The story behind Busta Rhymes’ ‘Break Ya Neck’
Released as a single from his 2001 album Genesis, Busta Rhymes’ song ‘Break Ya Neck’ shows off everything that’s great about the legendary rapper.
There are references to rock music in it, a notable feature of the track is its interpolation of ‘Give It Away’ by the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Busta’s remarkable speed-rapping ability is on full display, and, for the cherry on top, production was partly handled by Dr Dre. ‘Break Ya Neck’ is peak Busta Rhymes, but its creation was a fairly intense affair.
Busta and Dre were both very busy with film projects around the time they were set to work on ‘Break Ya Neck’ together. Busta was in the middle of shooting a Halloween sequel called Halloween: Resurrection, while Dre was working on the decidedly more prestigious movie Training Day, which starred Denzel Washington and also saw an appearance from Snoop Dogg. In any case, the point is that both Busta and Dre were busy during this period. That meant their recording session for ‘Break Ya Neck’ needed to be quick and intensive.
Busta, in an interview with Pitchfork, once explained that, in order to get through the song, he stayed in the studio for two solid days, even sleeping there. It must have been a slightly crazy-making situation, especially in light of how extreme a collaborator Dr Dre can be. “Dr Dre is so meticulous,” as Busta put it, “and he’s such a micromanager he’ll have you say a line over 40 or 50 times. One line, before you move on.”
That must have been difficult to deal with, but, thankfully for Busta, Dre would occasionally leave the studio for little periods across those two days, which meant that Busta could record his parts in relative peace, without Dre’s overbearing presence. “He would step out, and that would give me a little more freedom to do it the way I like to do it. But when Dre is in the room with you, he’s so meticulous about each thing that sometimes it makes the process a little more challenging, but the end result that much more phenomenal.”
The session sounds like it was tough going, but, in the end, it was worth it. As soon as Busta heard the beat, he knew that it was a winner—and, crucially, he knew exactly how to go about rapping over it. Dre, despite his tendency to micromanage, also knows when to let an artist do their thing, and he was happy for Busta to do what he does best. “He trusted my judgment, and I did it,” Busta said. “He didn’t bother none of that process, cause I finessed the skillset to the point where Dre let me take the lead on that.”
Still, Dre didn’t take a totally standoffish approach. He did have thoughts on how the chorus should go, and he played a crucial role in shaping it. “He literally hummed the way the melody—the flow pattern of it,” Busta recalled. “He was just giving me the navigation system on how to reach the destination. Once we put the words, and we got to the destination, it was party and celebration time because we knew we had it.”