become a DJ, but he was never skilled enough to make it his career. Understanding decks didn’t come easily to him.
“I never really got good at it to be the DJ,” he told Steven Bartlett on his Diary of a CEO podcast. “I was able to do it, but I was never nice enough to become the superstar DJ. And at that time, the DJ was super important. Because all of the groups had the DJ name. The DJ was always the big shot. I’m not really the technology dude, so all of this equipment shit, it was just a little complicated for me.”
Around the age of 12, he met Charlie Brown, a fellow Leaders of the New School member, with whom he became best friends. When he was 13, Busta beatboxed to a crowd as Brown rapped over him, before he randomly started dissing him in his lyrics.
“Charlie Brown was like the number one rap dude in school at the time,” he explained. “So one day I’m coming out of the school, and we get in the school yard; there was a cypher that was formed on this particular day, and it was a big one. There was C Brown rapping and two other kids; and C Brown was getting most of the shine. I walk over to the cypher and I started beatboxing. Brown, he’s doing his rap shit to my beatbox, I’m keeping the beat going for him.
“Everything was smooth in the beginning. And then like, probably like a good 30-40 seconds into it, he just started disrespecting me. And I’m kinda torn between, should I punch this dude in his face, or should I keep beatboxing and not be the party pooper of the party energy that we’re having here? And I’m saying to myself, ‘I’m from Brooklyn.’”
Brown received applause from the other kids in the school playground. Instead of throwing fists, Busta decided to write his own bars and come back at him. “I ain’t wanna look like a sore loser, even though there was no battle, he just chose to diss me for no reason,” he recalled. “Long story short, that was the day I said, ‘Aight, I’mma go home and I’mma write a rhyme tonight. And I’mma come back tomorrow and I’mma fuckin’ disrespect this yout in front of everybody.’”
It was an essential moment in his life, paving the way for a career that has spread his name across the globe. Now, with a dozen Grammy nominations and many platinum plaques, Busta can be thankful Brown decided to embarrass him on that day in 1985.